How do you cope with 5 week months ?

debbycatz

newmoneysaver wrote:

As you seem to know you are spending too much on food so why not use this extra week as a store cupboard challange? if you are overspeanding there must be extra in your freezer etc... use this week to use these things up just buy a few fresh things!

Oh no.....another Old Styler :eek:

I need to find a new hiding place

Just kidding . This is what I intend to do but I know I'll still need stuff like bread and milk etc and I just get annoyed when I try so hard and still end up going over budget. I think I'm getting a little obsessed sometimes

Thanks for the input :T

babyblooz

Easiest way I think, is to take your monthly take home pay, times it by 12, then divide it by 52 (use a calculator).

The resulting figure is what you have every single week, so stick with this and it doesnt matter if its a five week, or a four week month. If you shop monthly, just allow four (or five) times the weekly amount depending on that month.

And, if you follow all the tips on these boards, you should be able to stock up with bargains and BOGOF goodies to practically have a free week every so often.

Anyway, it works for me, so feel free to try it! Good luck with it all.

tru

Cooking by numbers

cantcope

This is a 5 week month for me too so i know by next friday i will be skint! I've already arranged to go to friends for dinner twice in the last week, have lots of food left in the freezer and tins of beans in the cupboard and will be using lv's saved from pinecone for bread/sandwich fillers etc.
didnt do too well budgeting this month for petrol so will be using money made from ebay for that.

msmicawber

I do the same as Barnsleylass for my food shopping and work out the budget annually then divide by 52, so that it makes no difference how many weeks there are in the month.

cattie1

i also have this prob and am dreading xmas as i get paid on the 22nd dec woohoo! but then have to wait till 31st jan! uh oh,
using the maths you gave i reckoned i had £41.50 left each week from shopping after paying my bills-we were spendin £70 and over each week-no wonder i was constantly overdrawn! thanks.
i think i get a bonus at the end of the year-i wonder (and hope) that this is in my dec pay!

mrs_deadline

I think you're doing well to keep to your budget and at least you've seen this pitfall coming in plenty of time, so congrats on both fronts.

OK so it might take a year to get enough in the pot to cover unexpected items, well that sounds reasonable to me, speaking as one who never cracked the 5-week month problem when I was in a 'real job' with monthly pay (I'm self-employed now and believe me it took WAY longer than a year to figure out paying regular outgoings out of worryingly irregular income, and paying the tax man meant robbing Peter, Paul, and Rob too for that matter). Wish I'd known about this site back then.

It probably feels like you're tightening your belt to the limit already, but if you CAN, DO underspend the food budget for a few months and use the proceeds to start building an emergency/anti-overdraft reserve. A few quid a week, and you'd have enough to tide you over the next 5-week month when it comes around 3 months from now.

Ideally, though, keep it going till you're in a position to spend this month's pay on next month's food rather than this month's. However long it takes, it's worth it for the peace of mind and with all the help available here you can definitely do it. Best of luck.

cattie1

just found out as i dont get bonus as it goes from nov 2 nov and i started in may so don't qualify!!

Gemmzie

It's so annoying. Because I know how much I get paid per week and yet my contracted hours are worked out equally per year, so five week months are always hard.

I usually keep extra money back for long months, or try and do overtime to cover them.

lynsayjane

i'm in the process of changing from fornightly to monthly pay. thankfully my first monthly pay was due two weeks after my last fortnightly pay so i've managed to cope quite nicely, next month will be the struggle.

also previously my hours had a variance to them, whereas now i have a contracted 37.5, so i'll be able to know how much money i get at least per month and can maybe start a budget. in my past life when my wages went in i worked out how much i needed to pay my bills, transferred it into my bills account, then what was left was mine. now i'lll maybe try and have food money, savings, etc etc etc