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.

Maybe it's easier to explain to him that the October 1st mortgage payment was in the bank waiting on September 3rd (your last payment, that wasn't in time for the 1st September). Your November 1st mortgage payment will be in the bank on October 29th. Therefore it's the wages that are paid on October 1st that were the 'bonus' payment.

I used to get my wage 4 weekly. It was great as everything I budgeted monthly. So yes, this extra "month" happened.

This really depends if you already have £1700 waiting in the bank as well as your 1st October pay OP. Do you?

If you spend it all in one go (thinking it's extra), in one particular month, and you haven't saved any from previous months, you'll be short of spending money for 4 weeks until you're next paid surely? If you want to see it as "extra" money, it would be more sensible save 1/12 of your wages every four weeks, them after a year, you really would have an extra payment.

Put it in a separate account.

If all bills are paid the same, you have the same spending money etc then you're right and it is spare money.

If you need to dip into it for regular bills then he's right.

@namechange30455

This really depends if you already have £1700 waiting in the bank as well as your 1st October pay OP. Do you?

Yep, my wage from last week is untouched.

You're right, OP. I do some regular freelance work with a delivery schedule that has a 28-day / 4 week turnaround. 52 weeks of the year divided by 4 = 13. So I deliver 13 times a year, I invoice 13 times a year and I'm paid 13 times a year. All my council tax, mortgage, utilities etc are based on a 12-times a month schedule, so once a year I get an extra payment with no outgoings.

If your husband doesn't believe you I suggest you keep that money for yourself and put it into your pension fund as your reward.

You've said your money doesn't pay the mortgage, but his way of looking at things does explicitly use covering the mortgage as a reference point. In that perspective the extra payment will not be the second one in a calendar month, it will be the second of two payments that arrive between two mortgage payments, where by "between" we mean they are too late for the first one but both in time for the next one.

Your payment on the 1st would have covered this months mortgage payment, and your previous payment would have been after the previous one, so I'd say by his criteria, the payment on the 1st is the extra one.

Your alternative and simpler perspective is always to regard each payment as covering the following calendar month, therefore the second payment in a calendar month is the second one.

Neither way of looking at things is right or wrong, but he has not implemented his correctly.

correction: "the second payment in the calendar one is the bonus one"

Sorry, that should have read 'All my council tax, mortgage, utilities etc are based on a 12-times a year schedule'

Why so many people are struggling to get their heads around this I don't know.

clarification 2: "your previous payment would have been after the previous mortgage payment"

You get paid 13x a year but budget as if you were paid 12x a year. That's the source of your confusion.

To make sense of your wages, you'd need to do an annual budget, then divide by 12, to get a monthly figure. OR declare your 13th wage 'Christmas money', or holiday budget etc. That's quite a nice way of saving for something special, without really noticing you're doing it.

Have you noticed that child benefit is paid 4-weekly too?

@Morph2lcfc

I’ve not read the whole thread so sorry if this has already been said. You need to think of the extra £1700 across the year rather than a an extra amount in one month . If you spend an extra £1700 this month you’d prob run out.

^ This

If you set aside 1/13 of your pay packet every month then this amount, across the year, is your ‘extra’ payment

Just because you get paid twice in 1 month doesn’t make that payment your ‘extra’ one - if you class that as extra money then there’s 8 weeks between your payment before and the one after and many bills will come out twice in that period

Your mortgage payment is quite high. Where do you live,?

So on my spreadsheet I have my wage, DH wage, CB as income. But I state my wage as the figure I get in my payslip once a month.

I’ve purposely done that so we’d have this ‘bonus’ payment. I know my working out is correct.

I briefly mentioned it to DH when he brought me my morning coffee and he immediately said I’m sure that’s not how it works. He confused me. He’s a numbers guy so that confused me even more.

But he has now admitted he was thinking about it backwards, and in terms of being paid before/after the mortgage.

Anyway I’m in town now trying to spend it not really but I’m looking for a nice dress to wear for dinner tonight and everything is FUGLY. So that’s pooped my mood.

You are talking about cash flow and he is talking about net income and expenditure. He will be accruing income and expenditure over the year into 12 periods. There may be cash in an account but it will already be committed and cannot be spent.

I like these kind of puzzles so here is my take...

Your financial reset occurs on the 1st of each month this is when the mortgage is paid but also the rest on the bills taken account of- such as cash being drawn out. On the basis that whatever has been paid in up to the 1st of the month is taken into account for the 'budget' of the following month.

Then your 'free' pay was actually 3rd Sept. Your next one will be 2nd Sept 2022.

Some dates:
Pay date - month accounted for

6th Aug - 1st Sept
3rd Sept - 1st Oct
1st Oct - 1st Oct
29th Oct - 1st Nov
26th Nov - 1st Dec

In 2022
8th July - 1st Aug
5th Aug - 1st Sept
2nd Sept - 1st Oct
30th Sept - 1st Oct
28th Oct - 1st Nov

Sort of, I suppose it depends if you look at it annually as a full income or on a monthly basis.

Child benefit is paid every 4 weeks so once a year it comes in twice in the month so it gets put away for Christmas

@CubicsRube

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.

Exactly this. That was my thinking too. You still need the £1700 to cover the 4 weeks from the 29th until the next pay day. Imagine if you put this wage on a savings account. What would you do for the next 4 weeks?? So your extra money is spread over a year:m. You couldn't literally out away any single payment as it would leave you without money for a given 4 week period.

*put away

@InconvenientPeg

I always budgeted monthly when i was paid 4 weekly. I loved double wage month! You're definitely right!

Yep, same here!

Double pay month was always great!

God this is like one of those "if four men had three spades and one leg, how long would it take 6 horses to dig half a hole if they were wearing trousers" maths problems.

The more comments I read the more baffled I am 😂 I need a biscuit.

You’re correct

If you had a salary paid as £1,700 per month then your annual salary would be £20,400
But a 4 weekly wage of £1,700 covers 13 x 4 weeks and totals a salary of £22,100

Your 25/12/20 wage paid for your 1/1/21 mortgage
Your 3/9/21 wage sat for most of the month and then paid your 1/10/21 mortgage

Before the 1/11/21 mortgage comes you have both 1/10/21 and 29/10/21 wages

If you count the calendar year only then your wage is behind on mortgage payments and you don’t get ‘extra’ until your 13th payments
If you count 12 wage payments from December then your ‘extra’ payment is the current one

The best way to deal eithb4 weekly pay is that your 13th pay check is basically savings. For me being paid 4 weeks vs monthly means I get £200 ish less every 4 weeks.

I just think of it like being forced to save money so I budget everything based on what I get each month in my bank account.

As bill dates don't always align there wi be a small chunk ill pay from my 13th pay check but otherwise at least 70% is basically spare or as I call it saved up.

For me it's easier to see it as money im forced to save but I then use for holidays.

No different than being paid monthly and putting that £200 ish aside myself, except im less tempted to spend it

I get confused with this and cb as that is also 4 weekly.
Where I get stuck is that when you get paid on the 1st and 29th, you don't then again get paid on the 1st of the next month. You get paid in 4 weeks time. Which either matches up to the next outgoing or it doesn't.