Budgeting - how do you manage with weekly pay and monthly bills???

mrsbez_2

Just a quick question

We get paid both weekly (main pay is weekly) and monthly but most of our direct debits come out in the first 2 weeks of the month. I'm having trouble sorting out my weekly budget for food, when all of the pay is taken up in the first 2 weeks with mortgage/c.tax etc. We have enough coming in to cover all bills + etc, but its timing that seems to be the problem. I am trying to set up the piggy banking technique of having several accounts, but again the timing of the pay and Direct debits leave me short for food in the first 2 weeks.

I usually let the overdraft cover it until the money goes in, but there must be another way around this. I am looking into changing the dates of some of the D/D's.

I would like to know how anyone else copes with this.

Thanks

Chutzpah

I'm paid four weekly, and some months (last was the same) it can be a bit tight as I'll have two lots of rent, car insurance, council tax etc. go out before my next pay packet.

I survive, quite frankly, because I still have a student overdraft. I'm losing that in July though so I have to sort something out.

My wife, on the other hand, gets paid on the same date each month, so since most of the bills are in my name (we've always done that as I'm paid more) she just withdraws an amount to cover them and gives it straight to me. Leaves her tight the last week before pay day, but she just scrimps rather than gets into debt (although it means I end up paying for everything for a week :rotfl: )

Ebany

When I had this situation I set up a sreadsheet to track exactly what was going on with my account, and extended 2-3 months ahead with the set bills added in, and made it do a chart for me to make it extra simple to see how things were going. Every few days I would log into my internet banking, check my transactions were all up to date, then by checking the lowest point on my graph I could see instantly how much I could safely spend while still having enough to cover all the essentials.

I have maintained this to the present day (and now have almost 2 years wirth of every single transaction on my bank account recorded, which has come in useful occasiionally) and even though I am now paid monthly it is still useful.

I had one column for income (as I rarely had more than one income on one day) - and a column next to it to say where from, and then three for outgoings, again with corresponding columns explaining what for. Then a simple total column which added any income and subtracted the outgoings and I was set. I set borders to mark out weekdays and weekends, and every so often would extend for the next few months (I currently track as far as next June I think) and as months pass I hide the rows which takes them off the graph.

I suspect this has made it sounds a lot more complex than it is. If you like the idea if you PM me your email I can send you a copy of what I use, but its really very simple. I was also no good at working out 'If I spend £50 on shopping today, will I have enough for my rent in 3 weeks?' so this was how I got round it.

jackieb

Can you set up an account just for your direct debits? Dh is paid on the 25th of the month and on that same day £1200 is transferred into our bill paying account by standing order. All our bills are paid through that account. I used to rack up the charges by not having enough in my current account before I set this up. Now I know it's in there and I don't touch it. It doesn't matter what day the direct debit comes out. Maybe you would need an overdraft for the first month.

Ask to see an advisor at your bank and ask them to set this up for you.

realaledrinker

I use a spreadsheet to track expenses & plan forward as well. I'm paid 4 weekly & the missus on the 22nd of the month unless that's on a weekend; then it's 23/24th.

If you have internet banking, I would recommend downloading, even if it's by copying & pasting [are you listening smile?], transactions as far back as you can & then spend an evening analysing them & using the information to forward plan a budget for the next 12 months. It's suprising how accurate you can get this, unless your credit card spending & cash withdrawals vary wildly.

From the budget, you will see where your "pinch points" are likely to occur and can then plan accordingly.

Gabriel-Ernest

Although I am paid on the same date each month, I do similar to Ebany - I have for years, and my 'current sheet' is provisionally extended out to the end of 2010. I started keeping manual records in a large book with my first bank account as a student nearly 30 years ago (date, item description, in, out, balance), and it's proved useful so I've carried on with it and transferred the future records online when I first got a PC in 1990. The older records are archived onto separate spreadsheets in 5 year blocks.

If for example a regular payment eg. mortgage goes up, I scroll through and update the amount for each coming month. If I can see that we've got a sparse month at some point in the year, I can adjust things accordingly.

I colour-code it; enter regular transactions on a monthly basis each December for the coming year (taking payday as the first day of my personal month), add Switch transactions/cashpoint transactions/transfers to savings, colour the row yellow when they appear on my online banking, and then colour them green when I physically tick them off my bank statements. We know to the penny what's happening with our account; the final balance cell just before payday is coloured pink and shows how much we've got left until payday at a glance.

mrsbez_2

Thanks to you all.

