School costs, two months of bills spread over twelve

Step one: list everything the school year costs

For each child, list everything the school year costs and when each item is paid:

• Tuition fees, and their instalments if the school splits them over two terms.
• Books, notebooks and supplies.
• Uniform, shoes and a school bag.
• The school bus, paid in advance or monthly.
• Activities and trips.
• Private tutoring or extra classes, if they are part of your children's year.

Ask the school about next year's fees early; many announce them before the current year ends.

Step two: separate the monthly from the seasonal

Some items are paid every month, like the bus and tutoring. These are monthly commitments that belong in each school month's budget, like electricity and rent. Others are paid once or twice a year: fees, books, uniform. That seasonal part is what needs saving in advance.

Step three: divide the seasonal part by the months left

Add up the seasonal items and divide by the number of months until the first payment. Start early and the monthly amount is small. Start late and it is larger, but still better than paying the whole sum from one month's salary.

A hypothetical family in Giza with two children at a private school:

If the family starts saving in October for the next school year, it has about eleven months until September, roughly EGP 6,500 a month. That is a large amount, but it is paid over eleven months instead of EGP 38,000, the first instalment plus books and uniform, from a single month.

Step four: keep school money somewhere separate

School savings that sit in the same account as the month's money get spent on other things without anyone noticing. Keep them in a separate account or a place nobody touches, and do not mix them with emergency or holiday savings. A family that keeps school and summer savings together finds in September that the book money paid for the beach.

Step five: cut what can be cut before it is due

Some items can be reduced if planned early: second-hand books from an older sibling or another family, uniform bought weeks before the rush, supplies partly reused from last year. These decisions cannot be made in the last week before term starts; there is no time left to look around.

How to plan it in Masareefy

In Masareefy, create a wallet for the account or place where you keep the school money, and move the monthly amount into it each month. A move between two wallets is not counted as spending, and the wallet's balance shows what you have put aside so far. Record fees paid once a year as a yearly bill; the app gives you a heads-up during the week before it is due and sets its amount aside in the month it falls in. Record the bus and monthly tutoring as monthly bills. Creating wallets and moving money between them are part of Premium. For a savings plan covering every season of the year, read Lesson 4.3: Dated savings goals, so a season never catches you out again.