Get paid twice a month....having a hard time with budget

[JodiR]

For the first time, both my dh and I get paid on the 15th and 30th. That has always been my days but his use to be weekly.

I am having a hard time doing the budget. What I keep going back to is wanting to pay all of April's bills with April's income. That even means using the income from April 30th to pay bills due on April 20 or 25th. I would rely on a the cushion in my account.

I can't get a handle on it. Can anyone give me advice? Thanks!

 

[hollieplus2]

My DH and I used to get paid like that (military) It does kind of suck when there are 3 weekends before you get paid again. This is what we did:

Split up all your bills into two payment cycles based on the due dates. There are some bills like car payments where you can make a one time payment date change. For example:

1st:
Mortgage
Car 1
Electric
Daycare

15th:
Car 2
Phone
Cable
H2O
Daycare

Just figure out how much all your bills cost, when they are due and how much you bring home every payday. Then slip up the bills so that half are on one check and the other half the next check. You might pay more bills on one then the other but the money will still be the same.

 

[hopemax]

Would it help to consider you budget as running from say March 30 (or whatever day is payday) - April 29 (or whatever day is the day before the payday). You can still call it "April" in your notes, but it doesn't start April 1, and it doesn't run through the last day of the month.

DH gets paid bi-monthly. The last paycheck of the previous month gets used for the first half of the next month, the paycheck on the 15th pays for the 2nd half of the month.

 

[dbmarie]

We get paid once a month. I just pay all of the bills for the month on the 1st and then figure out how much we would have for each week and budget accordingly.

 

[Karenj2]

This probably isn't the response you're looking for, but I use a budgeting program called YNAB pro (www.youneedabudget.com), and it's helped us to budget our month based off of LAST month's money, so in essence we have a month's cushion. (BTW - we get paid every other week, so this month we're getting 3 paychecks.)

If I were in your situation - I'd already have the money budgeted from March's paychecks to pay for my bills in April, and my April paychecks would go towards May's bills, etc. A great side effect is that if you had variable checks, you'd still know exactly how much you had to budget. (In our situation, it gives us the freedom to use DH's commission check - which varies - either for the current month or the next month, depending on our need.)

Good luck!

 

[LuvOrlando]

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[EthansMom]

DH gets paid bi-weekly. I use the last paycheck issued in April and the first paycheck issued in May to cover May's expenses. And the last paycheck issued in May and the first paycheck issued in June to cover June's expenses.

Every six months, DH gets a "extra" paycheck. When we were working on paying off debt, those paychecks went directly toward paying down the debts. Now that we've paid off everything but the mortgage, those two paychecks go directly into our savings account and we use them to pay for vacations.

 

[mominwestlake]

Would it help to consider you budget as running from say March 30 (or whatever day is payday) - April 29 (or whatever day is the day before the payday). You can still call it "April" in your notes, but it doesn't start April 1, and it doesn't run through the last day of the month.

DH gets paid bi-monthly. The last paycheck of the previous month gets used for the first half of the next month, the paycheck on the 15th pays for the 2nd half of the month.

This is what we do and it works well.

 

[StephMK]

We are on that pay schedule too and I use the divide it up method. I know which bills get paid out of which check, regardless of when they're due - (not paying late) but a bill due on 5/5 will get paid on 4/16 if it's supposed to come out of that check. I have also moved a few due dates around so one check is paying the bulk of the bills.

I pay all of the standard bills either the 1-2 or 15-16 of the month so I know they are out of the account & I don't have to worry about it.

 

[dvcgirl]

This probably isn't the response you're looking for, but I use a budgeting program called YNAB pro (www.youneedabudget.com), and it's helped us to budget our month based off of LAST month's money, so in essence we have a month's cushion. (BTW - we get paid every other week, so this month we're getting 3 paychecks.)

!

Yeah, this was my initial thought too.....you need a cushion. I know that isn't easy for everyone to come up with a couple of grand, but you can think of it as part of your emergency fund. We don't spend my income at all and DH is paid on the 15th and 30th. We keep a cushion of 2-3 thousand in checking to make sure we're covered.

 

[momx2]

I have always been paid on the 15th and 30th. I have always considered the 30th check to actually be in the next months budget. In my mind I just treat it like I was paid on the 1st instead of the 30th. I have set bills that come out of each check. the 30th (or 1st check of the month) pays the utilities, dvc, and my one credit card payment. The 15th check pays the mortgage and life insurance and student loan payment. Gas, food and incidentals just get bought whenever I need them. I save monthly for Christmas, car insurance and car/home repairs. I put aside a set amount each paycheck for these so I don't have these big expenses hit me all at once.

 

[pixie921]

My DH and I used to get paid like that (military) It does kind of suck when there are 3 weekends before you get paid again. This is what we did:

Split up all your bills into two payment cycles based on the due dates. There are some bills like car payments where you can make a one time payment date change. For example:

1st:
Mortgage
Car 1
Electric
Daycare

15th:
Car 2
Phone
Cable
H2O
Daycare

Just figure out how much all your bills cost, when they are due and how much you bring home every payday. Then slip up the bills so that half are on one check and the other half the next check. You might pay more bills on one then the other but the money will still be the same.

