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Home > What does the time of the month have to do with anything?

What does the time of the month have to do with anything?

November 28th, 2007 at 08:23 pm

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 Smile.) 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 Smile

6 Responses to “What does the time of the month have to do with anything?”

  1. monkeymama Says:
    1196286272

    Who knows. That is one thing I will ever get. No matter how tiny or large our income has been, payday has never mattered. But I guess our spending has never really been reflected by or determined by income. IT's almost a moot point.

    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.

  2. disneysteve Says:
    1196304342

    I'm glad I'm not the only one. I just don't get it. If you make $1,000/week or $2,000 every other week or $4,000 every 4th week, you've made the exact same amount. What's the difference when you get it?

    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.

  3. Thrifty Ray Says:
    1196308894

    Yep...I heard someone rejoice the other day that Black Friday fell on a payday. My first thought was "so?"...I am fortunate to have a year long Christmas deposit that handles expenses anytime during the year that I find a great deal...not to say that I don't partake of a great black Friday deal here and there...but whether or not a payday is tied into it is a mute point...our paychecks are budgeted...and so there are no payday splurges...just budgeted ones- (or not)

  4. baselle Says:
    1196318214

    It must be me, then. Even though I have enough savings to be beyond living paycheck to paycheck, payday matters. It feels like the fiscal reset button... like "that time of the month"... Big Grin

  5. StressLess Says:
    1196363391

    I'm moving more and more into the "envelope method" lately, and I have to say I'm feeling the payday thing more now than I ever did. It's not that we're living paycheck to paycheck--there's always money stashed away here and there, for specific purposes. But if the groceries "envelope" is empty and it won't get replenished til payday, and I'm trying not to use credit cards, well, I do feel it. But it's kind of a good thing, because it slows down my spending.

  6. princessperky Says:
    1196442594

    I can understand a self imposed payday need like that, but I bet if you got a call for a family funeral you wouldn't worry too much about grabbing that check card to buy more gas to go visit, and some extra for food while there....

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