How do you define "living paycheck to paycheck"?

[karenos]

The reason I ask, is that we just went from getting paid every other week to twice a month and I've noticed that the 2 days or so before paycheck comes our one main account(from which most bills are paid) gets low. My DH defined this as living paycheck to paycheck, but since we have a reasonable amount in savings (from which we transfer $ back and forth) and other investments, I do not define this as living paycheck to paycheck.
I hope this question makes sense...
Thanks!
karenos

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

To me living paycheck to paycheck means nothing in savings, when one paycheck runs out you're counting down the days until the next one just to cover neccessities.

 

[babyrich]

I define "living paycheck to paycheck" as having no savings. If for some reason you didnt receive a paycheck, you would not be able to pay bills or possible eat or you may have to make the choice between the two.

It takes time to adjust going from a weekly check to every other week; but eventually it should work itself out.

 

[luvmy3]

To me living paycheck to paycheck means nothing in savings, when one paycheck runs out you're counting down the days until the next one just to cover neccessities.

This is what I think too.

 

[39CINDERELLA]

means having no savings at all....waiting for that paycheck to come

I know a few people in this situation...

 

[HsvTeacher]

My DH and I both get paid ONCE a month. To me, living paycheck to paycheck means having more month (or week/biweek) left than money. If your savings can be accessed and quickly paid back if used, I don't consider that living paycheck to paycheck.

 

[ekatiel]

The reason I ask, is that we just went from getting paid every other week to twice a month and I've noticed that the 2 days or so before paycheck comes our one main account(from which most bills are paid) gets low. My DH defined this as living paycheck to paycheck, but since we have a reasonable amount in savings (from which we transfer $ back and forth) and other investments, I do not define this as living paycheck to paycheck.
I hope this question makes sense...
Thanks!
karenos

This sounds JUST like us!! We've never been able to properly adjust from getting paid every two weeks to getting paid twice a month (it doesn't help that we still have our house payment on "bi-weekly", so twice a year, we have two house payments come out of one check ). I am constantly transferring money out of savings to checking and then back when DH gets paid. We rarely ever spend that money, but I like to have "cushion" in the account. I don't want to leave the "cushion" there b/c I know it will eventually get eaten up if I leave it in checking . I've recently tried to transfer back $50 or $100 MORE into savings everytime I do this. I figure I might as well try to save a little money while I'm doing my twice a month transfers!! I am also trying to be more cost conscious at the grocery store-- I figure that's one of the easiest places to shave a few bucks off the budget.--Katie

 

[Thumper_Man]

IMO, I would define paycheck to paycheck as:
A person depending on a paycheck every week (or every other week depending on their pay schedule) to pay the bills and make a living; without having any money/income to fall back on. Without it; they would fall behind on bills, not have groceries for the week, etc. Their bills are budgeted around each pay check, regardless of when they get paid.

DW and I pretty much live paycheck to paycheck. We get paid every 2 weeks where we work. So with each check, we pay certain bills for the month. First check of the month is devoted to household expenses; house payment and utility bills. Second check of the month goes to cc bills, car payments, groceries, etc. We manage to save some money, but not enough to fall back on should we not get a paycheck every other week.

DMIL is retired and gets her retirement check once a month. So she has to budget her monthly bills around one check per month. So in essence, she also lives paycheck to paycheck. So as you can see, it don't matter the pay cycle; it's if people need each and every paycheck to make a living.

 

[Juliegirl1]

This sounds JUST like us!! We've never been able to properly adjust from getting paid every two weeks to getting paid twice a month (it doesn't help that we still have our house payment on "bi-weekly", so twice a year, we have two house payments come out of one check ). I am constantly transferring money out of savings to checking and then back when DH gets paid. We rarely ever spend that money, but I like to have "cushion" in the account. I don't want to leave the "cushion" there b/c I know it will eventually get eaten up if I leave it in checking . I've recently tried to transfer back $50 or $100 MORE into savings everytime I do this. I figure I might as well try to save a little money while I'm doing my twice a month transfers!! I am also trying to be more cost conscious at the grocery store-- I figure that's one of the easiest places to shave a few bucks off the budget.--Katie

Katie, check with the company that pulls your biweekly payment - I went from being paid twice a month to being paid every two weeks - they can adjust your withdrawal schedule to match your paychecks. My company didn't charge me anything extra and actually my withdrawal amounts went down a little because I went from 24 payments a year to 26 payments a year.

 

[crisi]

Here is a question in your circumstances. You have savings - are your savings growing each month/pay period.

