How to budget, even down to toothpick

Budgeting your finances is important, whether you are a government or an individual. But photographer Grace Olomiwe has taken personal budgets to a new high. She has her budget as items on a spreadsheet–yes, as in Excel, the kind the Budget Office uses. She likes to plan ahead and budgeting helps her secure her finances, […]

Budgeting your finances is important, whether you are a government or an individual.

But photographer Grace Olomiwe has taken personal budgets to a new high.

She has her budget as items on a spreadsheet–yes, as in Excel, the kind the Budget Office uses.

She likes to plan ahead and budgeting helps her secure her finances, say Olomiwe.

"It is important for you as a person to budget so you have a mental picture how to allocate your resources, use them properly and  ensure the resources meet the need that arises from your daily life style," she explains.

Olomiwe does that by ensuring every item she needs to spend on ends up on her spreadsheet, and a specific amount allocated to it–even down to toothpick.

"I have my monthly allocation for tithe, offering, feeding, transportation, fuelling the car," she says.

She shops clothes once every months and will, not on impulse and tries to stay faithful to her spreadsheet.

Accommodation is a lump sum, but monthly savings toward that takes one column so she’s not caught unawares with her landlord.

And there’s a separate column for "miscellaneous", the hanging out and asoebi engagements women sometimes get into.

Olomiwe says the spreadsheet doesn’t have to be in Excel, but could be a list on a wall placed so it is visible every day.

Boarding school taught her to plan ahead when as a young student she had to find ways to stretch whatever pocket she had until next visiting day.

It has paid off. Olomiwe has little need to borrow and her photography business is well off the ground.

But she can give loans to friends, if her miscellaneous spending covers it, and not necessarily expect it back.

Her family and relations are provided for–on a separate column on her spreadsheet.