Does anyone here get paid once a month?

Libby1978

I start my new job November 1st.  Right now I am paid bi-weekly and at my new job I will be paid on the 25th each month.  I'm really nervous about this because I am terrible at budgeting and I feel like that will be an issue when I'm only getting one paycheck a month.

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Do any of you get paid once a month?  How do you handle budgeting? 

WasNotWas

I used to get paid monthly and it was AWFUL. I changed all my bills to autopay on the 1st of every month so I couldn't spend my money before my bills got paid. I also used the app LeftToSpend to try to keep track of my daily spending.

algalphys

I get paid once a month, at the end of the month. I know several of my coworkers have trouble with this style of pay but I haven't really had any issues with it. I'd say know when your payments are due, and anticipate having th cash available or try to change when payments are due to better accommodate your new pay day.

Libby1978

@willman2585 I'm more scared now!  :-S

secretsout

We went through this at one point when my husband got paid once a month.  We found it really hard to deal with.  It requires a lot of discipline and budgeting.  I didn't like it because it meant that if something unexpected came up, or we made a mistake with spending, that we had to wait a whole month for more money. 

The thing that helped the most was paying all of the bills as soon as the check came so that everything important was taken care of, and we changed some due dates around.  I also tried to be really strict about putting a little extra away each month so that we had a little extra hanging around towards the end of the month.

WasNotWas

Libby1978 said:

@willman2585 I'm more scared now!  :-S

aw sorry @Libby1978 !! I'm just terrible with money and when I saw the giant number in my bank account I would be all like "hey drinks are on me" and then by the end of the month it was all "tuna fish sandwiches are fancy". It probably took me 3 months to really get used to it, but then I was fine.

RayRay007

I get paid once a month at the end of the month. It's not a problem at all but we don't live paycheque to paycheque. I guess what I would do is know/anticipate what your bills will be for the entire month and set that money 'aside' (not necessarily in a different place, just know it's in the account for that purpose). I know when we still had a traditional mortgage, I would add up the expected bills/debits for the month, leave that money in the chequing account, and put the rest against the mortgage, so I guess in that sense it was paycheque to paycheque because I only left enough in the chequing account to get us through the month. But we also put all our gas/groceries/going out/etc. on a credit card and pay it once a month so we don't really have to worry about leaving cash in the bank for the kind of stuff (other than paying the bill once a month). 

I'm not sure if that's helpful at all. 

Maebb

Yes, I get paid on the 26th. (Funny typing fail - I just typed "laid," but no, I don't get laid on the 26th.)

Anyway, it's fine. We just watch the account carefully and know our monthly bills and budget. Sometimes on the 24th or something, DH will say, "Don't spend any money for the next few days, ok?" That kind of sucks because we can't eat out or take any unplanned shopping trips, but DH checks the bank account online all the time, so he knows when it's toward the end of the month and we're getting low.

RayRay007

Also, about changing the billl date, most of our PADs are set up to come out around the 16th, because I used to get paid on the 15th and last day of the month. If you can set up your bills/PADs to come out right after payday it will be easier to make sure they get paid. 

Libby1978

I'm terrible with money too, so I already know it's going to be a huge adjustment for me.

Libby1978

I guess better money discipline will come out of this, so that will be good.  I need that.

nordeast

My husband does (I get paid 2x per month) but we auto transfer our mortgage money into our savings account and then out on payment day. We actually pay our mortgage every two weeks (one ends up paying 13 payments per year which reduces your 30 year loan to like 22 years or something cool like that) so we do the transfer out/transfer in every other Friday.

I'm not sure that makes sense at all, but we use our savings account as a budget tool. Its been really helpful.

CurlyQ284

I used to and I loved it. I paid all the bills and then had money left over for fun. Now I get paid weekly and I effing hate it. I have to parcel out tiny amounts for everything. I have to take out a few hundred for rent every week then I don't have enough for the car payment so I have to set some aside to pay THAT next week. Ughh sucks so bad.

