Computer skills from scratch·The phone·Lesson 84 of 180
A simple weekly money list
Ellis Dennis GrahamFounder, Cyber Elias Academy 2026-08-10 2 min
Four columns, seven days, one total. The grid is a shop book for a life. If you will not open it on Sunday, a paper envelope is still allowed.
People buy a budget app, then ignore it. A sheet with four columns will do: Date, Item, Amount, maybe In or Out. One week, not a five-year plan. This lesson is that small book, a total, and the honesty of typing the recharge you would rather forget. The grid does not judge. It only adds what you admitted.
New sheet. Row 1: Date, Item, Amount. Freeze the top row if you like. Type this week's real lines — transport, photocopy, rice, data. Amounts as digits. SUM at the bottom of Amount. Currency costume if you want. Name the file week-2026-09-22 in whatever room you keep money papers — Work, or a folder called Money inside Documents. Next week, Save As, new date, or a new tab at the bottom named 22-Sep, 29-Sep. One job per tab, as you were told.
In and out, if you must
If money comes in as well as out, a fourth column, Type, with the word in or out. Then two SUMs, or a column In and a column Out. Keep it ugly and true. A “balance” cell that subtracts is =in_total-out_total. If that formula scares you, two totals at the bottom are enough for a human to subtract. Do not build a dashboard. Do not download a template with 40 coloured tabs. You will not fill it.
The sheet is not the money. The envelope or the account is the money. If they disagree, the envelope wins until you find the missing line. A week you did not record is gone; start today, do not invent last month from memory and call it a book.
- Make this week's sheet. Three real lines. A SUM.
- Save it in a named folder. Put the week in the file name.
- Tomorrow, add one line. Confirm the total moves.
- If you will not open it, stop. A notebook in the drawer is a better book than a dead file.
What not to put here
Card PINs, BVN, the password to the bank. Those are keys. This is a register. Do not share the sheet as Anyone with the link. A PDF of a week, if someone must see, is enough. And do not let a colourful “finance guru” sheet shame you into twenty categories. The skill is the habit of one true line. The grid is only the clerk. You are still the one who spent the naira.
