Weekly to Monthly pay

Alig2908

I'm not sure if i'm in the right forum or not but a year ago I changed jobs and went from being paid weekly to being paid monthly. I used to know where every penny of my pay went when i was being paid weekly but I still haven't adjusted to being paid monthly.

Does anyone have any advice or tips?

Archi_Bald

what, if any, are the problems you encounter?

brendon

(a) spend within your means. (b) don't spend it just because it's there. (c) don't run your current account near to £0 -- have a decent buffer.

helptoyou

Hi You need to do a monthly budget to include all those bills you pay monthly and any spending you require petrol shopping social etc. But also save monthly for any annual bills i.e car tax car insurance TV licence etc divide those payments by 12 and save in a separate savings account and when they are due you will have the money available . Hopefully !!! your pay will exceed your payments out this will give you a spare figure you can either use for savings or play.

Once set up just make sure you adjust any monthly savings for annual payments to reflect any increases in there cost.

once you have your budget sorted hopefully you will manage far better any other queries feel free to ask.

elantan

Take a note of every single thing you spend money on over the course of the next month or two, it will give you a clue as to where your money is going and how you can change it

Paul_Herring

Alig2908 wrote: »

but I still haven't adjusted to being paid monthly.

Does anyone have any advice or tips?

1) Open another current account, and put a 'buffer' of 25%-50% of a months wages in there.[1]
2) Have your pay go into that one
3) Set up a standing order for a fifth (not a quarter[1]) of your net monthly wage to be transferred each week to your usual current account.
4) Leave your new current account (largely) alone[1]

[1] Since each month is longer than 4 weeks, you cannot simply divide your salary by 4 - you'd end up in the red after the first month, and end up owing a month's salary after a year. Best thing to do would be to transfer 23% each week (12 months/52 weeks) but 20%/a fifth should be close enough (and allows you to build up a buffer so you can withdraw the initial one you put in if you did.)

You'll need to keep a close eye on the balance on the new account for at least 7 months (20%/(23%-20%))to make sure you don't run the risk of going overdrawn just before your next month's wages go in - hence the suggestion of an initial buffer which would mitigate the need to do that. In fact I'd keep an eye on it most weeks - just don't take anything out apart from that standing order.

After a few months you should be used to how it's working, you'll probably notice that you'll be building a slight positive balance, especially if you chose 20% instead of 23% due to those 3%'s adding up; left over a year it'll add up to about 1½ week's worth of salary (52*3%).

CKhalvashi

Paul_Herring wrote: »

1) Open another current account, and put a 'buffer' of 25%-50% of a months wages in there.[1]
2) Have your pay go into that one
3) Set up a standing order for a fifth (not a quarter[1]) of your net monthly wage to be transferred each week to your usual current account.
4) Leave your new current account (largely) alone[1]

[1] Since each month is longer than 4 weeks, you cannot simply divide your salary by 4 - you'd end up in the red after the first month, and end up owing a month's salary after a year. Best thing to do would be to transfer 23% each week (12 months/52 weeks) but 20%/a fifth should be close enough (and allows you to build up a buffer so you can withdraw the initial one you put in if you did.)

You'll need to keep a close eye on the balance on the new account for at least 7 months (20%/(23%-20%))to make sure you don't run the risk of going overdrawn just before your next month's wages go in - hence the suggestion of an initial buffer which would mitigate the need to do that. In fact I'd keep an eye on it most weeks - just don't take anything out apart from that standing order.

After a few months you should be used to how it's working, you'll probably notice that you'll be building a slight positive balance, especially if you chose 20% instead of 23% due to those 3%'s adding up; left over a year it'll add up to about 1½ week's worth of salary (52*3%).

I'd go with this, but an even better way to do it, would be to go for 18%, thus after a year, if your take home is £1000, you've got a £600 buffer there.

CK

Bad_website

No cannot give you any advise really, getting paid monthly has always been a struggle unless you get a really good wage. I have always thought companies should really give you an option on how to be paid, either weekly, fortnightly, monthly, cash or bacs. And I agree with you on weekly pay, when I got it I was never skint, always had money last me till the next pay day.