Field note · 2 March 2026

Keep the school-fee month out of the emergency fund

Many households in Narathiwat can tell you the month the school fee is due without looking it up. May is spoken of in March. The next term is spoken of as soon as the first one is paid. That knowledge is useful, and it is also the reason the fee should not sit in the emergency fund.

An emergency fund is for an interruption you did not put on the calendar. A term fee is on the calendar. When both amounts share one passbook, the first unplanned cost wins. A water pump, a motorcycle tyre, a week of lost stall income: each one looks urgent on the day, and each one is capable of spending the fee. Then the term opens and the household borrows, even though the money was saved once already.

Two pots, two jobs

Give the fee its own holding place. A second savings account is ideal. A named envelope in a drawer works when a second account is more trouble than the household wants. The name matters more than the container. If everyone in the house knows that envelope is the term fee, it is less likely to be treated as spare cash.

Divide the fee by the number of months left before it is due, and move that amount on the same day you already move other money. If the fee is 9,000 baht and six months remain, the set-aside is 1,500 baht a month. Write the amount on the reserve note so it is not renegotiated every payday. When the fee is paid, start the next term’s pot in the same week, while the relief of having paid is still fresh.

Which pot is touched first

A true interruption can still arrive while the fee pot is only half full. The withdrawal rule, agreed before anyone is frightened, should say the reserve is used first. The fee pot is touched only when the reserve is empty and both adults, if there are two, agree on the same day. Spending the fee pot to protect the reserve is backwards: you will meet the term date with an intact emergency account and no way to pay the school.

If the household cannot fill both pots at once, fill the reserve up to a minimum you can name — often one month of essential costs — and then aim the next contributions at the fee that is closest. A fee due in eight weeks outranks a reserve that is already past its first month. The order belongs in writing. Spoken intentions tend to favour whichever bill is loudest that week.

If you want these figures written for your own household, look at the engagements or arrange a planning meeting.