To this this IS extra money

[WhatsAppening]

DH has really confused me. Easily done tbf and it is early and I’m tired.

I get paid 4 weekly. We treat my wage as though it’s a monthly wage though, and all budgets are done accordingly.

This month I got paid on the 1st. So this morning I made an offhand comment about looking forward to us having an extra £1700 this month what with the extra payment.

DH first looked really puzzled and then went into great detail about why that’s not how it works. His logic was that the mortgage (same amount as my wage, coincidentally) comes out on the 1st then the first payment this month pays this month’s and then the payment on the 29th pays November’s so I’m ahead but it’s not spare money.

I KNOW he’s wrong, if we have 12 bills a year and 13 wages then it MUST be extra. But he’s confused me with his (wrong) logic.

I think because he’s focusing on one specific bill? And forgetting that we have lots of monthly bills and his monthly wage as well?

I need a simple explanation so I can convince him that we do indeed have a ‘free’ £1700 this month. It’s for his own good as it will make him happy, he’s all stressed this morning for other reasons.

If your 4 weekly salary covers a month's worth of "spends", to the point that unless you make a special effort to spend your 13th pay packet then it's still left at the end of the year, then you are correct that this is "extra" money.

If you don't budget to that level and just spend what money you have, to the point that you don't have any of the 13th pay packet left at the end of the year, then it's not really extra money.

My tax credits and cb are paid 4-weekly. I have them paid into a separate account and transfer the same amount on my work payday (28th). That way its obvious that over 12 months there IS an extra payment in there, fortunately this has been January for the last few years so it has helped cushion the inevitable extra Christmas spending. Your dh is wrong, but if its all going in the same account I can see why it's confusing.

Yes there is £1700 more in the budget this month. We calculate how much comes in each ‘pay month’ 26th of month A to 25th month B as our base as it can vary with overtime and four weekly child benefit payment (this month includes two!).

@WhatsAppening

So the way I track my spending is that we have £400 each pcm (cash to make it clearer). Then we spend pretty much the same every week on the big shop/petrol, this never really changes.

So the spending money is monthly, not paycheque to paycheque for me.

There’s always money left in the bank, it’s never at zero.

Based on this, I think your DH is at least partially right.

Your £400 each - what day does that get paid out? Presumably although the salary payment is "early", the first payment is paying this month's 2 x£400 and the second payment will pay for next month's 2 x £400. At some point, though, there will end up being an extra 2 x £400, but I think that would have been last month, not this one (assuming you transfer the 2x£400 at around 1st of the month).

Regarding the weekly spend on shopping - there are the same number of weeks between paychecks all year round. Each paycheck will have to pay for 4 weeks shopping, so no difference, regardless of when you get paid, as that's a weekly bill, not a calendar monthly bill.

LOL that he can't understand he gets paid 12 times a year and you get paid 13 times a year.

I’m paid fortnightly so 2 months a year I get 3 lots of pay. I budget on two pays a month so that third payment when it comes is totally bonus money for the savings. How is this not a basic concept??

Well at the end of the month you can just show him the account and that there is an extra £1700 in there compared to what there should be?

You’re right. My dp gets paid four weekly and this is his ‘bonus’ month too.

Unfortunately, we don’t have enough money to wait until almost the end of nov for him to contribute to bills.

I hate him being paid four weekly. Makes zero sense when no bills are paid like that.

And if OP takes her usual £1700/4 weeks, but budgets as though it is £1700/month, then of course it is an extra payment

Isn’t it just what the rest of us call saving? I.e having a monthly budget where income is more than outgoings?

I also get paid 4 weekly. You are right. We have the same set up in that we treat my wage as monthly so the bonus pay, which for me was April this year, goes straight into savings. I used to hate bring paid on a different day each month but actually it os very good for saving!

Agree with him and keep the extra money for yourself, after all he's said that it doesnt really exist

Yep, DH was paid four weekly when we were first together and each year we got a bonus wage which wasn’t needed for bills which were all monthly and we treated his four weekly salary as a monthly one for budgeting.

You've confused him because the extra month is now, you would've had money left over from last month to pay the mortgage on the 1st, meaning your payday on the first is spare money.
Then youl get paid on the 28th of October which will pay tye mortgage on the 1st of November.

Another interesting point was when we took out our mortgage the mortgage adviser said that if we over paid our 13th payment of our mortgage it would save us about 20k in intrest and knock about 3 years off the term.
That was on a 200k-ish mortgage

You might get paid twice this month but the money paid at the start has been your 'this month' money and the money at the end is next months. If you treat the payment as extra you will not have anything to live on for nov as you won't get paid until nearer the end. So it may be extra as in, you get another payment in the month, but without your next payment coming at the start of nov you will need the extra to live as with any other wage.

You can't compare 4 weekly to monthly - it doesn't work.

You have an extra £1700 over the year. You don't have £1700 to blow this month because after the 29th you won't get paid again before the mortgage is due.

@Fluffypastelslippers

You might get paid twice this month but the money paid at the start has been your 'this month' money and the money at the end is next months. If you treat the payment as extra you will not have anything to live on for nov as you won't get paid until nearer the end. So it may be extra as in, you get another payment in the month, but without your next payment coming at the start of nov you will need the extra to live as with any other wage.

You can't compare 4 weekly to monthly - it doesn't work.

It does work if you are talking about things that are being paid on a monthly basis, OPS mortgage money is spare this 4 weeks, the rest of her money isn't. Obviously she can't go snd blow her hole pay packet but anything that would go out on the 1st of the month for her is extra money this month as she will be paid again at the end of the month to cover the payment due on the 1st of next month

I would actually say last months was your spare month, as the money from 06/08 would pay September’s bills, and you get paid and the bill goes out on the same day 01/10.

If that money is still in the bank (from September) then yes you have two lots of wages available now.

I couldn’t work it out in my head, so had to use excel.

If you get paid in cash then just keep the cash somewhere safe.
That will soon prove that it's an extra amount not needed for day to day spending.

I think it’s confusing because it’s all one pot, regardless of when in the month my money has gone in.

So we have £X income (his plus mine but counting mine as monthly). Minus £Y fixed bills. That leaves £N amount that we spend, part cash and part credit card. This month we have £N + £1700.

We’re a bit ahead anyway so there’s always enough money in the bank to pay the recurring bills so when mine hits in the month doesn’t really affect us, we’re not reliant on it to pay eg
the mortgage payment.

Hence: extra money to spend on shiny things. Save, I mean save.

Each month, you earn £1841. Instead of saying that you have an extra £1700 this month, just tell him you've had an extra £141 per month for the past year, and it's been saved up to be paid in a lump sum.

I agree with you that it's extra to your monthly budget.

I think if you both are sure you have the money to pay the mortgage and bills it’s irrelevant. You need to both manage your money across the year inc savings etc

Is the issue here you both have a different attitude to money? You see it as extra to go buy crap and he is looking more maturely long term.

I’m not sure I’ve heard an adult so it was extra money like this.

Obviously that last payment should be 01/01/22

We have a similar issue. All income is every 4 weeks, all bills are once every calendar month. As different bills come out at different times of the month though, there is no one time when suddenly there is a whole extra months money.

DH assures me he gets it, I know he doesn't.

It does work if you are talking about things that are being paid on a monthly basis, OPS mortgage money is spare this 4 weeks, the rest of her money isn't.

It wouldn't be though, if this money paid the mortgage. How would next months payment be made if OP used it as spare and her next pay date it the end of nov?

I agree with others though it's not actually this month but last month where the extra happened.