SLC32-W2 || Real Life Problem Solving Challenge: Budget Planning

Hello friends and welcome to my blog. Budget planning is one of the ways we manage our finances to avoid unnecessary expenditure and to be able to take financial accountability into action. Join me this week as I share on how I plan my weekly or monthly budget.

How do you plan your weekly or monthly budget? Explain well.

	working on my budget tracker

I plan my monthly budget immediately after receiving my income. I first of all I list all my expected income sources and then categorize my expenses accordingly to their order of importance or priorities.

These are the simple steps I use.

Step 1: Calculate my total Income
For example:

• Salary/Business Income: ₦200,000
• Side Hustle Income: ₦50,000
  Total Income = ₦250,000

Step 2: I List my Essential Expenses

Expense Category	Amount (₦)
Tithe	25,000
Feeding	60,000
Transportation	20,000
Electricity/Data	20,000
House Rent Savings	30,000
Family Support	20,000
Savings/Investment	50,000
Miscellaneous	20,000
Total	245,000

Step 3: Set Aside Savings First

I believe in paying myself first. Therefore, I remove money to my savings and investments first before spending on other items.

Step 4: Review Weekly

Every weekend, I compare what I have spent with what I budgeted to see if I stayed within my budget limit. Doing this weekly review helps me to avoid over spending while I also try to maintain financial discipline.

What tool or method do you use to track your expenses? Show at least one tool or method in detail with a selfie.

To track my expenses, I primarily make use the Notes App on my phone.

Each day, I record the expenses I made no matter how small.

Example of how the expenses tracker looks on my phone note app.

Expense Tracker for May 2026

Opening Balance
Salary Received: ₦220,000
Savings Set Aside Immediately: ₦44,000
Available for Expenses: ₦176,000

Date	Description	Amount (₦)	Balance (₦)
May 1	Salary Received	+220,000	220,000
May 1	Savings Deposit	-44,000	176,000
May 1	Transport	-1,500	174,500
May 1	Lunch	-2,000	172,500
May 1	Data Subscription	-3,000	169,500
May 2	Groceries	-8,000	161,500
May 3	Transport	-1,500	160,000
May 3	Electricity Contribution	-5,000	155,000
May 4	Airtime	-2,000	153,000
May 5	Transport	-1,500	151,500
May 5	Household Items	-3,500	148,000

Etc

	my tracker on my note pad

	selfie with my tracker on my note pad

What are the unnecessary expenses that affect your income? Explain.

There are some unnecessary expenses that may affect income if they are not checked. For me some of them the Includes;

Impulse Buying
Sometimes I see myself buy items that are not on my budget or that I didn’t plan for maybe because they looked attractive or are on sale especially the ones on sale because the prices are reduced.

Frequently Eating Out
I prepare meals at home but sometime I may be too tired to cook and I end up eating out or buying snacks and soft drinks or fast foods. These affects my income as it’s cheaper for me to cook at home.

Unplanned Transportation Costs
Transportation cost is rising by the day and sometimes I exceed my transportation budget due to hike in transportation costs and the transportation cost fluctuations by the commuters when there is hike in petroleum prices.

Excessive Data Consumption
Sometimes I spend more than budgeted on internet related usage due to the nature of my work and if my consumption usage is not monitored well.

These unnecessary expenses may appear small individually, but over time they consume a significant amount of income.

How do you save money from your income that will sustain you for future hardships?

To save money from my income to sustain me during future hardships, I practice intentional saving by setting aside a fixed percentage of my income every month.

My Saving Strategy

• I ensure to save at least 20% of every income received. This also includes free money I get from people once in a while.
• I try to maintain an emergency fund.
• I also invest part of my savings in assets that can appreciate over time example is real estate.
• I avoid touching my savings except for genuine emergencies cases.
• I ensure to save this money in systems that also pays daily interest on my savings. So I get additional earnings when I save.

For example:

If I earn ₦250,000 monthly:

• Emergency Fund: ₦30,000
• Investment Fund: ₦20,000
  Total Savings = ₦50,000

This habit will help me to create a level of financial security incase of a difficult period such as sickness, or unexpected expenses.

Have you ever created a budget that would improve your financial situation? Show us practically how.

Yes.
A few months ago, I found out that I was spending excessively on snacks, transportation, and unplanned purchases, so I had to create a budget to improve my financial status.

For example:
Before Budgeting

Category	Amount (₦)
Feeding	80,000
Transportation	35,000
Impulse Purchases	30,000
Savings	10,000

After Budgeting

Category	Amount (₦)
Feeding	60,000
Transportation	20,000
Impulse Purchases	10,000
Savings	50,000

The result

• My savings Increased from ₦10,000 to ₦50,000 monthly.
• I reduced unnecessary spending.
• Helped me to improved my financial discipline.
• I had more money available for investments and emergencies.

This practical budget adjustment helped to improve my financial situation practically.

What advice would you give to others for great budget planning?

The advice I would give to others for effective budget planning is:

1. Track Every Expense:
   Small expenses easily go unnoticed so they should try and track every expenses even the smallest ones and record them too.
2. Differentiate Needs from Wants:
   They should spend on their needs first before wants. Wants can always wait as needs should be priority. Place them on a scale of preference and importance to know the ones to solve first.
3. Save Before Spending:
   Savings should be a compulsory part of our budget. My father taught me the 70:30 principles. 70% for needs and 30% for savings and investments.
4. Create Realistic Budgets:
   They should have a spending limit that matches their income. It’s like cutting your coat according to your size. We should live within our means.
5. Review Your Budget Regularly:
   We should always review our spendings to ensure it’s in line with our budget and then adjust accordingly.
6. Avoid Debt for Non-Essential Items:
   We should avoid impulse buying and we mustn’t buy everything we want and then avoid borrowing.
7. Invest for the Future:
   We should learn to save and then invest our savings as it will help our money grow over time. Saving is important. We shouldn’t save to spend but save to invest

In Conclusion budget planning has helped me become more financially disciplined and prepared for cases of emergencies. Tracking my expenses, avoiding unnecessary spending, and saving a portion of my income, have helped me gained better control over my finances. I believe we all can improve our financial situation by developing and maintaining a simple and effective budget plan.

Here are my engagement links
link 1
link 2

I invite @oneray, @drhira and @mvchacin to join the challenge.