Little Advise Needed......

[daleswife]

Ok, I'll get right down to it. For almost two years now, my husband has been working for his current employer. He gets paid every two weeks. He is making $8 more an hour than he did with his last employer. We are financially strapped. With his last job, he was getting a pay check every week and we were doing great. With this job he gets a pay check every two weeks and makes more and brings home more, yet we cant seem to get ahead. What am I doing wrong? I am up for any kind of advise to help us get out of this financial slump and get ahead. We dont have any more bills now than we did before, and maybe even a few less bills. I just cant figure it out. Ive had it up to my eyeballs with this mess and I really need some help getting out of it. I'll take any kind of advise you have. Thanks guys...

 

[minnie1928]

Ok, I'll get right down to it. For almost two years now, my husband has been working for his current employer. He gets paid every two weeks. He is making $8 more an hour than he did with his last employer. We are financially strapped. With his last job, he was getting a pay check every week and we were doing great. With this job he gets a pay check every two weeks and makes more and brings home more, yet we cant seem to get ahead. What am I doing wrong? I am up for any kind of advise to help us get out of this financial slump and get ahead. We dont have any more bills now than we did before, and maybe even a few less bills. I just cant figure it out. Ive had it up to my eyeballs with this mess and I really need some help getting out of it. I'll take any kind of advise you have. Thanks guys...

You need a budget...it's that simple. If you have a $1000 mortgage, then you should be pulling $500 out of each check to pay for the mortgage. If you have a $300 car payment, then $150/pay. You need to do this for ALL your expenses, including putting money back for savings. That way when the bills come, you've already put the money aside to pay for them. If you haven't read Dave Ramsey's books yet, I highly recommend them. Total Money Makeover is a great book to read to help get you started.

 

[Calliaz]

You might want to read through the free bugeting information at youneedabudget.com. Their software looks really good and comes highly recommended, but their free "university" is very helpful. Just scroll to the bottom of the home page.

 

[daleswife]

thanks guys. I knew you would help me. Any more advice out there???

 

[singnring]

thanks guys. I knew you would help me. Any more advice out there???

Just because DH gets paid every two weeks doesn't mean you have to use the money that way.
When he gets paid, take half of his pay and put it in a savings account. Use the other half and pay bills for the week the way you used to.
The following week, take the second half of his pay out of savings and pay the week's bills the way you used to.

That way you should easily get back on track right away.

Then, sit down and make a budget. The key is to live within your means and pay bills and buy true necessities before spending a penny on wants.
Focus on paying down any debt you can and put some money into savings for emergencies.

 

[NVDisMom]

I would track all of your spending for a month and figure out where the money is going. Does DH have a longer commute? More lunches out? Maybe he purchases more clothes than for he old job? Maybe you purchase more week in and week out because of that $8/hr raise? You won't know until you keep track of all of it. Something else to look at too...Has his witholding of SSI, taxes, benefits increased dramatically? Perhaps you need to change his witholding status. We are a family of four, if we had DH's company withold at Married -4 we'd be loaning the gov't huge sums of money and getting a big return in Feb. without any interest earned. Not my idea od smart money management.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I have many different ING savings accounts. I have it automatically set up to take things out of each paycheck (like half of my car payment every two weeks, half of my insurance, etc.) so it kind of locks it up until I need to pay it (I transfer it a few days before I need to pay a bill). That way whatever I have left is all I have for groceries, gas, and entertainment. It takes more effort but I know where every penny is going. I also take whatevers left out as cash and have 3 envelopes: one for gas, one for groceries, and one for entertainment. When the money's gone from one envelope I can't go into another (as, what do you know, the entertainment one always runs out first ).

 

[minnie1928]

Another thing to think about is the due dates. Just because a bill is due on the 10th doesn't mean that you have to wait until the 7th to pay it. If you have the money now, then pay the bill. That way it's gone, no late fees, no forgetting, nada! Also, some companies may allow you to tell them when you want your payments due...that might be worth looking into.

My husband is paid monthly (at the end of the month). I pay all the bills in one sitting when he gets paid. Makes everything very simple.