ReeseFox

I get paid monthly. It takes some getting used to at first, but you just have to be disciplined. I try to pay all of the important bills as soon as I get paid so I don't have to worry about them later in the month. 

Libby1978

CurlyQ284 said:

I used to and I loved it. I paid all the bills and then had money left over for fun. Now I get paid weekly and I effing hate it. I have to parcel out tiny amounts for everything. I have to take out a few hundred for rent every week then I don't have enough for the car payment so I have to set some aside to pay THAT next week. Ughh sucks so bad.

@CurlyQ284 That's definitely a good way to look at it.  Hopefully I end up feeling that way too.

SpaceGirlSpiff

I get paid once a month, and I actually like it better...but I can see how it could be difficult for certain situations...for instance, it was a little more complicated to work out budgeting right when my H and I were on different pay schedules (me just once a month and him bi-weekly), so we had to plan carefully for certain larger expenses.... however, now my H and I work together at the same company so now we both get paid once a month and on the same day (1st of each month usually), which makes things very easy

I like having all my money up front so that I can pretty much allocate everything to bills right away, and I like paying as many bills as I can right away.... I do a monthly loose budget each month where I list out our starting balances (whatever was leftover from the last month + new income), and then start by listing all the fixed bills first and get those paid off right away if they're posted... and then allocate the leftover funds to more variable costs like groceries/household/etc ... and also try to allocate as much as possible into either savings or towards maybe a random charge that came up that month (like a medical bill, extra purchase, etc).  So each month is calculated/allocated a little different depending on how things are that month.

And then of course I'll periodically adjust and recheck during the month to make sure we're on track....it usually ends up scratched out on paper rather than in a fancy spreadsheet but...works for me!

Libby1978

Thanks for all the input ladies.  I can see how there are pluses and minuses to this.  We shall see how it goes.

wiggyslilsis

DH just switched out of a once a month pay schedule. Now we are back to twice a monthbut all our bills are due at the beginning of the month so we are sstill having to budget and put money away for bills that are not due yet.

We liked the idea of getting a gas credit card and then paying for the gas once a month instead of throughout the month.

Also, be careful and read the fine print because some loans/credit cards if you pay them early don't count it as the next month's payment but rather an extra all principle payment.

LoveActually4

@Libby1978 can you open a bank account and transfer half of you paycheque into it? Then 2 weeks after you get paid set it up so the 2nd half of your cheque gets automatically transferred into your main bank account. That way it will feel like you get paid twice.

MsMommy2012

DH does. Even though I get paid every other week, we budget monthly. What we do is use a charge card for all of our expenses except rent. Literally everything goes on American Express-- groceries, subway passes, restaurants, etc. We each get a cash "allowance" and that's the only money in our checking accounts that we have debit cards for-- we use that for lunches out, drinks with friends, manicures, things like that. Once a month we pay the Amex bill, and we also pay rent and insurance. That's it.

We do have to be aware of what we're spending on Amex of course, but it works for us. We also have money "check-ins" weekly, and we discuss any purchases that aren't coming out of our allowances before we make them, mostly because my money varies (I have project based work). 

quidditchcapn1120

I get paid once a month on the 16th of the month. 

We do Dave Ramsey's cash based budget which is pretty strict budgeting so it hasn't been a problem.  Even if you don't agree with his political/religious beliefs, the majority of his financial concepts are sound and it has been super helpful! 

jennygirlmt

We put everything on credit cards then have an automatic payment come from our checking each month. We also have a budget that we follow.

And a cushion builds in our checking from when we save more than what is automatically pulled out for 529s, and other investment accounts. It builds then every few months I move it to different saving venues.

Maybe just put $1-2k in your checking account or keep your emergency fund there so that if you were to have a higher than normal bill you'd be ok.

I'm really confused about all the transferring and finagling that people do. It's not too hard to manage, you'll get the hang of it.