How do others cope with a weekly budget when they get paid monthly

debbycatz

I started my all new money saving ways on my usual pay day of 28th of July. I worked out all my bills and then allowed myself £120 a month for my personal spends. I drew this out of the bank in one go, but this didn't work too well as I spent quite a bit in the first two weeks and it was supposed to last me a month :eek:

So, I decided on the pay day of 28th August I would just take out £30 a week rather than the whole £120 a month. However, this doesn't add up as I am working on the basis of taking out £30 each week for 4 weeks starting on 28th August which takes me only to 18th September That means the £30 I draw out on 18th September has to last until 28th September, which is my next pay day

Now, I know this isn't really a big issue as it is only my personal spends but it has confused me slightly and made me wonder how others manage their budgets when they are being paid on a set day each month as some months are longer than others. It's also made me realise why I've probably not managed my money very well in the past as I also shop weekly so the same thing happens with my shopping budget.

Sorry to ramble on so early in the day but I'd like to know how others arrange their budget when they are paid monthly as opposed to every 4 weeks

magicmaria

Hi

When all the bills are paid i then work out how many weekends to go before next pay day - is it a 4 week or 5 week month, then I divide what I have left by either 4 or 5 and I make sure I only draw that amount out each week usually on a Friday or Saturday

blt

Hi debbycatz, don't worry, I did the same thing as you! I worked out that I could 'have' £50 a week to me and ended up short on longer months and just gave up. What I did was reduce it to £40 a week regardless of the length of the month so that I built up a bit extra to cover me in the 5 week month. This worked for me - good luck!

debbycatz

magicmaria wrote:

Hi

When all the bills are paid i then work out how many weekends to go before next pay day - is it a 4 week or 5 week month, then I divide what I have left by either 4 or 5 and I make sure I only draw that amount out each week usually on a Friday or Saturday

Now when you put it like that, it sounds really simple Thanks magicmaria :beer:

I have worked out that when it's a 5 week month, I need to draw only £24 out, but a little gripe is that the cash machines never seem to let you do a £25, it only seems to work in whole numbers :mad:
Sounds like a good excuse to draw out more eh However, I know I'm only fooling myself and it'll catch up with me

Queenie

£120 x 12 calendar month = £1440 now divide that by 52 wks in the year = £27.69 (ish)

So, you could draw out £30 from the cash machine and put the £2.31 difference in a jar for when you encounter a 5wk month (which averages out 1 every 3mths).

As it is your personal spends, if you come in under your allocated £27.69 per week and put the saving into your jar as well .... you could end up in a situation where you have excess to have a mini slurge on yourself