 

[bootleg89]

I agree with the previous poster about taking the mortgage money out from each pay check.
I had the same problem that I never had enough to pay all my bills even though I should have had enough. What I finally did was figure out the total of fixed bills, ie. mortgage, garbage, gas. Divided that by 2 to see what I needed to set aside every pay period. I then opened a second checking account and had that amount direct deposited into the second account. NOw I always have that money to pay my bills and budget the first account to pay my credit cards, electric and groceries. Then there comes those months that I call "Lucky Months" where my DH gets 3 checks instead of 2 and we have extra money that month. So happens that December is a lucky month so that worked out great for us!
Good Luck!

 

[Bastiansmom]

We get paid on alternating weeks, but it is easier to pay bills once every two weeks. At the beginning of every year ( I need to do 2010!) I create a spreadsheet in Excel of all our bills and when they are do (what check I will pay them out of). I know what will be left after the bills are paid, and no bills can "sneak up on me." It also helps me to plan for the "extra check" we get twice a year due to three checks a month. I have also have running balance totals on things like CCs or loans so I know what the balance is at all times.
It is awesome because when my DH asks about buying something big, I can say.. not now, we have a "free" check in March, or something like that. Here is an example:

Dec 18 check:
Mortgage..... $1000 Due Jan 1
Electric..........$100 Due Dec 28
Phone............$100 Due Dec 27
Checks:.........$1500
Money left.....$300

January 1 check:
Car...................$300 due Jan 8
Insurance.........:$200 due Jan 10
CC...................$500 due Jan 7
Checks:...........$1500
Money left........$500

Since I always know what bills are coming up, it makes it easier to plan for big expense. I also keep track of check numbers or confirmation numbers for online payments next to the amount due so I can reference it if I need to in the future. (Example.. the phone company calls and says they didn't get their payment, I look on the spread sheet, it was check # 4410. I call the bank, the check was cashed, I call phone company back and the issue is easily resolved.) It really saves time, and plus I know that the particular bill is paid when I have some sort of verification next to the amount.

Once you get all of your bills in together it is pretty easy to create a spreadsheet like this. PM me if you have any questions.

 

[leagirl12]

We get paid on alternating weeks, but it is easier to pay bills once every two weeks. At the beginning of every year ( I need to do 2010!) I create a spreadsheet in Excel of all our bills and when they are do (what check I will pay them out of). I know what will be left after the bills are paid, and no bills can "sneak up on me." It also helps me to plan for the "extra check" we get twice a year due to three checks a month. I have also have running balance totals on things like CCs or loans so I know what the balance is at all times.
It is awesome because when my DH asks about buying something big, I can say.. not now, we have a "free" check in March, or something like that. Here is an example:

Dec 18 check:
Mortgage..... $1000 Due Jan 1
Electric..........$100 Due Dec 28
Phone............$100 Due Dec 27
Checks:.........$1500
Money left.....$300

January 1 check:
Car...................$300 due Jan 8
Insurance.........:$200 due Jan 10
CC...................$500 due Jan 7
Checks:...........$1500
Money left........$500

Since I always know what bills are coming up, it makes it easier to plan for big expense. I also keep track of check numbers or confirmation numbers for online payments next to the amount due so I can reference it if I need to in the future. (Example.. the phone company calls and says they didn't get their payment, I look on the spread sheet, it was check # 4410. I call the bank, the check was cashed, I call phone company back and the issue is easily resolved.) It really saves time, and plus I know that the particular bill is paid when I have some sort of verification next to the amount.

Once you get all of your bills in together it is pretty easy to create a spreadsheet like this. PM me if you have any questions.

I started doing this about 2 years ago and let me tell you it made a world of difference in keeping up with our finances. Now I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

[singnring]

I started doing this about 2 years ago and let me tell you it made a world of difference in keeping up with our finances. Now I wouldn't do it any other way.

Ditto.

Back when DH got paychecks, this is how I managed our finances as well.

I wrote out each week's paydate and listed bills to be paid from each one.
I divided the bills out according to dates due and tried to balance them across the checks so each week was about the same amount.

For insurances and property taxes I would figure out a monthly amount to save in an "escrow" account so that when the quarterly or bi-annual pmt came due, I pulled out the $$ and paid the bill.

I ran our finances that way for the first 22 years of our marriage.
We knew what we had to spend and our bills always got paid and paid on time.

