
BI-MONTHLY PAY
Because I get paid bi-monthly, my bills for the month always say I'm in the negative. How do I manage this?
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For now you just budget the money you have on hand. For the bi-monthly people, getting a month ahead (or even just two weeks ahead) is the key to being able to budget just once a month, rather than having to wait till your next paycheck to fill in those budget categories. I'm lucky I get paid once a month so I don't have to worry about that.
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I now budget by paycheque rather than by month. I am paid biweekly so this was a huge wake up call for me in months like this one where my mortgage comes out on the 2nd but I don’t get paid until the 8th. I used to budget all my income for the month (Dave Ramsey style) but then have no money for the mortgage payment in the bank. I am currently one paycheque ahead (we have 2 each per month for a total of 4) which is enough for the mortgage and a few other early month bills as well as some food and gas. I set this amount up in a separate category called Month Ahead. At the end of the month there needs to be enough in that category to cover those things. When the month rolls over, I “move” Month Ahead available amount to To Be Budgeted and then budget to zero. On the 8th when we get paid, I’ll budget to zero again. Then for the last cheque ( on the 22nd) I’ll replenish Month Ahead with the amount I started with and then finish budgeting which is usually end of month auto expenses and discretionary.
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I am in the same situation and have started budgeting from zero from each paycheck. But how have you been handling the "necessary" bills you know you have to pay? I have been using the running balance feature to add the minimum and then I just make sure the balance is never negative, but if there is a better way I would do it. At least until I get the buffer up.