How to save for school fees one term at a time

School fees aren't a surprise. You know roughly how much, and you know when. What makes them hard is that they're lumpy: a large amount due three times a year, paid from a salary that arrives in monthly pieces. The general way to protect money for a purpose is on how to lock your money. This page is about the school year.

Why fees still catch families out

In Lagos, the 2026/2027 school year runs:

Term	Resumes	Ends
First term	14 September 2026	18 December 2026
Second term	11 January 2027	April 2027 (dates to be confirmed)
Third term	3 May 2027	30 July 2027

Source: Lagos State harmonised calendar for public and private schools.^[1] Schools in other states also run three terms; check your school's own dates.

Look at second term. Fees are due about three weeks after December, a month that has already asked for travel, food, gifts and celebrations, and the school doesn't move its date because of that.

Holding money back for a big, known cost isn't a new idea. In one study, Kenyan dairy farmers were willing to pay real costs to receive their income less often, in lumps, because it helped them save for large expenses.^[2] People want the lump. What they need is a way to build it from monthly income without it leaking away. And few families have a cushion to fall back on: among formally included adults in Nigeria, only 10.6% can raise ₦156,000 within seven days without difficulty.^[3]

How to save for each term, with or without Delight

1. Write down each term's real total: tuition plus books, uniforms, levies, transport and anything the school adds. Ask the school for the full breakdown.
2. Pick the payment week, usually the week before resumption or the school's deadline.
3. Divide by the paydays left. Second-term fees of ₦180,000 with paydays in October, November and December is ₦60,000 a payday. (An illustration; use your own figures.)
4. Set it aside on payday, before everyday spending starts, not from whatever is left at the end of the month.
5. Lock it until the payment week, so a hard week in December can't quietly borrow from January's fees.
6. Start the next term the week you pay this one. Third term follows second, and each pot is smaller when it's spread over more paydays.

Set it up in Delight

1. Create a School Fees budget that repeats monthly. You can keep it as a sub-budget in your "Monthly" group.
2. Add a Stack to it. Set the target to the term's full total and the due date inside the week you'll pay. Choose No, lock until due. Each time the School Fees budget is funded, your chosen share moves into the Stack.
3. Put School Fees near the top of Funding priority, so it fills on payday before everyday spending. Check that Auto-fund is enabled on the budget.
4. Mind the 7-day window. On the due date the Stack unlocks, and its money stays spendable for 7 days. After that, anything left moves to the budget's surplus. It's still in the School Fees budget, but no longer held in the Stack. So set the due date for the week you'll actually pay, not a month before.
5. Pay the school by bank transfer from the budget, and keep the receipt. The standard bank transfer charge applies.
6. Start the next term's Stack straight away, the same way, with the next due date.

If January is the pressure point for your family, see how to protect January from December: fund and lock January's rent, fees and food before the festive season begins.