Free guide · 45 pages · 2026 edition

Learn to save, even when you think you don't earn enough.

Understand where your money goes, build a budget that fits your life and set up a savings system you can actually keep. Six steps, with concrete actions in every chapter.

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SPENS GUIDE · 2026
Learn to save, even when you think you don't earn enough
See · Understand · Decide · Save · Organize · Adjust
spens
10% of 150,000 FCFA
540,000 FCFA
set aside in three years
Why this guide

How is it that, ever since you started earning money, you haven't managed to keep more of it?

Your money comes in, then goes out: rent, transport, food, bills, family, going out, surprises… and at the end there's often much less left than you would have imagined. Without really knowing where it went.

Earning more doesn't guarantee you'll save more. When income goes up, lifestyle follows. So it's not just a question of how much you earn. It's a question of what you do with what you earn.

This guide isn't after a perfect budget. It helps you build a system you'll still be using a year from now.

What you're going to do

Six steps. One concrete action every time.

Don't read this guide, use it. Every chapter ends with something to do before moving on.

01
See
How much do you have, exactly?
Bank, mobile money, cash, tontine: gather everything you have in one place and get your true starting point.
02
See
Where does your money go?
Record each movement as it happens. Not to become an accountant — so you stop wondering where it went.
03
Understand
How much do you need to live?
Work out your essential base: what must be paid no matter what. What's left is your margin.
04
Decide
What do you want to save for?
Money without a destination ends up used for something else. Start with your reserve, then one goal at a time.
05
Save
How much can you really set aside?
Your savings are no longer what's left — they go out first. A fixed amount or a percentage, but one you can keep up.
06
Organize · Adjust
A budget that lasts
Organize the rest of your month, track your debts and what you're owed, then adjust when your income changes.
One example followed throughout the guide

Awa earns 150,000 FCFA a month. Where did 140,000 FCFA go?

At the end of the month, she had 10,000 FCFA left. She can account for 115,500 FCFA of spending. The rest vanished from her memory. The guide has you redo the same maths with your own month, then build your essential base, your margin and your savings rule from your own numbers.

The amount will be different for you. The gap will be there all the same.

Awa's last month
Rent − 40,000 FCFA
Food − 30,000 FCFA
Transport − 15,000 FCFA
Airtime and Internet plan − 13,000 FCFA
Sent to family − 10,000 FCFA
Electricity and water − 7,500 FCFA
Total accounted for 115,500 FCFA
Spent without being able to say where 24,500 FCFA
This guide is for you if

You don't need to earn more to start.

You only manage to save a tiny share of what you earn each month.
Your month-ends are tight, even when the month started well.
You juggle bank, cash and mobile money and lose track of the total.
You tell yourself you'll start saving when you earn more.