This Life

17/09/2026

What do you do when life gives you less than you expected?

17/09/2026

There are people who look financially comfortable until one unexpected expense, a repair, or a few bills arriving at once reminds them how close they are to becoming broke.

Sometimes, it is not a big problem that exposes financial pressure. It is a small one arriving at the wrong time.

16/09/2026

What is one problem in your life that people think is small, but you know how much it really costs you?

15/09/2026

Your friend is about to spend ₦20,000 on something completely unnecessary.

You know they don't need it. You know they will regret it. You can already hear them saying next week:

“I don't even know why I bought this thing.”

Do you tell them?

Or do you mind your business?

Because if you speak, they might say:

“Is it your money?”

If you keep quiet, you might watch ₦20,000 disappear and pretend you didn't see it.

So what is a real friend supposed to do?

Speak up or let people use their own money to learn their own lessons?

15/09/2026

You have one loaf of bread, one tin of milk and four sachets of chocolate. And somehow, four people are supposed to have breakfast.

You cut the bread carefully. Very carefully. Because if your slice is too thick, somebody will notice.

The milk is worse.

You pour it into four cups, making sure nobody gets “small milk.”
The chocolate is easy. One sachet each. No mathematics required.

Then your bread finishes before everyone else's.

Your roommate gives you one of his slices.

You say, “Thank you.”

He says, “You're owing me one.”

Noted.

That was hostel life. We didn't have much.

We just knew how to make the best of what we had.

Did you and your roommates share breakfast like this, or was everybody protecting their own bread?

15/09/2026

You ever notice how everything can fail you on the same day? You have ₦700. Three people are hungry.

Gas finishes. NEPA takes the light.

You check the kitchen. Rice, tomatoes, one onion and a little palm oil. You buy pepper and eggs and bring out the charcoal stove.

Three hours later, there is jollof rice. Nobody went to bed hungry.

Sometimes, all that matter is what you do with what you have.

14/09/2026

Who have noticed that sometimes the person giving you advice is the person who would never do what they are advising you to do? 🤣🤣🤣

Someone will tell you: “Don't waste your money.”

Meanwhile, they are spending theirs on things they don't need.

Someone will tell you: “Family is everything.”

But when their own family needs them, they disappear.

They will tell you: “You need to take risks.”

But watch them when it is their own money on the line.

Why do you think people do this?

Is it easier to advise someone when you are not the one who has to live with the consequences?

14/09/2026

Who have noticed that once you have money, things that will consume it will suddenly appear?

You make a profit of ₦10,000 today.

Before you even enjoy it, someone calls from home asking for ₦7,000. Or your car develops a fault. Or an opportunity suddenly appears that needs money.

It is almost as if money knows where to go.

How do you decide what deserves your money first?

14/09/2026

Before you take anything, ask yourself this question

At a stage in our lives, nothing really matters. Whatever you want will be provided by your parents or guardian.

But as you get older, you switch into calculating. Before you do anything, you ask yourself, what will I forgo for that?

My understanding of decision making started in secondary school.

I was a boarder.

The first week, I shared my provisions with seniors and friends, thinking my parents would understand and give me a second chance.

It didn't happen like that.

My father insisted I must return to school and learn how to handle myself.

My mother would later sneak a big sachet of milk and Milo to me so that her daughter would not go hungry in school.

But after a while, I finished everything again.

I didn't bother telling my father. I went to my mother.

This time, the woman didn't even look at me.

She simply told me how much each item had cost her, and that if she continued like that, she too would run out of cash.

That was the day I learnt that if I finished what was given to me before the next refill, I had to manage myself until then.

I went back to school and learnt what they mean by living from hand to mouth.

And from that day, I started understanding something I still know today:

Before you take anything, ask yourself what you will have to do without afterwards.

13/09/2026

By the last week of the month, Chinedu had suddenly become very committed to walking.

Every morning, he would leave home early, put his earphones in, and walk past the bus stop like someone who had discovered a new passion for exercise.

His friend once asked him why he was no longer taking a keke to work.

“I'm trying to walk more,” he said. “It's good for the body.”

His friend nodded.

Nobody asked any more questions.

What his friend did not know was that Chinedu had already started calculating every naira in his account. There was still food to buy, something had to be kept aside for transport, and payday was still a few days away.

So the distance that used to look too far suddenly became manageable. The restaurant he normally bought lunch from also became too expensive.

The things he wanted to buy could suddenly wait.

Even invitations to hang out became easier to decline. Nothing dramatic had happened to Chinedu. He was simply trying to make what he had last until the month ended.

And somehow, by the first of the next month, he would become a different man again.

The keke would become affordable.

Lunch would return.

The long walks would mysteriously stop.

If you have ever reached the last week of the month and suddenly discovered that you can live without many of the things you thought you needed, you already know this story.