With those "bonus" weeks' checks, I paid down a debt or put it towards Christmas, birthdays, etc.

Now Dh is self-employed and we never know when or where the next check is coming from, so things are a bit trickier!

But we are debt free so life's a bit easier now too!

Good luck OP. I think you can get this under control if you get a handle on the spending and budget your income.

 

[SandrA9810]

When paychecks came every two weeks, it was a lot worse to keep up with everything. Now that there's a paycheck every Thursday, I plan each week in an excel file.
My bank does bill payments, it takes three days to go through, so I set it up for wednesday, then friday morning it's pulled from my account, and by monday they have it.
We also use seperate accounts for different things. 2 checking accounts and an entirely seperate savings. The pay check is set up for 125$ to go into the savings for rent, the rest is put into 2nd checking for bill payments, then I can call or go online and transfer the remainder into the 1st checking account for spending which has the debit card attatched to.
None of the accounts are linked for overdraft, so if the money isn't in the account, it can't be spent.

My suggestion is to set up two accounts, one for bills, one for spending. Or split the checks in half for each week. And if you need to, set up a third account for the rent money.

 

[robinb]

We have a separate checking account for paying regular bills like our mortgage, insurance, etc. We calculate how much we need for the whole year and the divide it by 25. That amount goes into the "bill payment" account every other week. It may be a little hard to start this kind of plan since you are already a bit behind, but you should have things smoothed out in a month of two.

 

[dfchelbay]

Ok, I'll get right down to it. For almost two years now, my husband has been working for his current employer. He gets paid every two weeks. He is making $8 more an hour than he did with his last employer. We are financially strapped. With his last job, he was getting a pay check every week and we were doing great. With this job he gets a pay check every two weeks and makes more and brings home more, yet we cant seem to get ahead. What am I doing wrong? I am up for any kind of advise to help us get out of this financial slump and get ahead. We dont have any more bills now than we did before, and maybe even a few less bills. I just cant figure it out. Ive had it up to my eyeballs with this mess and I really need some help getting out of it. I'll take any kind of advise you have. Thanks guys...

Maybe you should compare an old paycheck from the previous job to the current paycheck. Add up your taxes being paid. You may be earning more money per hour, but paying more in Fed, FICA, State, Social Security, and Medicare, due to the Gross amount being higher per pay period.

Also, don't know if anyone else has noticed, but most of the regular foods I get at the grocery store have gone up in price considerably. As has utilities, like electric, gas and water. This may be where you're losing some of your money. The price of insurance too could be a higher debt each month, for homeowners, auto and out of pocket for your medical and dental.

Living just costs more now. If you still have your check register from two years ago, compare what you were paying then versus now for the same monthly things. You'll probably find that there is where more of your money is going.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

TAXES. Check your taxes -- are you having too much taken out?

 

[KKB]

Yep, set a budget. All fixed bills plus those that vary. You need to try to pay half of those fixed bills w/ the first check of the month, and the rest with the second. I would do a major grocery trip every 2 weeks, and only plan on picking up milk, bread, fresh produce on that off week.
Write down where EVERY penny is spent...then you get a picture of where it is going.
DH & I are paid MONTHLY. But it has always been that way.
I pay ALL the bills at the beginning of the month, and I know the minimum I need to feel comfortable/wk for gas, groceries, entertainment.
The rest is flexible. So if there are things we have been needing/wanting to to, it has to come out of that flex.
I also plan ahead for big expenses like trips, taxes, etc....I say, OK, that trip is X months away...I need $XX for spending $, which means I need to be putting $X/month away for spending $.
The taxes question is a good one...be sure to check those out.
Remember, you are used to that weekly check...if you ran short on Weds., payday was only 2 days away. I think weekly it is very easy to spend until it is gone, as it just isn't long until the next check...if you are still behaving that way, it is ALOT longer until that next check!
Good luck!

 

[princessbride6205]

A budget is key. But what's been really helpful for me is a running cash flow of our main checking account (all bills paid from this).
I use an Excel spreadsheet and just write all money in and out - I know this is the same as a check register, but I don't write checks and now excel does the math for me! I guesstimate out at least a month in advance, so I can see if we'll have extra money to put in savings, or if the balance will be getting low.