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.

Moving countries no less - which must involve a shed load of admin!

If you’re not careful Op, when the wind blows your face will be stuck like that!

But they then change the payment date?!

Yes op there are 4 or 5 instances each year where your 'monthly' salary has to cover 5 weeks.... But by the same virtue this means there are 6 or 7 instances each year when your 'monthly' salary only has to cover 4 weeks (28 days) rather than the 30-31 (or possibly even more depending on how the working days fall) days it would otherwise have to?
So on the months when it only has to cover 4 weeks the little bit of surplus left when pay day arrives comparatively earlier, should be set aside to smooth out the 5 week months.

I worked for a Canadian company for a bit and the people who came over really struggled to adjust to the monthly pay as they were used to the fortnight system.
Basically they worked off the first pay was bills and savings and the second was disposable income ( this was a well paid industry) so I get where you’re coming from OP.
They also struggled with Uk holiday allowance but seemed to adjust to that much faster.

You can change the date, but you also need to get ahead. Doesn't matter if you change the date of the power bill to 15th June if you already paid for May's power bill on the 29th with the 28th May salary.

Yes

you need to look at a calendar and your salary dates and make small adjustments to your DDs. Financial planning

Or because it's hard to make your normal monthly pay last 6 weeks when you're used to making it last 4?

No that's not right either!

At Christmas most people get paid early still within the month covered by the November pay check.

Ideally when you get paid eg on 18 December & it has to last until the end of January till the next pay check, you don't touch it till the normal December pay date.

(Not, I might add, that I've ever successfully done that myself 😂)

I’m a contractor and paid weekly. I love it and would struggle to go back to monthly pay. If I overspend one week, I know that pay day is only a few days away. I save more this way too. Not entirely sure why, but maybe because it’s easy to be frugal for a week at a time. Harder to go a month without spending much. When I was paid monthly, everything went out on pay day and I’d find myself struggling.

I rent my place and the rent is due weekly so once I pay that and any other bills, what’s left is mine. I also have energy pre pay meters so they’re also topped up weekly. I don’t have many monthly bills. It works well for me. I do manage to save a fair bit.

I get what you are saying @woody87 move (lower savings) + new pay cycles + new bill dates = growing pains.

I think now you need to sit down and plot out your pay dates, and bills to come up with a spending plan that takes into account the months with extra days. The last time I went to a new pay cycle it took a couple of months to find the groove.

sorry you’ve run into the semantics police here. Some very bitchy comments.

When we were working we always got paid on 28th and bills all went out on the 1st. Now we are retired we get paid 4 weekly and it's a right PITA to be honest. If we had extra money it would be fine but we don't. I've managed to switch most things around so that they are paid on the date I want but it's been a struggle with some, like the council tax.

Monthly pay is fairly commonplace in the UK. As others have suggested, move direct debit dates where you can.

I think you need to look hard at some of your expenditure to not have to rely on savings being used to cover things, even if only for a few days. Energy bills are likely to increase a lot in the autumn, for one.

Possibly the simplest way to budget is to work out what your outgoings will be in your most expensive month, then set that as the minimum your bank balance is allowed to be. So if your most expensive month is £3000 outgoings, if on any given day you are in danger of having less than £3000 in your account, your are "broke", and should avoid spending, if you can.

The above is nonsense. You do not need to have that much money in your current account to stay solvent.

Set your direct debits for the 1st of the month - that way they will always be paid ok.
Then sit down and work out an average monthly budget with the rest of the money. You'll need to cover food, fuel/transport, luxuries or days/nights out, toiletries, clothes, kids clubs etc.

You'll end up with a monthly budget for each area of spending. Divide that number by 31, then multiply the result by 7 - that will be your weekly budget for each item.
Stick to that weekly budget and it won't matter whether there are four or five weeks between paydays because it will average out over the year.

The reason people find January hard is not because they genuinely have less money than in other months (they don't), but because they overspend when they get their pay in December. Draw up a budget and stick to it, and it all gets easier.

We have always got paid on the same day of each month and now retired our occupational pensions also come on the same day monthly. This was usually the last day of the month. Bills come out 1st of the month. Can't you change the bill payment day and use a separate bills account? We have a Starling bank account and I separate the bills to come out of a bills space which is kept apart from main disposable income.

Here's an example - say person A has monthly pay of £3k after tax and they are paid last Thursday of the month.

28th April 2022
[4 week gap]
26th May 2022
[5 week gap]
30th June 2022

Provided this person budgets well and only starts spending their pay on 1st May (i.e. when all their direct debits should go out), they will have exactly 6k to last the 2 months of May and June. The fact that it's unevenly spaced should make no difference to how they approach spending it.

Most direct debits go in the first two weeks of the month, but enough to cover the entire month's bills is transferred into another account on the 1st. Don't have to worry about anything then.

*@woody87
*
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.

In July though you will be paid on 28th so 4 weeks only rather than 30 or 31 days. It just takes more organising and building a buffer for the months some of the bills are due before you get paid. In effect you are paid 12 times and have 12 lots of bills so it is possible to sort it. I think you need to get better with budgeting and working out cashflow. You will have the same issue next month with the nursery fees if they have to be paid on 27th. In August you be paid on 25th though so effectively you will get two lots of pay between 27 July and 27 August. Just work on building a bills buffer and not living from payday to payday.

I know, it's baffling isn't it? I'm not sure how this has become a huge debate.

I knew someone who worked in a shop and insisted on taking her pay hourly. I guess she knew exactly where she stood that way.

But there'll be a month at some point where you get paid twice between the 27th and the 27th. For example, you'll be paid on 28th July and then again on 25th August. So you keep the extra pay from the 25th in reserve until you have a "long" month again. It all just works itself out if you keep the right money for bills from each pay packet.

If it's confusing/annoying you, can't you just move your direct debits to the start/middle of the month so they always fall between two pay days? You'll always be paid between the 25th and 31st so move them to 1st?

This.

I've never had a problem.

Everything is paid every calendar monthly, not 4 weekly so it all matches up. Mortgage 8th month, council tax 1st, nursery 5th, utilities 26th. DH gets paid 10th month, me on 28th but my wage doesn't cover mortgage and nursery fees.

Exactly. So the 28th April pay packet should cover every May DD, even if it comes out between 26th-31st May. Otherwise you are taking double bills out of the 26th May wage.

I do appreciate though that it can feel more difficult some months because if you live down to zero each month, it feels like you are covering 5 food shops, 5 weeks of Petrol, 5 weekends on kids activities from one paycheck. As in, I feel like I have spent at my normal daily rate, run out and yet have 5 days left.

I’ve just switched to weekly pay after being monthly paid for 3 years. I’ve also been paid fortnightly, weekly, 4 weekly and monthly in previous jobs. Moving from monthly to weekly pay is great but moving from weekly to monthly was really tough, especially because I missed the cut off and had to work 5 weeks before getting paid again. My favourite was fortnightly pay. It’s a good compromise between getting money regularly but receiving a good amount. It also helped that we paid rent fortnightly as well.

4 weeks was also really nice because you got paid 13 times per year, rather than 12, so one pay wasn’t eaten up by bills.

Most of my jobs paid monthly (although the date varied) so it’s what I’m most used to. I paid most of my bills the first week after payday, spent conservatively the next 2 weeks, and then splashed out a little during the last week (if I had anything left). I know some people who spent a lot the first week and then struggled all month, but luckily I was never that bad. I was also always ok during 5 week gaps between pays, but I was only supporting myself at the time and could go an extra couple of days without spending anything.

Most of my bills go out on 1st of the month, my pay date is 27th of the month. So my salary is always ready for my bills