Last week we faced the paradox of Schrödinger’s Money - the cash that both exists and doesn’t. Now it’s time to learn how to keep what’s inside from disappearing - one rounding rule and five-week plan at a time.
If you followed last week’s budgeting exercise, you had written down all your actual expenses and proper fixed costs, along with the reasoning behind them.
Now that the mindset is in place, let’s open the box completely and see what it looks like in real life. Because awareness is great, but structure is what keeps your money from vanishing.
This week, we’re putting that awareness into action. If you already made your “adult list” of obligations, keep it nearby. New here? Don’t worry - we’ll rebuild it quickly before we crunch the real numbers.
Start with two columns.
Column A: the things you must pay - home, car, insurance, school, fuel, food.
Column B: why each one matters. Mark every essential item with an asterisk (*). The rest are wishes; they wait their turn.
Now, with that list in front of you, let’s turn the theory into structure. Three rules, consisting of 9 tweaks.
Rule 1 – Inflate expenses (round up) & deflate income (round down). This is where the stealth buffer is created.
Rule 2 – Convert the monthly number into weekly & daily behaviour. This is where you create a predictable allowance system.
Rule 3 – Protect the plan with the pocket system. Anything saved, rounded, or unspent goes into the pocket. Specials don’t count; the surplus gets locked away.
Tweak 1 - Add amounts & build your buffer Now you can add the amounts to the list of obligations you have- but when you do it, round it up to a higher number. No, higher than that. Add at least a closer R50- R100 more. If your car costs R4454, you round that up to R4500. Everything has a hidden bank charge or hidden cost. Add your FIXED bank charges here too. So you are already putting the stealth buffer in by overestimating your expenses.
Tweak 2 - Identify the fixed variables Food and fuel, electricity and water (and average variable bank charges here too). Those pesky fixed variables - the expenses that feel stable but creep up anyway. Here is the trick to taming the wild ones.
Tweak 3 - Always plan for a 5-week month. This is where unfortunately you need to do some recon work and go through your purchases on your bank account. Pick your heaviest spending season. Each person has a different one, depending on their own dynamics.
Month with the most birthdays in it? Probably June - Geminis ruin everything. And yes, this is a direct attack on my son and his unforeseen costs that eat my own Schrodinger pocket at times! So go look back to your heaviest spending month and tally up your average.
Tweak 4 - The overall formula (what’s fixed vs. flexible) Here is your formula for an overall view: Your net salary (+ all other possible income you have) is your SET income.
Your fixed costs that don’t increase or decrease monthly (like house and cars, insurance etc) as well as all debts you have to repay. Any money that goes out in a fixed monthly fashion and rarely varies.
Tweak 5 - What’s left for the fixed variables (and the rounding rules) Now what you have left over is what remains for your fixed variables like food, electricity, fuel etc. List everything except food.
Pretend you have even less, and that you spend way more. Remember you are pretending to spend more, not actually doing it right now. You work on two different sets of budget: the reality, and the financial wellbeing Schrödinger’s money model. That’s your real leftover amount to buy food. That is your “monthly allowance” and what you actually have to spend.
Tweak 6 - Work a live example (monthly → weekly → daily.) So, Let’s say for interest’s sake, There is R3000 left for food and toiletries, household cleaning products etc. You take R100 away. It does not exist. Something happened and it’s just gone.
We pretend. (We put it in a savings pocket.) You have R2900 left, and 31 days of the month in a five-week month. R580 per Week. Round it down to R550 per week. The money has been lost in translation. That’s R78 per day. Round it down smaller now. It’s R75 per day.
Tweak 7 - Protect the plan with a pocket. You put four weeks’ worth into a savings pocket and you live on what your debit orders will take in that week, along with your weekly fixed variable allowance. In other words, there is not enough money for frivolous spending.
You don’t make a single purchase without looking at your budget again. Weekly, or before purchasing your food for that week, you redo this calculation and keep rounding.
Keep Schrödinger’s money in your savings pocket. Even better, whenever you save on a special or sale item, you take the difference and put that in your savings pocket too.
Tweak 8 - The mindset payoff: You follow this mindset, that money rounded up and rounded down, along with a careful spending habits, will leave you with more money than you thought you would have.
When you are walking a tightrope without a net, you tend to be more careful in your actions.
Tweak 9 - If the paradox returns… Once you get this right, your wallet becomes calmer - but if you ignore it, the paradox returns in a new form.
If you’re swiping the credit card again after paying it off, congrats - you’ve just met Schrödinger’s Debt. It means you’re paying real debt with money that only exists in digital limbo, wrapped in high interest.
Credit facilities create an illusion of affordability - and illusions always dissolve. Schrödinger’s Debt only ends when you finally open the box and face what’s real.
Rule 1 – Inflate expenses (round up) & deflate income (round down). This is where the stealth buffer is created. You pretend everything costs more and you earn slightly less.
Rule 2 – Convert the monthly number into weekly & daily behaviour. This is the operational step where a fixed allowance is created, and you learn to live inside a controlled, predictable micro-budget.
Rule 3 – Protect the plan with the pocket system. The savings pocket, the “money that doesn’t exist,” and the rule that specials don’t count - everything surplus goes to the pocket.
Three rules, with effects noticeable in as little as three days. Trying it for three months, rewires your brain for life. Recap moment:
(1) Round everything to create hidden buffers,
(2) Break the month into strict weekly/daily behaviour,
(3) Protect the entire system with pockets and mindset rules.
It starts by facing the numbers, not fearing them. And if that list feels a little overwhelming, you don’t have to face it alone.
Sandton Debt Counselling is a leading NCR-registered debt review company in South Africa, helping consumers regain control of their finances with dignity and precision.
When you’re ready to turn awareness into action, we’re here to help.
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Want to go back in time and read the previous articles?
➤Part 1:How to Say No in November - the dopamine detox.
➤Part 2:Schrödinger’s Money - seeing your salary for what it is.