How to do Detty December and still pay January rent

Detty December is worth planning for, not avoiding. It's when friends come home, the city comes alive, and many people finally rest after a long year. The general way to keep December from eating January is on how to enjoy December without a broke January. This page is about planning December itself.

December costs more, and the market knows it

December isn't only busier. It's more expensive:

• The spending is huge. Lagos's 2025 Detty December season generated an estimated ₦396.54 billion in consumer spending, more than triple the year before. A tourism industry leader warned that some operators were trying to extract a year's profit within a single month.^[1]
• Getting around costs more. In December 2025, fares on many Lagos routes had doubled compared with non-festive periods.^[2]
• Flights home cost more. In December 2025, the FCCPC opened an investigation into high airfares on some domestic routes, including the South-East and South-South, as the festive season began.^[3]

A December plan built on ordinary prices comes up short. Planning with December prices, and buying early where you can, is the difference between a December you planned and one that plans you.

Why December spending runs away

December's spending is made of many small, social decisions. A group chat plans an outing. A friend back from abroad wants to meet this weekend. Someone pays for everyone and asks for your share later. An event you didn't plan for turns out to be the one everyone is going to. Each decision is small, fast and made with other people, often late at night.

None of that is a problem on its own. It becomes one when all of it comes out of the same balance as January's rent.

An example Detty December

An illustration, for a ₦250,000 December. Use your own figures.

Budget	Amount	How it's held
Travel home	₦80,000	Saved from October, booked early
Concert and event tickets	₦40,000	Saved from October, bought early
Owambe: aso-ebi and gifts	₦50,000	A fixed amount per event
Outings and food	₦60,000	Released weekend by weekend
Christmas gifts	₦20,000	Decided in advance
Total	₦250,000

What works, with or without Delight

1. Fund January first. Rent, school fees and food until your January salary come before any December plans.
2. Start in October. Divide your December total by the paydays left, and set that amount aside each time.
3. Book travel and buy tickets early, before December prices arrive.
4. Pace outings by the weekend. A set amount for each weekend keeps the first one from taking the whole month.
5. Settle shared costs as you go. When a group splits a bill, collect shares before or on the night, not "later".
6. Keep a small amount for yes. Some of the nicest December plans are unplanned. A fixed amount for spontaneous outings lets you say yes without dipping into January.

Set it up in Delight

1. Protect January first. Create a one-time January budget that ends on 31 January and lock it until 1 January. The steps are on how to enjoy December without a broke January.
2. Save for travel and tickets with a Stack. Create a repeating "December savings" budget and add a Stack in the Grow tab, with your travel and ticket total as the target and Yes, unlock when fully funded, so it opens as soon as you've saved enough to book. Stacks don't pay interest.
3. Create a one-time December budget that ends on 31 December, with sub-budgets for Owambe, Outings and Gifts. Check that Auto-fund is enabled, and place it after January under Funding priority, so November's and December's pay fill it once January is covered.
4. Pace the weekends. Put drip mode on Outings and choose Week End: one amount released for each Friday to Sunday, such as ₦15,000. Only the Available Drip can be spent.
5. Put a boundary on big nights. Add a Per-Transaction Limit to Outings, such as ₦20,000, so a single large payment stops and asks you first. If you go ahead, 5% of the amount above the limit is taken from the budget.
6. Plan owambe separately. Aso-ebi and gifts work better with an amount per event. See how to enjoy owambe season without the aso-ebi debt.
7. Collect shares for free. Friends on Delight can send you their share at no charge; bank transfers carry the standard charge.
8. Let December end on 31 December. When a one-time budget ends, anything left goes back to your wallet. Move it into January, or into savings for next December.