Running out of money before payday: a monthly spending plan

Sam

It's the 29th and our account is at minus 133 UAH. Payday is on the 5th, so we'll live on the card's credit limit for six days. Two salaries, and it happens again. Where does it all go?

Alex Tutor

Six days on borrowed money every month is a pattern, not bad luck. When the month closes on the 4th, bring the whole record. A plan built on a feeling cuts what's easy to see and misses what adds up quietly.

Sam

My wife suggested cutting everything fun until New Year. I doubt we would last two weeks.

Alex Tutor

You wouldn't, and that's normal. A plan you can't live with breaks by the 15th. We want one that closes the gap and still has family dinners in it.

Sam

It's the 5th. Here's September by category, from the 5th to the 4th. Salaries were 31,000 and 25,000, and we had 300 UAH on the account that morning.

Alex Tutor

Dataset · 18 rows

Sam's household: spending by category, 5 September – 4 October 2026

Income 56,000 UAH (two salaries on the 5th), 300 UAH on the account on payday morning. 18 categories, each marked essential or flexible.

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Columns
category: Spending category
kind: essential (can't skip a month without harm) or flexible
total_uah: Total for the month, UAH

Data

category	kind	total_uah
rent	essential	16000
utilities	essential	3350
phone_internet	essential	640
kindergarten	essential	4500
groceries	essential	12425

Show 13 more rows

public_transport	essential	365
pharmacy	essential	1025
installments	essential	3150
card_interest	essential	1480
coffee	flexible	1395
food_delivery	flexible	4205
taxi	flexible	2195
subscriptions	flexible	1283
clothes	flexible	2300
gifts	flexible	1200
eating_out	flexible	4345
donations	flexible	1000
cash	flexible	2000

Spent: 62,858. Available: 56,000 + 300 = 56,300. Gap: 62,858 − 56,300 = 6,558 UAH. That's how minus 133 on the 29th became minus 6,558 by the 4th.

You

Essentials are 42,935 of that: rent, kindergarten, groceries, utilities, installments. Those won't shrink by October.

Alex Tutor

Not quickly. So the first number for the plan: if October starts like September, with 300 on the account, and essentials stay the same, how much is left for everything else?

Alex Tutor

Question 1

October starts like September: 56,000 UAH of salaries plus 300 on the account, and essential costs stay at 42,935. What is the most the family can spend on all flexible categories together without going below zero? In UAH.

Your answer

Units: UAH

56,300 − 42,935 = 13,365 UAH. Flexible spending in September was 19,923. The same 6,558 from the other side: flexible spending has to fall by about a third.

Sam

A third sounds brutal.

Alex Tutor

Not if it comes from the right lines. Food delivery 4,205, taxi 2,195, dinners out 4,345, coffee 1,395. And 1,283 of subscriptions, 777 of it for three apps nobody opened.

You

Delivery and taxis alone are 6,400. That's almost the whole gap.

Sam

And I was sure the autumn jacket for our kid broke us. 2,300, the biggest thing I bought all month.

Alex Tutor

The jacket was one purchase, and it won't repeat in October. Delivery and taxis come back every month. For a plan, that difference matters more than the size of the sum.

Alex Tutor

Question 2

Four changes in Sam's October plan save money compared with September. Which one will not repeat in November by itself?

Choose one answerCancelling the three unused subscriptions: 777 UAHCapping food delivery at 1,600 instead of 4,205Spending 1,000 on clothes instead of 2,300Taking out 1,000 in cash instead of 2,000

Alex Tutor

So close the gap with recurring moves. One-off savings are a bonus, not a foundation.

You

First, the three unused subscriptions: the games subscription, the fitness app and the language app. 777 a month, gone in ten minutes.

Sam

Delivery: we ordered ten times. Four orders is about 1,600. Taxi: twelve rides. Four, for late nights and rain, is about 800.

You

That's 777 + 2,605 + 1,395 = 4,777. So 6,558 − 4,777 = 1,781 is still missing.