I have started an account just for direct debits, but have not transferred them all over yet. Only trouble is there is no overdraft on that account so if i get it wrong i don't want to be charged.

I have marked in my diary up until the end of Jan, so far, when the debits are coming out and how much i need to have in on the monday of that week. But reading all your posts, i think i need to keep going to the end of the year and beyond!! Its very detailed, but i can see that putting the effort in should make it work!!


I am now going to do the rest of the year and go through my online banking statements.

I've got 10 weeks until baby no.2 is born, so hopefully i will get it figured out by then!!!! I think thats why my brain has gone to jelly and i can't get my head around it.

Thank you so much

heppy23

I am in the same boat as you (paid weekly, monthly bills).

I have tried two methods, not 100% sure which one I like best - depends what you are trying to do. Both require you to have your "finger on the pulse" of your finances so look at all the tips in the earlier posts about spreadsheets etc. Ideally you need online banking access to your money.

First method is to run two current accounts, one for direct debits and standing orders and one for cash for the week.
I got my wages paid into the dd/so account then a standing order comes out of there into the cash current account. This money is to spend on food, petrol etc. What is left over when the next weeks standing order comes in gets moved back into the dd/so account (it could go to savings or paying off debts as it has survived the week and deserves to do bigger and better things). The logic of this method is to keep weekly money separate whilst leaving money for the dd's and so's.

2nd method is the one I am trying at the moment. My wages go into an internet savings account. On a daily basis I move money from there into the current account to keep the balance at £200 (this is based on my biggest outgoing of £120 plus 50%).
The logic of this method is to earn some interest on the money whilst always leaving money for the dd's and so's.

Ideally both methods need a small lump sum (say £200) to "prime" the system, otherwise it falls over.

SparciaM

Being paid weekly is the easiest way to cover all your bills. I can live so much better paid weekly that monthly.

When I was paid weekly, all I did was devide all my bills by 4 and every week transfer the money to a savings account and then when the bill was due just transfered back into C/A on that day or day before.

Is so simple, is untrue. No spreadsheets or anything, plus you get interest on your money.

Eg:

Phone £40pm £10pw due 2nd
Gas £80pm £20pm due 10th
Elec £40pm £10pw due 3rd
Water £40pm £10pw due 20th

So when you get paid you transfer £50 by Standing order to a savings account and then on 2nd you transfer £40 back, then £40 on 3rd, then £80 on 10th and £40 on 20th.

Now you usually need an OD for the first month or so depending on when payments come out, but I have to say I hate being paid montly, as it's hard to budget unless all bills come out when I get paid, but weekly was the best.

Another way, is when you get paid (using the same above example). Lets say you get paid £200pw - you take out £150 cash for spends that week and what's left in the account is for bills.

carl310166

My wife gets paid monthly,usually the last day, and i get paid weekly,since i found MSE i changed as many DD's to come out on the 1st.

Also on the 1st,we pay a set amount into our grocery account (Clubcard Plus)

On the 26th,we pay both our pocket money into another two seperate accounts at another bank, so it's there on the 1st. If we had all the accounts at the same bank,this could be done on the 1st as well,or if you took cash out.

So,basically any money going into the account after the 1st is building up for the next month, or you transfer into a savings pot?

I have spreadsheets for the DD's etc in one sheet, and another predicted cashflow as the weekly pay is added. I also do one for our 0% credit cards/clubcard vouchers/big purchases/monthly credit card/savings and xmas.

This setup works great for us,well it has for the last 2 years anyway,perhaps we may change it when we get an offset mortgage, so we can minimise the interest paid.

We have been using Egg Money Manager for the last 2 years to check our accounts every day,even your credit card spending (it's very easy to underestimate this one) but we have just changed to https://www.ewise.com.au/accunity/aa/home.asp ,as we will be closing our Egg accounts in the next few months, i don't think a monthly bank statement is enough too keep on top of your finances,although when you change your DD's etc, you should know exactly how much money you will have on any day of the month.

As you have said,you may need your overdraft to get you through the changeover period, but it should get easier after a while.

It takes some effort, but it's worth it.

plzhelpmesave!

i am tryng to get a budget sheet set up to record all monthly income and exps... get thru lots of misc! I'm ok with excel... is it ok to just setup something basic?