But before my first salary even arrived, I had already accumulated debts that needed to be repaid. Then there was rent, food, transportation, mobile data and other regular expenses. By the second week after payday, I was often short of money again. I would borrow from friends or family, promise myself that the next month would be different, receive another salary and repeat almost exactly the same cycle.
Eventually, I became tired of it. Instead of simply telling myself to “spend less,” I began paying closer attention to where my money was actually going and what I was doing immediately after payday. That process helped me identify six money mistakes that were keeping me broke before my next salary arrived. Here is what I discovered and what I changed.
The 6 Money Mistakes I Was Making
| Money mistake | What I changed |
|---|---|
| Treating payday like a celebration | I made a plan for my salary immediately |
| Keeping all my money together | I separated money by purpose |
| Borrowing for wants | I stopped using debt to maintain my lifestyle |
| Ignoring small expenses | I began tracking the small leaks |
| Having no emergency savings | I started building a financial buffer |
| Focusing only on cutting costs | I also worked on increasing my income |
1. I Treated My Salary Like Christmas Instead of Payday
Whenever my salary entered my account, I became excited. Instead of first deciding what the money needed to cover before my next payday, I immediately started thinking about what I could buy. Sometimes I would call my girlfriend and plan an outing. We might eat at Chicken Republic around Opebi in Lagos. I also enjoy fashion, so buying two or three new pieces of clothing in a month did not feel unusual to me.
There is nothing automatically wrong with eating out, buying clothes or enjoying your salary. My mistake was doing these things before creating boundaries for the money. I eventually realised that my bigger problem was not simply how much I earned. I had no clear plan for what my money needed to do before I started spending it. Once I began budgeting before payday, excitement took over, my spending became easier to control.
How I Changed My Budget
I started with the popular 50/30/20 budgeting framework, which generally divides income among needs, wants and savings. But I adjusted it to fit my own priorities.
My personal version became 50/20/30:
50% for needs
20% for wants
30% for savings and future goals
On a ₦150,000 monthly income, that gave me:
₦75,000 for essential expenses
₦30,000 for wants
₦45,000 for savings and future goals
This was not always easy. In some months, ₦75,000 was not enough to comfortably cover every essential expense. That taught me another important lesson: a budgeting percentage is a framework, not a law. Your actual rent, transportation, family responsibilities, debt and food expenses may require a different split.
For me, however, having a target was much better than spending without any structure at all. I also stopped pretending that an impulse purchase was automatically affordable simply because there was still money in my account.
2. I Kept All My Salary in One Account
Another mistake I made was keeping almost all my money in one place.
When I opened my banking app and saw a relatively large balance, my brain treated the entire amount as spendable money. I would tell myself:
“I can spend this ₦5,000. There is still plenty of money left.”
Then I would repeat the same argument several times. Eventually, all those “small” decisions became a big problem. So I began separating my money according to its purpose soon after I got paid. At the time, I used different accounts for different categories. One account held money for essential expenses, another held money I could spend on wants, while another held money intended for savings and future goals. The specific banks I used are simply part of my personal setup, not a recommendation of one financial institution over another.
What mattered was the separation. Once I could clearly see that a certain amount had already been reserved for a particular purpose, I found it harder to convince myself that all the money available to me was free to spend. You do not necessarily need three different banks to do this. Depending on the services available to you, separate accounts, savings pots or other budgeting tools can achieve a similar purpose.
3. I Used Debt to Fund My Lifestyle
For a long time, borrowing did not feel dangerous to me. If I wanted something and did not have enough money at that moment, my first thought was often:
“I can borrow and pay it back later.”
The problem was that I was sometimes borrowing for wants rather than genuine emergencies or productive expenses. That meant part of my next salary already belonged to the past before it even arrived. Once the salary came in, I would repay what I owed, leaving less money for the new month. Then I could become short of money again and feel tempted to borrow again.
I eventually learned that borrowing can turn into a repeating debt cycle when repayment continually reduces the money available for future essentials. My personal rule now is simple: if something is a want and I cannot currently afford it without borrowing, I would rather postpone it. That one change removed a lot of pressure from my finances. It also forced me to become more honest about the difference between something I needed and something I simply wanted immediately.
