For a long time, I thought I was very broke. Maybe I was. I got my friend to help me edit a Microsoft Budget Spreadsheet template to reflect the Naira with added modifications for the Nigeria context. That was a turning point in my life.

It was then I realized I was even more broke than I thought I was.

The document reflected my projected income, my actual income, my projected spendings and my actual spendings. Ah! Now everything was clear! Seye, you’re not as rich as you thought you were.

For the first time in my life, I realized that I spent more money on transportation than self-care. Try it you’d be shocked at where your money really goes!

For the first time in my life, I realized self-care could be really cheap. Meanwhile, in my mind, self-care was for people with too much money in their pockets. I realized I could buy the perfume of my choice every two months rather than wait for an entire year when I buy from ‘duty-free’. I realized I could actually book a spa appointment every month for the cost of a movie ticket(okay, add popcorn, a soda and a follow-follow like my friend Princewill).

I write here about my experience with keeping a budget sheet hoping that you may be inspired in some way, maybe make a few tweaks to yours that may work better for you.

Planning better

Because I noticed I spent more money on transportation than any other aspect of my life, I had to consider new options including firing my driver. It helped me sit up to realize that I could actually move closer to my office by spending more money for apartment rent and less on fuel. This has been one of the best decisions I have made in recent times.

I started budgeting for new clothes every month. That may not be anything to you but I never cared much about clothing. But this was an actual ‘wow, Seye you really can afford to dress better’.

More importantly, keeping a budget kept me from spending money foolishly. It gave me a sense of purpose.

You know, I stopped feeling bad about seeing movies twice a month. In the past, I would think “How can you just be wasting money on a movie that you can kukuma just copy from Joey Akan at the office). I had a budget for entertainment and movies was part of it. I actually had my movie nights scheduled.

Spending boundaries

Because I had budgets for the key aspects of my life, if I overshot in one area, another would suffer it, so it kept me in check. For instance, if I spent too much money at an outing with friends(say I paid for everyone’s drinks and it set me back), I would take it out on self care. This could mean I won’t cut my hair that month.

Lending money

I alloted a percentage to friends and family who may need a loans from me from time to time. If someone lent money from me and it was the entire monthly quota, that was it! I couldn’t lend to anyone else. Now this initially felt cruel. But I realized I was actually helping myself here. For a long time I was always wondering why I was always broke despite earning more than 80% of Nigerians. But I spotted this as a major leak. If there was an event where I had to lend someone money after exhausting my quota, automatically some other aspect would have to pay for it. Maybe no movies for that month. Or no hair cut that month.

Donations and offerings

Same with donations, it helped me monitor with more pride how much I gave to charity because I was deliberate about the percentage of my income I set aside to charity organizations and as a gift to my God.

Healing brokeness

I won’t lie, sometimes it’s hard to keep a budget. But when I fail to do so, more often than not, I end up in a financial wreck. You know what I noticed again? It’s in this situation you need a budget sheet the most. No, not when you hit that major money and then you want to start planning how you will spend it. No! It’s when you don’t have money that you should actually get pen to paper and tell yourself some truth. Maybe it’s time to not buy meat in that stew for a few weeks- of course with the intention of saving the sinking boat till normal financial operations continue.

So here are the categories I created for myself:

Housing

Here, I calculated my house rent for the year, split it into monthly sums, then added bills in this category. For example, PHCN bills, water bills and even phone bills.

Entertainment

In this category, I put a budget together for a weekly eat-out, monthly eat-out and movies. My monthly eat-out was calculated with the mind that I would go out on a date with someone.

Savings & Investment

I set aside 20% of my income for Savings.

Transportation

Here, I calculated my monthly car maintenance(factoring a 3months service period), fuel, toll fees, yearly drivers’ license fees and insurance.

Personal Care

For this category, I factored in haircuts, my Meditation app subscription(I use Headspace), Music subscription(to Google Play Music), a paid online learning service I use, skin care and perfumes.



Gifts and Donations

I put a 10% tab on gifts and donations and then benevolence. I noticed I cross the budget on this category every month. Of course, I have to take this out on another category.

Feeding

In this category, I put into consideration the cost of meals at the office on a daily basis and then weekly meal preparations when I go grocery shopping.



Emergency Funds

I set up a percentage and a table for my Emergency Funds. I also set up a table that details the several bank accounts I have plus the percentage of my income goes to each of them. Oh, of course, I have an account for turn-up!


