Monthly budgeting/wages

BrokeBrokeBroke

Hi all, this could be in completely the wrong place, but I am looking for some general advice re: budgeting. On paper, it all looks ok and works out, but I don't know how to keep going day to day. Part of the problem is that I get paid every 2 weeks, my husband gets paid twice a month and some bills are 2 weekly, some are monthly. Technically we have enough and always have money in our account as we seem to always be being paid, but I can't figure out how to save any of it eg. what day do we take some out to put in savings etc. Sorry if this makes no sense but I just can't get my head around how to track everything. (Things used to be so much easier, we had one payday, last day of every month and all bills came out on 1st!). I've used the budgeting spreadsheet which is brill, but I just can't get my head around keeping track every day!
Thanks for any advice you may have!

davidcampbell

always "pay yourself first"

after you have been paid take money out to put into savings there and then. that way the savings account will always receive new deposits every month or 2 weeks and theres no danger of reaching the end of the cycle within the month (ie just before you are due to be paid again) and finding there is nothing left to save.

think of your transfer to savings as another monthly bill and make it due immediately after you are paid.

i used to pay all my bills after payday, hen use the rest opf the money for general spending and then if there was anything left before next payday that would go into savings.

the amount of times that there was money left in at the end of the month, wass very small.

given that we tend to modify our spending based on what we have readily avaialble (ie in current a/c) you should find that you ont really miss the money thatsgone into savings if it is removed from wages immediately.

hth
DC

katglasgow

I know what you mean, I had a simialr problem when my partner and I got together as he gets paid 4 weekly! What we do is have 3 bank accounts: a spending one each and a joint bills account. Our salaries as paid into the joint monthly account on relevant pay day. All direct debits are arranged monthly for 1st week of the month. An agreed amount is then paid by standing order to various sevaings accounts (Christmas, holidays, car) and then an amount each to our own accounts for "monthly pocket money" - that is yiurs to spend however you wish. We never take anything out of the joint account by cash apart from £200 in the first week which is then transfered to my household wallet (food, cleaning, baby stuff), and we never carry the debit card with us it is kept just for the bills and the amount taken from it every month never changes.
The way that works our monthly budget is drawn up using my monthly saslary and my partners 4 weekly salary but in a year, he gets paid 53 times, so opnce a year we have an extra lump sum of money that is used to pay for a holiday - or this year a wedding!
The only other thing I would add is it helps if all 3 bank accounts are with the same bank so transfers take less time. The joint account is a current acclunt but our 2 own accounts are just simple cash card accounts - no overdrafts, etc...
Hope that helps.

rchddap1

I will echo the think of savings as a bill. I have a standing order that automatically transfers a certian amount on a certain day into savings. My other half does the same. This way we don't even see the money in our account. This makes it much harder to spend.

I decided a while back that I didn't want to track spending on each and every day. I track by week. I list my savings transfer as an 'out' but don't total up on this sheet how much is in my savings...that's on a sperate sheet.

muddy697

why not try converting everything to calendar monthly figures so you can compare them.
do this by getting everything back to a weekly amount, then multiply by 52 and divide by 12.
this then gives you a comparable income, payment to household bills and any debts.
therefore the same amount for jan, feb etc. then set money aside for these things each month.
just a suggestion....

BrokeBrokeBroke

That definitely sounds like the best suggestion - I will try this along with 'paying myself' first. Sounds like a plan, thanks