Sersin and Inti: Growing Closer by Managing Finances Together
Everyone has dreams they want to make come true. These dreams often become the motivation for people to work. They can be material things, like buying a house or certain items, or they can be about changing a particular behaviour. With the many activities and demands placed on adults, these dreams often get left behind, overtaken by the ever-increasing needs of daily life.
A similar thing happened to a couple from Poso Regency, Sersin and Inti. Since they married in 2020, they've dreamed of having a decent and comfortable home for their little family. Inti is a farmer who grows a variety of crops. His perennial crops are cocoa, cloves, and durian, while his seasonal crops include chillies and corn. “We have just started planting corn again, to be honest,” Inti said. "But we are also currently planting chillies. We are preparing the land for it,” he continued. They also grow various vegetables on their plot to meet their own kitchen needs.
Before marrying Sersin and moving to his wife's village, Inti had grown corn in his home village. However, he says that planting corn there and here is vastly different. His former village had swampy soil. When the swamp water was drained, the soil became very fertile and didn't need any fertiliser at all for growing corn. His land, which was only 47 acres, could produce more than 2 tonnes of corn in a single harvest. In his current village, he tried planting corn but, without the right fertiliser and techniques, the results were far from what he used to get.
The perennial crops this couple owns are also not yet enough to cover their needs. Inti earns more money from tapping pine resin. Not far from where they live, there's a vast pine forest owned by the Forestry Office. The government planted the trees, and the community manages them. Initially, the community was asked to divide the forest into plots to prevent disputes and misunderstandings. The pine plot was originally Sersin's parents', but the right to harvest the resin has now been passed on to their son-in-law, Inti.
“We can save from the pine resin to make our dream home a reality,” Sersin said, explaining the house that is still under construction. “If we relied on cocoa and cloves, we wouldn't be able to. Our durian trees have also only been harvested once, and the yield was not great,” she added. They only have 300 cocoa trees that are producing fruit, out of a total of one thousand trees they own.
Since attending a family financial literacy training organised by WVI through INCLUSION project, the couple has learned to be consistent in recording every expense and income. They both said that their spending habits had been based on impulse. When they went to the market in town, they would buy anything they wanted, without considering their priorities. When an essential need came up, they would feel like they didn't have enough money. The feeling of not having money and always being in need came from their inability to manage money, they said. After learning about prioritising, trying to keep records, and saving, they have been able to manage and even learn to plan their finances.
This habit of recording and saving money is slowly being passed on to their only child. Their child, who is in junior high school, gets daily pocket money, which they only spend on what's necessary. Almost every day, they report to their mother what the money was used for and how much is left, so the next day, Sersin only needs to add a little to top up what's left over from the previous day. Sersin and Inti’s child, who is now in their teens, also has their own savings in the church youth group in their village.
The family's dream home will soon be finished. Inti and Sersin are now planning a new dream: raising livestock. They see the potential in pigs and catfish, which they think are easy to raise and quite promising. With their financial records, they can now plan for this, setting aside money to buy the animals, build the pens, and so on. Feeling they've benefited from the financial literacy knowledge they've gained, Sersin and her husband intend to learn more about managing expenses, including setting priorities.
According to them, by sharing the role of managing their finances, they have become closer because every time either Sersin or Inti goes shopping, they inform and discuss it with each other. “With this openness, we both feel we have a responsibility for our household expenses,” the couple concluded with a smile.
INCLUSION (Increase the Leverage of Inclusive Market Across Indonesia) is funded by DFAT through ANCP (Australian NGO Cooperation Program). This project goal is to open market access for farmers at assisted villages in Central Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara, and North Halmahera in Indonesia. INCLUSION also aiming for a more inclusive market system with mainstreaming in GEDSI and climate adaptation. This project is implemented by Wahana Visi Indonesia and local partners.
Author: Dian Purnomo (Writer and researcher, consultant for INCLUSION bulletin for Central Sulawesi area)
Editor: Mariana Kurniawati (Communication Executive)
