#KeepingUpWithTheBills Episode 1 - Saving & Budgeting for your Bills

Bills are a very important part of people’s lives. For adults, paying bills is almost inevitable. Hence, it is important that there’s enough knowledge to go round when it comes to servicing these bills. BuyPower.ng launched the #KeepingUpWithTheBills tweet chat series because we want to help adults adopt the best practices when it comes to paying bills.

For example, help them understand the best ways to save for bills or show them why the process of Electricity Bill payments should be as seamless as BuyPower.ng provides.

The first episode of the #KeepingUpWithTheBills series hosted Feranmi Ajetomobi who is a Brand Storyteller at Cowrywise, a wealth tech company in Nigeria. The episode focused on “The Best ways to Saving and budgeting for your bills”.

Best believe there were a lot of gems dropped in the episode.

Let’s show you.

Bills, how to keep up?

Our first question to Feranmi bothered around determining the best ways to go about saving for bills since they are recurrent and most times, due monthly. Feranmi had a few tips to do this:

1. Identify your heavy recurrent bills. For example, your rent.

2. Break them down into daily/weekly/monthly bits

3. Set up an automated savings plan for them.

4. Keep these plans locked up.

A good example, he added, is if your rent is 360,000 naira. Then you should save 30,000 naira monthly. That’s easier than coughing out 360,000 naira at once.

Moving forward, we wanted to know if there’s a science behind bills taking an upward spiral once income increases. Feranmi does not think there’s one but he talks about lifestyle inflation—where your expenses keep increasing to take up your income. A lot of people can surely relate to this.

Speaking of Budgeting, Feranmi recommends something he calls Percentage Budgeting. In his own words,

“...if you allocate 50% to expenses, 20% to savings and 30% to whatever you choose, you’ll do better with saving. As your income increases, your expenses will increase but stay limited to that %. Your savings will increase also.”

So, he thinks allocating percentages to specific buckets before you do a budget breakdown is great.

A Case Study

During the tweet chat, we had to bring in a real-life situation to make the whole process more relatable. Here was our case:
Q - Consider Ope. Ope has a strict N20,000 budget for electricity every month. As things stand, s(he) discovered that this month’s purchase wouldn’t last her till the end of the month. What advice do you have for Ope?

A - The first thing Feranmi thinks Ope should do is to understand what really led to that and ensure it doesn’t repeat itself in the next month. Then he adds that allowances can be made for expansion.

More?

Have you ever thought about where to draw the line between bill payments and quality of life? We got a practical answer for you.

It boils down to planning, again.
“For instance, you want a great vacation but your wallet is speaking broke. Set up a timeline, and contribute gradually. Also, such group plans will save you money. In summary, Plan comfortable contribution timelines & look out for group experiences.”

Finally, we asked Feranmi to tell us a piece of random advice he wants every bill-paying adult to know. And he said this,

“Multiply your hustle, and learn to survive on the least income source. For example, you earn 200k from A and 150k from B—learn to survive majorly with B.”

So, there you have it. It was a great time chatting with Feranmi. You can view the full Twitter thread HERE. Also, follow us to be notified of our next #KeepingUpWithTheBills series.

We’re sure you want someone else to benefit from this wealth of knowledge. Do share with your folks.

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