How do most people cope with repeated 5 week months in this country?

[woody87]

DH and I lived overseas for a number of years, fortnightly pay was standard in almost all industries.

Since moving back to the U.K and both commencing work with the NHS I am astounded that people just put up with repeated 5 week pay cycles.

NHS pays on the last Thursday of the month in Scotland, however nursery fees (£800) are due on the 27th of the month with no exceptions and the latest date that council tax, British Gas and my mortgage company will accept is the 28th!

Therefore this month I had to pay almost £2k of bills out of savings three days before we were due to be paid and I fully accept that I am in a fortunate enough position to actually have a small amount of savings that can cover this.

What on Earth do people do if they don't have savings? Overdraft? Then incurring fees that go into the banks pocket?

This country is a fucking riot.

Well in fairness you don't actually know anything about my financial situation.

Monthly payroll was a nightmare for me.

The toughest was the early Dec payment leaving 6 weeks waiting for January's payment.

OP I completely understand! I am paid the Thursday before the last Friday of every month, so it means the gaps between pay days are not at all regular. Like pp I have moved all my DDs to come out on the 1st. It is a pain though!

@Octomore

NHS in Scotland this is not the case. Paid last Thursday of the month, Zero exceptions. Meaning 4/5 times in a year we wait 35 days between pay.

It's a phrase ffs, perhaps more common in Scotland or with people that it actually affects. Many colleagues of mine speak of it regularly.

Wow you are rude.

@woody87 you can be as eye rolly as you like, but it just makes you look very rude.

calling the country a 'fucking riot' because YOU can't organise your pay/bills/savings is offensive.

You've paid the bills out of 'savings' but they weren't actually 'savings'. It was money you needed to pay bills that hadn't come in yet.

Now you've done that, next time you get paid, just make sure you keep enough of it in the account to pay your bills. It's not complicated.

Our company was very old fashioned and paid staff weekly in cash (all PAYE system) for a long time after everyone else started using BACS,. When we announced that we were going to change to being paid monthly direct into their account there was uproar! Everyone had got used to budgeting for an income every week and now suddenly they were expected to do it for a month - it took a long time before everyone got used to it and some still say it was easier the old way because in effect the company budgeted for them! Not sure how but then I'm an accountant Once everyone started moving over to monthly DD for everything suddenly being paid monthly is fantastic. We did pay them a month in hand PLUS two weeks as a gesture of goodwill. We now pay on the last Friday of the month but I do bring it forward to Wednesday or Thursday if it's been a 31 day month.

I think most people have savings accounts and put money away just in case.
Doubt many have nothing until the next pay day.

Seems a very strange thing to be so worked up about. This is the way it is in this country and always has been. Assume you did some research before coming back. There's plenty of far worse things!

Well in fairness you don't actually know anything about my financial situation.

Ooh. Nice bit of snark back!

I don't. But you're clearly not on UC in the situation described by the poster which was the post you responded to & I did too.

You're working with a reliable income & have or have had a mortgage. So nothing like that situation where a '5 week month' was really a problem.

I think people are missing that your buffer money was eaten up from moving back to the UK. I know when we've just had to move areas it's had an impact.
It will take time to build that back up again. Meantime definitely ask if you can rejig when you pay nursery fees.

I assume that's because you overspent.

@woody87 I am Australian and have been working in the UK for about 5 years. It took me ages to get used to monthly pay!!! Finally I feel on top of things and it now feels normal…honestly wish they’d switch to fortnightly here too though!

It shouldn't make a massive difference because most (if not all) of your bills will be monthly. Just change the DD date to the 1st of the month.
It's worse if you get paid weekly like my DH, you can't pay your mortgage weekly can you!

I understand both sides of the argument. On the one hand I've always been paid towards the end of the month and had all the direct debits go out on the 1st, so that's pretty simple. However, when I had a DD that went out on the 26th it was a pain and i had to remember to put the money aside (managed to change the date eventually). People do find odd payment dates tough, half my friends are totally skint by the end of January because they got paid early in December, even though their monthly bills didn't change.

In Brazil we also receive 13 wages. So one for each month of the year and double in December (13th wage). Sometimes the 13th wage is divided; I receive the first half of mine in june and the second in december. I really like how it works because I can use the 13th salary to pay yearly taxes that are due in january. I'd have a hard time adjusting to being paid fortnightly. I guess we just get used to how things work where we live and it takes some time to adjust to a diferent way of doing things.

My thoughts would be, you can't really afford to put the £2k back into savings. So don't. Get ahead by a month now and put aside your bills money for the end of July from your June salary. Then live off the remainder/save anything you have left by the end of next month. Then there's no anxious waiting for July's salary, because it's not ended until the end of August's bills. And so on, and so on...

Just change your direct debit payments (all likely possible except for perhaps nursery) to align with your payday. That’s what the rest of us do I think!

All my major bills come out monthly - mortgage, council tax, insurances, utilities etc. I can't get my brain round how it would be easier if I was paid fortnightly?

Just set your DDs for the 1st of the month then you'll always have been paid when they come out. Agree with pp that 4 weekly is a pain as you have 13(lower) pays to balance over 12 bill cycles, but its fine once you get in the swing of it.

I get paid on the 23rd and just view that as the start of the month. Most of my bills go out on the 1st ie the second week of the month. It’s never been a problem or when I worked abroad somewhere where I was also paid monthly. I don’t see the benefit of being paid more frequently, surely you end up not having enough in a single packet for big bills like the mortgage and having to save across weekly/fortnightly pay packets for that anyway?

@janesmithsdog On the longer months you get paid slightly more, so you don’t routinely need “a huge buffer” - you leave that bit in there to cover the following months and eventually it all evens out.

No you don't, you get paid 1/12th of your annual salary (plus any overtime/shift allowance). It's not any extra, it's a month's pay, just for 5 weeks instead of 4.

@luckylavender I assume that's because you overspent.

Or because it's hard to make your normal monthly pay last 6 weeks when you're used to making it last 4? No need to be snide.

I’m not sure about a 5 week month but I do find it annoying that sometimes pay has to last 31 days, sometimes a lot less depending when the last working day of the month is! Love it when it only works out as 4 weeks between pay days!

I get paid 4 weekly so a different date every month. It's really annoying for universal credit purposes! It's fine though really. I just make sure I've got enough in for the direct debits that are on set dates.

Thank god for this comment. I thought I was going nuts with some of the responses on here.