4. I Ignored Small Money Leaks Because They Felt Too Small to Matter
I used to pay attention mainly to large expenses. If something cost ₦1,000, ₦2,000 or ₦3,000, it hardly felt serious enough to worry about. That thinking was expensive. When I looked more carefully at some of my recurring discretionary expenses, this was roughly what I found:
Food delivery and eating out — ₦15,000
Shawarma — ₦4,000
Mobile data — ₦6,000
Random transfers and giveaways — ₦8,000
Total: approximately ₦33,000
That was about 22% of my ₦150,000 monthly income. No single expense looked devastating on its own. Together, they were consuming more money than I had allocated to my wants.
I also became more aware of how social pressure can quietly increase spending. Sometimes the money was not going toward something I personally valued very much. I was spending because I wanted to participate, help someone, impress someone or avoid appearing broke.
I did not stop enjoying myself or helping people. I simply gave those expenses a limit. Food delivery, outings, gifts and similar non-essential spending now have to compete for the same wants budget instead of quietly coming from money intended for something else. That made the true cost much easier to see.
5. I Had No Emergency Fund
One of my biggest weaknesses was having no money specifically reserved for unexpected expenses. When something unplanned happened, I had only a few choices:
take money from another part of my budget;
ask someone for help; or
borrow.
I saw the same pattern happen to someone close to me. An unexpected expense came up during the month. Because there was no money specifically reserved for emergencies, money intended for other necessities had to be redirected. That disrupted the rest of the month's budget and eventually created the need to borrow.
The experience reinforced something I was beginning to understand in my own finances: an emergency expense is difficult enough on its own, but it becomes even more expensive when it forces you into debt. That is why I started building an emergency fund. I did not expect to create a huge emergency fund immediately. The important thing for me was starting to reserve something.
Even a relatively small buffer could mean that the next unexpected expense would not automatically require a loan. An emergency fund is not about assuming something bad must happen. It is simply preparing financially for the reality that not every expense can be predicted.
6. I Focused Only on Cutting Costs and Forgot About Growing My Income
For a period, almost all my financial thinking focused on reducing expenses. I walked some distances instead of paying for transportation. I reduced how often I bought food outside. I cooked more. I even moved from a more expensive self-contained apartment to a cheaper single room. Those decisions helped, but I eventually realised that cutting expenses has limits. You cannot reduce every essential expense to zero.
I also realised that even when the inflation rate slows, prices can remain much higher than they were in previous years. Nigeria's consumer price inflation data show why changes in the cost of everyday goods and services matter to household budgets. If my income remained unchanged while my essential costs increased, budgeting alone could only take me so far.
So I decided that part of my financial plan needed to focus on earning more. I started learning video editing as a skill I could offer on the side. Within my first three months, I secured four ongoing clients who each paid me approximately ₦15,000 per month. That brought in roughly ₦60,000 in additional monthly income.
That figure is simply my personal experience, not a guaranteed result for anyone learning video editing. Instead of immediately increasing my lifestyle to match the extra income, I directed much of that additional money toward my future financial goals. I also learned not to assume that every side hustle will automatically make money. Before committing substantial savings to any new business idea, it is important to test a side hustle before committing too much money to it and understand the costs, demand and risks involved. Growing my income did not replace budgeting. It made my budget less fragile.
What Actually Changed My Finances
For a long time, I thought being broke before payday was simply part of my life. Looking back, I can see that my income was only part of the problem. My financial habits were also working against me. I celebrated payday before planning for it. I treated my account balance as spendable money. I borrowed for things I could have postponed. I ignored small expenses. I had no financial buffer.
And when money became tight, I concentrated entirely on cutting costs instead of also improving my earning capacity. Fixing those habits did not make me financially perfect. What it gave me was more control. Higher income can certainly make financial life easier, especially when essential living costs are high. But I also learned that earning more without changing the habits that caused my money to disappear could simply create room for more spending.
Today, I try to give my money a purpose before I spend it. I separate needs from wants. I pay more attention to small expenses. I avoid borrowing simply to maintain a lifestyle. I keep building savings for unexpected costs and future goals. And I continue looking for realistic ways to improve my earning capacity.
Those changes have made a bigger difference to my finances than repeatedly promising myself that I would “be more careful next month.” If you regularly find yourself broke before payday, you may not have the exact same six problems I had. But looking closely at your own spending can reveal where the pressure is coming from.
Start with one month. Look at what came in, what went out, what you borrowed, what surprised you and what you could change before the next payday. Sometimes the first financial breakthrough is simply understanding where your money is actually going.
Disclaimer: This article shares my personal experience and is provided for educational and informational purposes only. It is not personal financial, investment or credit advice. Income, living costs and financial circumstances vary, so choose a budgeting approach that fits your own situation.
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