For the last 4 years, my dh has been paid once per month. I budget exactly like hollieplus2 does, only instead of getting another check on the 15th, I take money out of our account to replenish our grocery money and personal allowances, effectively paying ourselves 2x per month, if that makes sense. I keep the money for everything else in the bank and pay bills online or through auto-withdrawal. It makes things very simple.

But it does still stink when you've got 5 weeks in a given month. Making that grocery money stretch can be a bugger.

 

[LuvOrlando]

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[crisi]

I agree on the cushion. It will take a while to save it - but if you haven't had a pantry/no spend month that would probably give you some start.

Ideally, you want to be paying April's bills with March's income. Sounds like you are trying to avoid paying April's bills with May's income.

Once you have a month cushion (or a paycheck cushion even) it doesn't matter when the bills are due because there is money there to pay them and get you through to the next paycheck.

 

[JodiR]

I agree on the cushion. It will take a while to save it - but if you haven't had a pantry/no spend month that would probably give you some start.

Ideally, you want to be paying April's bills with March's income. Sounds like you are trying to avoid paying April's bills with May's income.

Once you have a month cushion (or a paycheck cushion even) it doesn't matter when the bills are due because there is money there to pay them and get you through to the next paycheck.

I have a cushion in the account. For the first time in my life money is not an issue. My dh received a job promotion which will leave us with around $3,500 extra a month once the bills are paid.

I don't like change and once his pay schedule changed it left me feeling nervous. Like I couldn't get a handle on it.

It would seem odd paying April's bills with money that hasn't been received yet.

I could send you my bills and income list and you could give me advice ?

 

[brenalexacamp]

we use microsoft money-it is even the 2004 version- we plug our paychecks in, plug in our bils and the due dates- and it shows you how much is in there every day- you see a line go up and down through the month-

so say the beginning of the month- you get paid- pay the bills due then- and it will show you what to pay in addition or hold until the next payday-

You can easily change the payment date- so if the electric is due on the 12th and you can't make the payment until the 16th- it is an easy click to change that ne time. It shows your cash flow very clearly.

My dh has 1 check, I have one that changes-and then i do temp work- some times I get paid the end of the day- sometimes the next week-I put my estimate of what i will make and then tweak it when the check comes.

 

[Melani]

I got ahead of my monthly household bills, so that I pay them only once a month , with the first check.

Then I use my Visa for gas & groceries and pay it off with the second check. (I track purchases in my checkbook ledger to avoid over spending)

In addition, I created a spreadsheet with all those extras that only come once a year, like property tax, uniforms, registration, etc. And I spread them out over the year so that once a month the same amount goes into a savings account to cover those bills.

 

[Chicago526]

we use microsoft money-it is even the 2004 version- we plug our paychecks in, plug in our bils and the due dates- and it shows you how much is in there every day- you see a line go up and down through the month-

so say the beginning of the month- you get paid- pay the bills due then- and it will show you what to pay in addition or hold until the next payday-

You can easily change the payment date- so if the electric is due on the 12th and you can't make the payment until the 16th- it is an easy click to change that ne time. It shows your cash flow very clearly.

My dh has 1 check, I have one that changes-and then i do temp work- some times I get paid the end of the day- sometimes the next week-I put my estimate of what i will make and then tweak it when the check comes.

I have excel, and do the same. The first of the month I can see when we'll be paid (DH and I are both paid every other Friday, which is twice a month most months) and when the bills are being paid (not the same as when they are due. I pay bills the moment I get the statement, which is a good two weeks before most are due). If we ever fall below zero balance, I can shift the payment date on some of the bills, or transfer money over from savings to cover the shortage and "pay back" that amount to savings when the next paycheck comes in. It's rare now that we have a shortage though, I've got it down to a science!

What may also help is that if you bills are lopsided, meaning the bulk of the bills are due the first week of the month, and the rest are scattered through out the rest of the month, is you can call the companies to see if they can change your due date. Most are happy to, and just spreading out the bills so they are paid more evenly throughout the month may be the only adjustment you really need to make.

 

[secretpantssam]

My work just switched to the 15th and the 30th too. I hate it. But I also try to break it up into 2 bill pay times....1st few days of the month I pay rent and utilities, then on the 15th I pay my credit card, go food shopping, and put money into savings.

 

[Momto3Girls&Max]

I have always been paid on the 15th and 30th. I have always considered the 30th check to actually be in the next months budget. In my mind I just treat it like I was paid on the 1st instead of the 30th.

Same here. I pretend that I get paid on the 1st and the 15th. The check I receive on the 1st pays my mortgage (due on the 5th of each month) and the check I receive on the 15th pays all utilities, groceries, gasoline and savings.