Alex Tutor

Here's where plans usually go wrong: they cut dinners out to zero. Keep them on purpose, as a set amount. Dinners 3,000 instead of 4,345, coffee 900 instead of 1,395: that's 1,345 + 495 = 1,840.

Sam

And the 2,000 cash withdrawal? I honestly can't say where it went.

Alex Tutor

Then cash gets a cap of 1,000 and a phone note for every withdrawal. That's another 1,000, and next month you'll know where it goes.

Alex Tutor

Question 3

Which moves shrink the gap without making the family's month worse? Select all that apply.

Choose all that applyCancel the three apps nobody opened in SeptemberStop dinners out and coffee completely until New YearKeep a set 3,000 for family dinners out instead of 4,345Halve the grocery budgetSwap most taxi rides for the metro, keeping about four for late nights and rainSkip one kindergarten payment

You

Recurring moves: 4,777 + 1,840 + 1,000 = 7,617. The gap is 6,558, so 1,059 is left over every month.

Alex Tutor

That's where the saving habit starts. On the 5th, 1,000 moves to a separate savings account automatically, before any spending. Pay yourself first, not with whatever is left on the 29th.

Sam

Only 1,000? Next to the minus on the card, it feels tiny.

Alex Tutor

Small on purpose: the habit first, a bigger amount later. With clothes at 1,000 in October, the jacket leaves a one-off 1,300 buffer. And 1,480 of card interest a month is a debt problem of its own; that's module 3.

You

How do we see it's working on the 20th, not on the 29th?

Alex Tutor

A short check every month: the same steps, twenty minutes, both of them at the table.

Alex Tutor

Question 4

Put the steps of Sam's monthly money check in order, starting on payday.

Tap an item, then tap where it should go. You can also drag or use the arrows.

Sam

One more thing. We argue about fun spending. To her, my coffee is a waste; to me, her delivery is.

Alex Tutor

Then split fun money in two: a shared part for family dinners and a personal part for each of you, no questions asked. Arguments fade when nobody has to justify a coffee.

You

So fun money isn't a leak. It's a line in the plan.

Alex Tutor

Exactly. A leak is money you don't notice. Fun money is money you chose.

Alex Tutor

Question 5Short answer · AI-checked task

Sam and his wife argue about “fun” spending. Write a fun-money rule they can both accept, in 2–4 sentences: how much goes to fun each month, how it's split, and what happens if someone runs out before payday. Use the numbers from Sam's plan.

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Sam

OK. Write it up for us: October with the gap closed, the family still happy, and saving started. Something we can stick on the fridge.

Alex Tutor

Numbers first: the gap and the moves that close it, recurring apart from one-off. Then fun money, the saving line and the mid-month check.

You

A small table and a few lines under it, then.

Alex Tutor

Right. A table Sam can read in a minute beats a perfect spreadsheet he never opens.

Alex Tutor

Question 6Case · AI-checked task

Write Sam a plan for October.

Sam asks: “Write us a plan for October that closes the gap, doesn't make the family miserable and starts a small saving habit. Something we can stick on the fridge.”

Use the dataset above (September, 5 September – 4 October 2026) and these facts: income 56,000 UAH a month (31,000 + 25,000 on the 5th); 300 UAH on the account on payday morning; spent 62,858, so the gap is 6,558. Food delivery 4,205 (10 orders), taxi 2,195 (12 rides), dinners out 4,345, coffee 1,395 (19 cups). Subscriptions 1,283 a month, of which three unused apps cost 777. The 2,300 for clothes was one child's autumn jacket. The 2,000 cash withdrawal has no record. Debt payments are 4,630 (two installments, 1,900 and 1,250, and 1,480 of credit card interest).

Write 150–250 words:

The gap and the changes that close it, with amounts.
Which changes are recurring and which are one-off.
How much fun money stays, and how.
The saving amount and when it moves.
How Sam and his wife will see mid-month that the plan works.

Dataset for this task: Sam's household: spending by category, 5 September – 4 October 2026

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Alex Tutor

That's the whole module in one month: record what happened, plan with fun money inside, close the leaks, save first. Next module: what if an income stops?

Alex Tutor

That’s the lesson. You answered every task — nicely done.

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