How to make your money last until your next payment

Not everyone is paid on the 25th. Money comes as an allowance from home, the NYSC allowance, NELFUND upkeep, the day's takings, a weekly wage, payment for a job or a pension. If you earn a monthly salary, how to make your salary last fits you better. This page is for money that comes any other way.

Why money runs out before the next payment

Your balance shows how much money you have. It doesn't show how long that money has to last.

₦40,000 that must last 10 days and ₦40,000 that must last 30 days look the same on your screen. The first is ₦4,000 a day. The second is about ₦1,300. Spend at the first rate when you're living the second, and the money is gone on day 10 with 20 days still to go.

Two things make this harder when the money isn't a salary:

• You may not know when the next payment will come. An allowance can come late. A slow week can follow a good one. A plan built on "it usually comes by Friday" has nothing for the week it doesn't.
• The longer the wait between payments, the harder it is to spread the money evenly. A study compared two pension programmes for older people in Mexico. Food spending fell between payments when the pension came every two months, and stayed steadier when it came monthly.^[1]

What makes money last, with or without Delight

1. Count the days to your next payment. If you don't know, use the longest gap you've had in recent months.
2. List what must be paid before then: transport, data, family support, contributions, any repayments.
3. Put that aside the day money arrives, before any spending. Every payment goes through the same order, whatever its size.
4. Divide what's left by the days to the next payment. That's your everyday amount.
5. Release it daily or weekly. Splitting money into smaller portions slows how fast it's used, because each portion adds a small moment of decision.^[2]
6. Plan around the smallest amount you can count on. Anything above it is extra. Decide in advance where extra goes: the buffer first, then the next big payment.
7. Include money for a late payment in the plan. A week of everyday spending is a good place to start.

An example: ₦70,000 that has to last four weeks

An illustration. Use your own amounts.

Budget	Amount
Transport	₦14,000
Ajo contribution	₦10,000
Family support	₦8,000
Data	₦5,000
Electricity	₦5,000
Everyday (₦1,000 a day for 28 days)	₦28,000
Total	₦70,000

The fixed payments take ₦42,000. The ₦28,000 left is released at ₦1,000 a day, so day 25 has the same ₦1,000 as day 2. If the next payment comes a week late, the plan needs another ₦7,000 of everyday money. That's the buffer's job. This month has nothing spare for it, so it fills from the next payment that comes in above what the budgets need.

Set it up in Delight

1. Receive your money into Delight. Your Delight account number receives transfers like any Nigerian account, so allowances, wages and payments for jobs can come straight in.
2. Create a budget for each thing that must be paid before your next payment, such as Transport, Data and Family. Keep them in one group, each as a sub-budget, so the whole stretch is on one screen. Make them weekly budgets if your money comes daily or weekly, and monthly if it comes about once a month.
3. Add an Everyday budget for food and small spending, and a Buffer budget for a late payment.
4. Set the order. Check that Auto-fund is enabled on each budget. Then open a budget's menu, tap Funding priority, and put the must-pay budgets first, Everyday next and Buffer last. Whenever money arrives in your wallet, auto-fund tops up each budget to its amount in that order and skips any that are already full. A small payment fills the top of the list; a bigger one reaches further down. If your money comes in small amounts through the week, put the budgets you spend from every day first. Then they aren't waiting for a bigger one to fill.
5. Put drip mode on Everyday. Open Everyday, tap Add Control and choose Drip mode. Choose Daily or Weekly and the amount, and choose Roll over to next Drip, so a cheap day makes tomorrow bigger. Only the Available Drip can be spent, so the first days can't take the last days' money.
6. Let the Buffer refill itself. Make it a repeating budget with the amount you want to keep, such as ₦7,000. Choose Roll over to next period for its leftovers. If you don't use it, it stays full. When money comes late, pay from Buffer directly: choose it under Select budget to spend from. Once it renews, auto-fund tops it up again from the money left after the other budgets.
7. Decide where extra money goes. Money left in your wallet once every budget is full waits there. The next time money arrives, auto-fund uses it for any budget that has room again. So decide early, and put it towards your next big payment, such as rent or fees.
8. Pay from the budget the payment is for. Transfers, airtime, data and bills all leave from a budget, so each payment comes out of its purpose and the record keeps itself.