Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga setiap minggu. - Mother manages the household expenses every week.

Literal meaning: mother (the female parent).
In everyday speech, Indonesians very often drop saya and just say Ibu when it’s clear they mean my mother. So Ibu mengatur… is usually understood as “My mother manages…”
Ibu can also be:
- A respectful form of address for an older woman: Ibu Sari = “Mrs Sari / Madam Sari”
- A polite “ma’am” when talking to someone.

Here, because there’s no name after it (Ibu Sari) and it’s used as the subject in a neutral sentence, the most straightforward reading is “(my) mother”. Context in a real conversation would make it clear.

Why isn’t there a word for “the” or “our” in pengeluaran rumah tangga? How do Indonesians show “the/our household expenses”?

Indonesian normally doesn’t use articles like “a” or “the”, and often omits possessive words if they’re clear from context.

pengeluaran rumah tangga literally = household expenses
Depending on context, it can be understood as:
- the household expenses
- our household expenses
- her household expenses, etc.

If you need to be explicit, you can add a possessor:

pengeluaran rumah tangga kami = our household expenses
pengeluaran rumah tangga mereka = their household expenses

But in many everyday sentences, like this one, Indonesians leave it bare and let context fill in “the/our/her”.

What does mengatur mean exactly, and how is it different from just atur?

mengatur is a verb meaning roughly “to arrange / manage / organize / regulate”.

atur is the root, meaning something like arrange, set in order.
The prefix meN- (here realized as meng-) turns it into an active verb:
- mengatur = to arrange, to manage, to organize (something)

So:

Ibu mengatur pengeluaran… = Mother manages/controls/organizes the expenses…

You normally use the prefixed form in sentences where there is a clear subject doing the action:

Saya mengatur jadwal. = I arrange the schedule.

Bare atur is seen more in commands or fixed phrases:

Atur saja! = Just arrange it!
Tolong atur kursinya. = Please arrange the chairs.

What does pengeluaran literally mean, and how is it different from other money words like biaya or uang belanja?

pengeluaran literally comes from the root keluar (to go out), with:

peN- (noun-forming prefix) + keluar
- -an → pengeluaran

So literally: “things that go out” → in money context, “expenditure / spending / outflow of money”.

Comparison:

pengeluaran = expenditures, money going out (neutral, often more formal/financial)
biaya = cost, fee, expense (more about the amount needed for something)
- biaya sekolah = school fees
uang belanja = literally shopping money / money for daily spending
- more colloquial, often for day-to-day household money

In pengeluaran rumah tangga, pengeluaran is a general, fairly neutral word for household expenses/expenditures.

How does rumah tangga work? Why are there two words for “household”?

rumah tangga is a fixed compound expression:

rumah = house
tangan = hand
tangga is not “hand”; here it’s from an older expression; rumah tangga together = household, domestic sphere, not literally “house + ladder”.

So:

rumah ≠ rumah tangga
- rumah = the physical building (house)
- rumah tangga = the household as a social and economic unit (family life, domestic affairs, etc.).

pengeluaran rumah tangga = household expenses, not “house expenses” literally (which would be more like pengeluaran rumah and would sound odd for this meaning).

What is the structure of the phrase pengeluaran rumah tangga? Which word modifies which?

The structure is:

pengeluaran (head noun) = expenditures
rumah tangga (modifier) = of the household

Indonesian noun phrases often go HEAD + MODIFIER, so:

pengeluaran rumah tangga = "expenditures (of) household" → household expenditures
Compare:
- buku saya = my book (book + my)
- makanan kucing = cat food = food (for) cat

So rumah tangga tells what kind of pengeluaran: expenses related to the household.

Why doesn’t the verb change for tense? How do we know this means she does it regularly, not just once?

Indonesian verbs do not change form for tense (no -s, -ed, etc.). The meaning of time is shown by:

Time expressions:
- kemarin = yesterday
- besok = tomorrow
- tadi = earlier
- nanti = later
Adverbs of frequency or repetition, like in this sentence:
- setiap minggu = every week

So Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga setiap minggu is understood as a habitual action, because of setiap minggu.

If you wanted to show past or future more clearly, you could add:

Kemarin, Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga.
Besok, Ibu akan mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga.

But the verb mengatur itself stays the same.

What does setiap minggu mean exactly, and can it be replaced with something else?

setiap minggu = every week.

setiap = every / each
minggu (lowercase) = week

Common alternatives:

tiap minggu = every week (slightly more casual)
seminggu sekali = once a week
dua kali seminggu = twice a week

All of these can appear at the end or the beginning of the sentence:

Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga tiap minggu.
Seminggu sekali, Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga.

Is there a difference between minggu and Minggu?

Yes:

minggu (lowercase m) = week
Minggu (capital M) = Sunday

In this sentence, it’s minggu (week), because setiap minggu = every week.

If you wrote setiap Minggu, it would mean every Sunday.

Can setiap minggu be moved to the beginning of the sentence? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move it:

Setiap minggu, Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga.

Meaning: still “Every week, Mother manages the household expenses.”

The difference is emphasis/style, not basic meaning:

Ibu mengatur … setiap minggu.
- More neutral; focuses first on what Mother does.
Setiap minggu, Ibu mengatur …
- Slightly more emphasis on the regularity (“Every week, …”).

Both are natural and correct.

Could we say Dia mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga setiap minggu instead of Ibu? What’s the nuance?

You can say:

Dia mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga setiap minggu. = She/he manages the household expenses every week.

Differences:

Ibu:
- Sounds like you’re talking about your (or someone’s) mother, or a specific woman called/treated as “Ibu”.
- More personal or respectful.
Dia:
- Neutral third-person pronoun = he/she.
- No clue that this is your mother; it could be any man or woman.

In a context where you clearly mean my mother, Ibu is more natural than Dia.

If I want to say “My mother manages our household expenses every week,” how do I make “our” explicit?

You can add kami (we, excluding the listener) or kita (we, including the listener) to the noun phrase:

Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga kami setiap minggu.
= My mother manages our household expenses every week (listener not part of the household).
Ibu mengatur pengeluaran rumah tangga kita setiap minggu.
= My/our mother manages our household expenses every week (listener included in that “our”).

Without kami/kita, context usually implies “our”, but adding them makes it explicit.