I have a link to the Excel Sheet and Numbers for Mac on my article here:
https://highlifer.co/better-way-keep-personal-budget-save-lot-money/

We are looking to recruit interns and graduates for the Web Development arm of RightClick Nigeria, a leading web development firm in Nigeria.
A professional technology solutions company based in Lagos, Nigeria, we specialize in excellent Business Information Technology (BIT) solutions, Web Development and consultancy with a strong focus on Decision Support Systems- solutions that greatly enhance the effectiveness of a business owner to make informed decisions in real-time.
Over the years we have developed online and offline multimedia solutions as well as other corporate BIT solutions for reputable organizations in Nigeria and beyond. Our professional project-based methodology separates us from typical IT companies. For more than seven years, we have built a reputation for delivering world-class, innovative BIT solutions to our clients.
Some of our clients include Guaranty Trust Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Skye Bank, ARM Group.

Interns will have the opportunity to learn design and web standards, work on live projects and carve a niche for themselves in the Web Development industry.

Graduate candidates should possess the following requirements:
Expert knowledge of mobile web technologies (HTML/CSS/JS) and/or mobile native technologies (iOS Cocoa/Android Java)
Experience with scripting languages (PHP, Python, Scala, Java,.NET.)
Extremely detail oriented. Strives for pixel perfect implementation on all devices
Unmistakable passion for elegant and intuitive user interfaces
Ability to write well-abstracted, reusable code for UI components
Passion for performance debugging and benchmarking
BS or MS degree in Computer Science or a related technical field

Interested and qualified candidates should send a mail with the subject line "Careers in Web Development" to seye@rightclick-ng.com before the 15th of October, 2012.

We are looking to recruit interns and graduates for the Web Development arm of RightClick Nigeria, a leading web development firm in Nigeria.
A professional technology solutions company based in Lagos, Nigeria, we specialize in excellent Business Information Technology (BIT) solutions, Web Development and consultancy with a strong focus on Decision Support Systems- solutions that greatly enhance the effectiveness of a business owner to make informed decisions in real-time.
Over the years we have developed online and offline multimedia solutions as well as other corporate BIT solutions for reputable organizations in Nigeria and beyond. Our professional project-based methodology separates us from typical IT companies. For more than seven years, we have built a reputation for delivering world-class, innovative BIT solutions to our clients.
Some of our clients include Guaranty Trust Bank, First City Monument Bank, Diamond Bank, Skye Bank, ARM Group.

Interns will have the opportunity to learn design and web standards, work on live projects and carve a niche for themselves in the Web Development industry.

Graduate candidates should possess the following requirements:
Expert knowledge of mobile web technologies (HTML/CSS/JS) and/or mobile native technologies (iOS Cocoa/Android Java)
Experience with scripting languages (PHP, Python, Scala, Java,.NET.)
Extremely detail oriented. Strives for pixel perfect implementation on all devices
Unmistakable passion for elegant and intuitive user interfaces
Ability to write well-abstracted, reusable code for UI components
Passion for performance debugging and benchmarking
BS or MS degree in Computer Science or a related technical field

Interested and qualified candidates should send a mail with the subject line "Careers in Web Development" to seye@rightclick-ng.com before the 15th of October, 2012.

I could help with it. can i get details? seye(dot)kuyinu@nysteria(dot)com

I could help you with this. Just give me details of how you want it to function. I'd do the pages for you for free. Just fill the contact form at Nysteria.com

I own a blog http://seye dot dot com where I talk about my life, programming and graphic and webdesign, and my poetry. Well, I think its worth the visit!

Well, I haven't been able to part with Chrome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First, IE is the web developer's nightmare! Only, we can't do anything without IE for testing because most clients use IE. Chrome is the lightest, incredibly light!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You cant even place their processor usage side by size!
Its also incredible what you can do with tabs!
Its wonderful how it masters your frequently visited!

Well, don't make that kind of mistake, sending demos without them paying first.
@jmslimx: when I meant projector, i didnt mean the whole website in a projector file, but in the projector, light animations in presentation form that just takes the client round the whole website more like a Windows Media Tour is.

But if you have a consistent portfolio, your clients should be able to view portfolios first, and then a small commitment fee and they SIGN A CONTRACT! Something I do is I post on my website (www.nysteria.com) a link to current jobs which i syndicate through my Twitter or something.

I think every webdesigner should start with Photoshop images which they show to clients. From there they can decided what and what not to adjust.
Another alternative is to create Projector files in Flash for the clients TO HAVE, and VIEW, and ENJOY!