Living on a monthly salary in Nigeria can be challenging, especially with the ever-rising cost of living. As a civil servant, it’s easy to feel like your salary is barely enough to cover your expenses, let alone save anything.
However, with a few smart financial strategies and adjustment, you can actually save money and ensure that when your new salary comes in, there’s still some extra cash left in your account from the previous month.
This practice, known as “money meet money,” is a powerful way to build financial stability. Here are eight secret ways you can save money as a Nigerian civil servant and start seeing real results.
1. Prioritize Needs Over Wants
This number one point remains the most important point irrespective of any strategies from the list below you may want to adopt. This is because the most effective ways to save money is by prioritizing your needs over your wants.
Needs are essential items that you cannot do without, such as food, rent, transportation, and healthcare. Wants, on the other hand, are non-essential items that you can live without, like new clothes, gadgets, or dining out or buying data.
Here is how this strategies works:
- Create a Budget: Start by listing all your monthly expenses and categorizing them into needs and wants. Make sure your needs are covered first before allocating any money towards your wants.
- Set Limits on Wants: Once your needs are met, decide how much you want to spend on your non-essential items. Stick to this limit to avoid overspending.
With the above strategy, you’ll find it easier to save money and reduce unnecessary spending.
2. Participate in Monthly Contributions (Ajo/Esusu)
Monthly contributions, often referred to as Ajo or Esusu in different parts of Nigeria, are a traditional and effective way to save money. This practice involves a group of people contributing a fixed amount of money every month, and the total sum is given to one member of the group each month. This rotation continues until every member has received their share.
To use this strategy, you’ll need to:
- Join a Trusted Group: Look for a group of trusted colleagues or friends who are consistent and reliable with their contributions. Ensure the group has clear rules and a transparent system.
- Commit to Consistency: Make your contributions on time every month. This discipline helps you save money without thinking about it, and when it’s your turn to collect, you receive a lump sum that can be used for significant investment, savings, or expenditure on important needs.
This system forces you to save and provides a reliable way to accumulate a large amount of money over time. I’d take the last slot to ensure that I have paid for everyone before receiving mine.
3. Use a Personal Savings Box (Esusu)
The personal savings box, also known as Esusu or Asusu in some regions, is another traditional savings method that has stood the test of time. It involves saving money in a secure box or container in your home. The idea is simple but powerful: regularly deposit small amounts of money into the box, and only open it at a predetermined time, such as at the end of the year or when you’ve reached a specific savings goal.
This is how this strategy works:
- Set Up Your Esusu: Get a secure box, the traditional Esusu pot, or a container and place it in a safe spot in your home. You can even get a box with a small opening to make it difficult to retrieve the money until you decide to open it.
- Deposit Regularly: Make it a habit to deposit a portion of your income or any spare change into your Asusu regularly. Whether it’s daily, weekly, or monthly, consistency is key here.
- Set a Goal: Decide when you will open the box and for what purpose. Having a goal in mind, such as saving for a major purchase or an emergency fund, will motivate you to keep adding to your savings.
Using a personal savings box is a simple yet effective way to build up a significant amount of savings over time, and it helps you resist the temptation to spend it all.
4. Automate Your Savings
Another one of the best ways to ensure that you save money consistently is by automating the process. When your savings are automated, a portion of your salary is automatically transferred to a savings account before you even have the chance to spend it.
Here is how this process works:
- Set Up a Standing Order with Your Bank: Visit your bank and set up a standing order that automatically transfers a fixed amount of your salary into a savings account each month. Starting with 10% of your salary is a good idea, but you can adjust this based on your financial situation or the weight of your monthly salary.
- Alternatively, Use Mobile Banking Apps: Many banks and fintech apps offer features that help you automate your savings. These apps can round up your transactions and save the change or set aside a fixed amount daily, weekly, or monthly.
Automating your savings helps you build a habit of saving regularly without relying on self-discipline.
5. The Envelope Strategy
The envelope system or strategy is a simple but powerful budgeting tool that can help you control your spending. Here, you simply allocate cash for every project or category of expenditure, and expend accordingly. Allocating cash for specific categories of expenses prevents overspending on non-essential items.
To do this:
- First Categorize Your Expenses: Identify the areas where you tend to overspend, such as entertainment, data purchases, or shopping etc. Create envelopes for each of these categories and allocate a fixed amount of cash to each one at the beginning of the month.
- Stick to the Cash Limit: Use only the cash in the envelope for the designated category. Once the money is gone, resist the urge to spend more until the next month.
This method encourages you to be more mindful of your spending and helps you stay within your budget.
6 Adopting a Cashless Economy Strategy
Carrying less or no cash around can help you control impulse spending. Here, you rely on digital transactions for your daily expenditures and so on. This will help you to better track your transactions and expenses and avoid the temptation to spend on non-essential items.
To do this:
- Use Mobile Banking and Wallets: Opt for mobile banking apps or digital wallets for your transactions. This way, you’re less likely to spend money impulsively.
- Set Spending Limits: Many banking apps allow you to set daily or weekly spending limits. Use this feature to control your spending and stick to your budget.
A cashless lifestyle not only makes transactions more convenient but also helps you manage your finances more effectively. Additionally, with the relatively low penetration of digital payments in Nigeria, embracing a cashless approach presents an extra opportunity to save even more.
7. Avoiding Depth Like a Plague
Debt can be a major obstacle to saving money. Debt makes you eat the future before it arrives, such that when the future arrives, you’ll have nothing to carter for it. Reducing or eliminating debt can free up more of your salary for savings.
To do this:
- Cut your coat according to your size: That you work in the same office with a fellow lady who always wears expensive outfit does not mean you should spend all your monthly salaries on clothing, S/he may have other means or source of income.
- Never spend in-view of your salary: Do you know office hawkers? Those that will bring products to you, especially wears, and say you can pay by month end? avoid them like a plague.
“Money will never meet money” in your account if you indulge in borrowing. Borrowing is an act of eating the future before it arrive. So avoiding borrowing is as good as preserving the future.
8. Think of Investing in Other Sources of Income
Relying solely on your salary can limit your financial growth. Think of investing in a trade or other sources of income you can run alongside your office duties. You can also try office hawking, but responsibly and with integrity, not as a means to covet others salary by the end of the month.
Some of your options here may include:
- Freelancing or Part-Time Jobs: Use your skills to earn extra income. Whether it’s writing, graphic design, tutoring, or consulting, there are many opportunities to make money on the side, just like the office hawking suggested above.
- Invest Wisely: Look into safe investment options, such as government bonds, mutual funds, or a genuine business schemes, not MMM or Ponzi scheme. Start small and gradually increase your investments as you gain confidence in such business.
Having multiple income streams increases your overall earnings and allows you to save more without sacrificing your lifestyle.
Conclusion
As a civil servant or anyone who is dependent on monthly, making your salary stretch until the next payday might seem difficult, especially when the pay size is not fatty. But it’s absolutely possible with a few smart strategies as outlined above.
These aren’t just tips, they’re practical steps that can transform your financial habits. Imagine the relief of knowing your next salary arrives to find money already in your account. That’s the real power of “money meets money.”
