# Case: Sam's family lives paycheck to paycheck > Sam's family lives paycheck to paycheck, 6,558 UAH short every month. Find the gap in a month of data, close it with recurring cuts, keep fun money and start saving first. - Course: [Personal Finance: Budget, Safety Cushion, Debt and Investing](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance.md) - Module: Where does my money go? - Lesson 4/32, ~29 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/before-payday-case ## Six days before payday: living paycheck to paycheck **Alex Tutor:** You're still helping Sam's family, and the end of the month has caught them out again. **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 living paycheck to paycheck: a pattern, not bad luck. The way out is a monthly family budget built on the real record, because a feeling misses what adds up quietly. When the month closes on the 4th, bring all of it. **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. ## Payday: the month in numbers **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. **Dataset (CSV):** [Sam's household: spending by category, 5 September – 4 October 2026](https://productovi.com/datasets/personal-finance/before-payday-case/sam-september-by-category.csv) Income 56,000 UAH (two salaries on the 5th), 300 UAH on the account on payday morning. 18 categories, each marked essential or flexible. - `category`: Spending category - `kind`: essential (can't skip a month without harm) or flexible - `total_uah`: Total for the month, UAH **Alex Tutor:** 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. **Sofia:** 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? > **Exercise:** 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. **Alex Tutor:** 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. **Sofia:** 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. > **Exercise:** Four changes in Sam's October plan save money compared with September. Which one will **not** repeat in November by itself? ## Cuts that don't hurt **Alex Tutor:** So close the gap with recurring moves. One-off savings are a bonus, not a foundation. **Sofia:** 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. **Sofia:** 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. > **Exercise:** Which moves shrink the gap **without** making the family's month worse? Select all that apply. ## Saving first, then a check **Sofia:** 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. **Sofia:** 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. > **Exercise:** Put the steps of Sam's monthly money check in order, starting on payday. ## Fun money you both accept **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. **Sofia:** 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. > **Exercise:** 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 Sam's numbers: flexible spending can be at most 13,365 UAH a month, and in September dinners out cost 4,345, coffee 1,395 and food delivery 4,205. ## A monthly family budget for October **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. **Sofia:** 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. > **Exercise:** Write Sam a plan for October. > **Key ideas** > > - Find the gap before cutting: spent 62,858 against 56,000 + 300 available leaves a 6,558 UAH gap. > - With essentials fixed at 42,935, flexible spending can be at most 13,365, about a third less than September's 19,923. > - Close the gap with recurring moves (unused subscriptions, delivery and taxi caps, set amounts for dinners and coffee, a cash cap: 7,617 a month). One-off savings, like a jacket that won't repeat, are a buffer. > - Keep fun money on purpose, split into a shared part and a personal part each. > - Save first: 1,000 moves automatically on payday. Check each capped line around the 20th, not on the 29th. **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? - Previous lesson: [Subscriptions and small payments: the leaks](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/subscriptions-and-small-payments.md) - Next lesson: [Emergency fund: how many months of essentials](https://productovi.com/courses/personal-finance/how-big-a-cushion.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.