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Rant on pay dates

April 23rd, 2007 at 07:49 pm

This may seem weird to some of you, but the fact that my husband gets paid on the 15th and 30th really messes with the budget. Our budgeting software (Money) tracks the money from the 1st to the 30th…as one would imagine. However, because of this it looks like we have a negative balance for most of the month. Then on the last day of the month we get paid and interest is credited and *whoosh* we have a positive balance (ideally…there were times when that didn’t happen).

It just makes keeping track of where we are and where we should be more difficult. It also creates a different sentiment. When I look at our budget I see, “oh, we’re only $900 in the hole this month” instead of “yay, we are saving an additional $200 this month.” Not a good feeling or motivator. You wouldn’t think that one day would make a difference, but it does. I also want my budget to match our actual accounts, so pretending he got paid on the first would probably be an even bigger hassle.

We put most everything we can on credit cards, and pay it off each month, so we don’t have to worry if we actually have the money in our checking account at the time or not, especially since we have bills due throughout the month.

Anyhow, I’ll make due. It really just involves an added step of subtraction, but it’s still a hassle.
Thanks for letting me rant. Smile

4 Responses to “Rant on pay dates”

  1. monkeymama Says:
    1177359475

    I see what you mean. Stuff like that drives me nuts.

    For me I get paid first and 16th and I like because I only spend the money I have in there. & I like to divide the bills just so - the check on the first pays for so and so and the 2nd check pays the mortgage and health insurance, and some other things. So anything that screws up my system annoys me. For example, the bad thing is getting paid on the first is that it is for the month before. I love my annual budget, but it gets messes up by the fact that my check on Jan. 1 does not reflect my usual raise, because tehcnically it is a check for the year before, but I use it to pay current year bills.

    Of course just be glad you don't get paid every 2 weeks. I think it would drive me batty! I know it is workable, but blah. I like having every month the same!

  2. robex Says:
    1177365189

    That used to be our pay cycle, too. We ended up with enough in chequing to cover a paycheque and we started budgeting the 30th payment onto the next month.

    It worked really well and was an awesome bonus when we switched mortgages and ended up with an 'extra' payment!

  3. zetta Says:
    1177427799

    Have you considered ditching MS Money and switching to an envelope system? Both YNAB and Home Budget are good ones. With MS Money, even if you have enough to budget a month ahead, the calendar focus of the software will never show things that way. I like envelope systems for many many reasons -- this just adds one more.

  4. LdyFaile Says:
    1177547942

    I get paid on the 5th and the 20th. Smile
    I don't use anything fancy to budget with just a spreadsheet with everything marked in it that I need to pay for out of that check. Seems to work pretty well for me though I know everyone else is different.

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