Feminine troubles aside, the end or beginning of the month my husband and I have never found to be a factor in spending.
I often hear the 'end of the month' complaint from folks, or 'day before payday' and I have never understood it. I actually don't trust most businesses and never short our account less than the next mortgage...what if the pay check doesn't come in? So 'day before payday, is just like any other day for spending. (and the day after is often time to transfer money to pay down debt)
Before direct deposit my husband and I had a bad habit of not cashing checks...seemed a royal pia to cash one every week, we'd rather save them up and go once a month.
I suppose financially it would make more sense for us to figure out how to get interest on it, but well money should be there for an emergency, or for a last minute splurge if you can afford any. Or at the very least for a last minute trip to see family.
Not that money has never been to tight to splurge or pile up much, between the DINK life of forgetting to cash paychecks and our current 3 kid comfortable life, there was that miserable time with horribly low grocery budgets....but even then, the time of the month didn't matter...I still never let the account get less than the mortgage and I still didn't care if it was payday or not..the sum total of money in was a smidgen more than the sum total out..if I didn't have it right now I wouldn't next month either.
In fact I remember a time when someone offered to 'spot me some till payday' and I broke down and cried and said it wouldn't matter this payday or next there just wasn't any spare cash. Normally I wasn't so weepy about finances but it was the 'wrong time of the month'..being female and all...
Then we got a raise, and life is comfy, though not easy. (easy would be enough to hire a maid and already own the car .) And we still don't care what time of the month it is, the budget is what the budget is no matter what day...and being pregnant I cry no matter what day too
What does the time of the month have to do with anything?
November 28th, 2007 at 08:23 pm
November 28th, 2007 at 09:44 pm 1196286272
I had to choke on some of the comments last time this topic came up in the forums. I think the one I REALLY didn't get was how getting paid monthly was "so hard." ???? My thought was, "huh???" Once a day, once a week, twice a month, once a month - it's all the same in the end when it comes to a salary. I've been paid every which way and the only one that was "hard" was self-employment. That sucked. Payday was unpredictable at best.
November 29th, 2007 at 02:45 am 1196304342
All of our bills have some kind of grace period so you can juggle when you actually pay them to fit when the money comes in. When you have more income than bills due, you build up a little surplus to carry you for when you have more bills due than current income.
My wife used to work at a place where on payday, almost all of her coworkers would dash out at lunch to cash their paychecks. They wouldn't even wait until the end of the day. She, on the other hand, had direct deposit and most of the time didn't even know it was payday. It just didn't matter. By the time they were running to the bank, her money was already in her account.
We don't spend money based on what day we get paid. We spend money as needed. I also tend to sit on checks until they accumulate. I'll go to the ATM every 2 weeks when I get my paycheck and I'll include any checks that came in that 2 week period with my deposit. Right now, I've got 6 or 8 survey checks sitting on my dresser that will get deposited this weekend with my paycheck.
November 29th, 2007 at 04:01 am 1196308894
November 29th, 2007 at 06:36 am 1196318214
November 29th, 2007 at 07:09 pm 1196363391
November 30th, 2007 at 05:09 pm 1196442594