How to budget when you are paid weekly?

[madsommer]

I had finally gotten the hang of budgeting our finances when DH was paid bi-weekly.  He recently started a new job and is now paid every week.  I am really struggling with figuring out how to make sure plenty is in reserve for the big bills like rent and our car payment.  Can someone point me to another thread or an example of a spreadsheet they use?T

TIA!

[cristina47454]

We are paid weekly.  I love it bcs it makes me feel so much more in control of our money. I've got a great spreadsheet, but not sure how to attach it :(. I think you can find it on Dave Ramsey's website...it's called FPU Allocated Spending Plan.  Essentially, you write down which expenses are due each week and pay them as they come due. The "tricky" thing (if you can call it that) is to remember a line item for gas and groceries each week and back out everthing else after that.  You might have to have some of your due dates moved around unless you have a cash reserve sitting in your account.  For us, rent comes out of first week's pay ( and some of previous month's last week), all the credit cards come out of second week's pay, utilities come out of third week's pay, and then we start to stockpile for rent in the last week of the month.  Thrown into this mix are sinking funds for insurance, heating oil, etc. (Does this make sense?)  If you can't find the spreadsheet online, I can email it to you! It was so helpful to me!!

Here, try this!

FPU_Sheet_7_Allocated_Spending_Plan.xls - Keith Chuvala's ...

If you google "Allocated Spending Plan" you'll get some pretty detailed info about how to use this spreadsheet, but I found i to be pretty self-explanatory! Good Luck!

[rhiandmoi]

You divide all your big bills by 4 and divert that amount each week. Or you can also just pretend that you are only paid bi-weekly, and continue using your existing plan.

[happysmileylady]

First, I pay "ahead." Or at least I try to as much as possible.  This means I use February's money to pay March's bills.

There are some things that are budgeted weekly for and come out of that weekly paycheck, like gasoline or groceries. 

But, if it's not one of those, I basically leave it in my account and then just pay the bill when it comes up.  That can be tough though if you can't see that money as "already spent."

Another way to do this could be a cash envelope system.  So, EVERY budget catagory has an envelope.  When you get your paycheck, you cash it rather than putting it in your checking account.  Say your mortgage is $800 a month, so you would take $200 of your paycheck each week and put it in the envelope for mortgage.  Then, when the bill for the mortgage comes, you put the $800 from your mortgage envelope in the bank and write the check.  Or depending on who your mortgage is with, you could even just take that envelope to the bank branch and pay it in cash. 

[tinuviel_k]

I use the YNAB (You Need A Budget) system, which has a feature that I really love. You save up one month's income and then from then on you use your last month's income to pay for your current month's bills. That way you always know exactly how much money you have to pay your bills for the following month. It is a bit of a trick to save one month's income if you don't have savaings already, but it has really been worth it.

[nstewart]

There is a GREAT weekly budget builder at http://www.gailvazoxlade.com/resources.html.  Look at the "Build A Budget" worksheet.

Gail has a show in Canada and the US called "Till Debt Do Us Part" and several books on personal finance.  Her budget is really easy to do and builds in debt repayment and savings.  There are other good resources on her site as well.

[kkfum]

Originally Posted by tinuviel_k 

I use the YNAB (You Need A Budget) system, which has a feature that I really love. You save up one month's income and then from then on you use your last month's income to pay for your current month's bills.

Or, what I do, is I break down larger, less frequent expenses (like auto/home insurance bills) into what they would cost monthly. So for example, if you insurance bill was $600/year, I would have an insurance line item on my budget with $50 next to it. That $50 would be marked as "spent", even though it is not spent in that month.  At the end of the month, I take the $50 and put it into a savings account attached to my checking account, so the money is ready for when the insurance bill comes due. I do this with a few expenses, including car/house insurance, property taxes, car maintenance, house maintenance, etc.

Also, I don't know if this is realistic for you, but I have been able to save much more by my DH being paid weekly. Each month, I only account for him getting 4 paychecks. There are 4 months out of the year when he gets 5, but I don't list the income from the 5th paycheck in the monthly budget. That "extra" income goes directly into a separate savings account...right now it's to pay off our cars. If you don't have the wiggle room for that, you could always use that 5th payment to put into savings for those infrequent insurance payments, etc. or to save up the one month's income as the PP stated.

Hope any of that makes sense!

[crazyms]

I pay our bills ahead of time too to stay on track. So February's income gets collected and pays March's bills/expenses. March's income gets collected and at the end of the month the budget is made and April's bills are paid. This works well so that I have all the money for the bills each month and already know what we have to spend that month (since it's last month's income) instead of waiting on check to check. I hated that living paycheck to paycheck feeling. What if something happened and a short check came? It could be made up out of savings but I didn't want to do that either. Monthly budgeting for the whole month when I can see income and expenses together works better for me. One thing that I think will help though and I'm starting this month is the envelope system. I think it'll really help to keep us on track with the variable expenses so that we don't go over budget.

[madsommer]

Sorry I missed all of the responses.  I've been away from home.  Thank you ladies so much for your tips.  Hopefully we are able to find a system that works for us!