We have significant savings, but there are months where I hit the overdraft protection on the checking account because I didn't move money in there (we have enough money in the bank that there are no fees associated with this, other than a small amount of interest.) But over the course of several months (unless the stock market takes a turn for the worse) our savings grow. Some months they go down because we made a major purchase or spent too much on Christmas or the cat needed emergency surgery. But the overall trend is up.

So even those months that we "run out" of money in our checking account, we aren't living paycheck to paycheck.

If you have savings, but have had your expenses increase to the point where you no longer can contribute to savings and are tight right before paychecks, then you have a symptom of a problem - perhaps a problem that hasn't yet (and perhaps never will) materilize...but something to think about.

 

[ajk912]

If it would be devastating for you if your boss came to you out of the blue and said, "We have a paycheck messup this month. You are getting paid on the 19th instead of the 15th." If this leaves you scrambling and cancelling your mortgage or car payment, you are living paycheck to paycheck. IMO.

 

[puffkin]

We live paycheck to paycheck. I get paid weekly and my DH gets paid biweekly. We have $0 in savings. My checking account balance is $1.90 today because my mortgage payment came out. I get paid on Tuesday, so we have no money til then.

We do have credit cards that we can fall back on. I need to do grocery shopping and buy pet food this weekend so I will charge that. But I already have that factored into my budget for next week and will pay that off next Friday when DH gets his next check.

It didn't used to be this way, but DH lost his job 3 years ago and it took him awhile to find work so we depleted our savings then and have never been able to build it back up. I lost my job in June and have been doing a temp position since September. It is about 1/2 my formal salary right now (but a hair more than unemployment would be. We have cut back a lot of things but barely break even most months. WE have had a few unexpected things that we have had to charge. Plus, being a temp, December was horrible. I didn't get paid for any of the holidays and that really hurt us.

So yes, we currently live paycheck to paycheck Fingers crossed that a permanent job comes up soon...I send out at least 4-5 resumes a week!

 

[blanq]

To me living paycheck to paycheck means nothing in savings, when one paycheck runs out you're counting down the days until the next one just to cover neccessities.

This is my definition too.

 

[crisi]

So yes, we currently live paycheck to paycheck Fingers crossed that a permanent job comes up soon...I send out at least 4-5 resumes a week!

Fingers crossed for you as well. Been there, done that, and its not fun.

 

[andrews_dad]

When you hand someone a check and say, "can you please not cash this until Thursday night when my paycheck clears?"

 

[bettymae1121]

I agree with the others, if you need that last check in order to meet basic needs, you're paycheck to paycheck.

I'm not sure if DH and I are considered that or not. We spend all of our income and we don't have much in savings, and won't be saving much in the future because we are trying to pay down debt....BUT....

If one of us lost our job, we could live off the other's income (doesn't matter who's job was lost, either). We'd be eating a lot of mac n cheese but we could do it, even making the minimums on our CC's. And that's not counting unemployment income either, we couls strictly make it on one or the other's income if we had to. This is because our "needs" spending is rather low, most of the extra money goes to debt repayment, home improvement, and a few other "wants". Should a layoff happen, we can cut the debt replayment and other wants down to nothing and still be okay.

If we both lost our jobs, then we'd be up a creek. It's why I'm trying so hard to pay our debt off and build some savings up. The odds on that are rather low, my job is as secure as one's can be, DH's looks good too though his has more risk than mine. But one never knows what will happen.

 

[Jeninindy]

So yes, we currently live paycheck to paycheck Fingers crossed that a permanent job comes up soon...I send out at least 4-5 resumes a week!

Hope things look up for you soon! Dh is doing the job search too since October. Knowing things were looking grim, we threw all extra cash in savings and have a nice cushion if needed. Hoping it's not the extended time you have faced.

 

[jldixon62]

To me living paycheck to paycheck means nothing in savings, when one paycheck runs out you're counting down the days until the next one just to cover neccessities.

Ditto! Been there, done that.

 

[Princess April]

....Hmmmmmm... I guess to me living paycheck to paycheck means that at the end of the week (or bi-weekly, or monthly, or how ever you get paid) you have just enough to get by and no $$$ goes into the savings. Also, I thinks that means that if you miss a check your up the creek w/out a paddle!

 

[neatokimmo]

I have one thing to add, if you charge everything then pay it off in full the next month, but never add anything to savings then I think you are P2P too.

Really worse, you are 30 days behind on some of your bills in a way.