First month of monthly pay struggles!

[Helpmeout124]

My partner is the main earner, I work also but my wages just cover the rent and car payment with like £30 left over.. he is a tradesman and was getting paid weekly. Which was fine, we lived week to week but always got by and have nice things, probably stupid with money and don't really have any savings but with a fast paced family life anything we save gets cut into for something that pops up and eventually it's an empty pot, well, my partner changed firms recently and he's now with a firm that pays monthly. October was the first proper month of budgeting for monthly pay and it's gone badly.

I said to him this morning I never want to be this skint again because it's scary, and I don't want to offend anyone by saying that because I know some people will have it worse. But we usually do okay, always have food in the house, bills are always paid and we have spare for hobbies and treats etc, but this month 😳

he gets paid again on the 3rd and right now we have £45 and we will get £55 child benefit on Monday, there's food in the house but not a lot. I'm just stressed and need a bit of a rant really.

I know £100 is enough for food for a week, but if the car needs petrol that's £20 gone. It's half term ans I feel awful because we've been in the house all week. On the bright side having no money gives me an excuse to stay in and get stuff done around the house, might re-organise all the wardrobes tommorow or something to keep myself busy 🥴🥴 roll on Friday!!

I feel you. I switched job roles and went from weekly to monthly payments. It's hard to adjust and takes time. Need to budget better and try to save a little for a buffer at the beginning.

We have also had months like this too.
You can make what you have stretch and budget a bit better next month.

There are always apps like 'Too Good To Go' for cheap grocery's which may help you get by until payday.

I sell stuff on Vinted regularly which builds up a decent pot for a time where we need it.
Clear out and money in the pot, win/win.

definetly need to budget better! I didn't budget enough for food I underestimated how much my 8yo hoovers up food 😂 glad I'm not alone though Thankyou both xx

I budgeted £350 for 4 weeks and 5 people which in hindsight is only £87 and with 2 in napppies I don't know what I was thinking

During your sorting things out, you may find things you no longer need and can sell.

It takes around 3 months of being on a budget to get used to it. Expect not to be good at it at first. At first you will under estimate some categories, over estimate others and completely forget about some.
Try doing weekly budget reviews, so you can see if a category is getting out of whack with what you expected.

Aim to build a cushion, at least £1000 I would suggest. It may take a few months to do that, but by having that 'emergency fund' you have money for unexpected events, such as the car needing a new tyre, an annual bill you had forgotten about.

Changes in income frequency upsets the balance of life. Rant away. Learn from it what you need to change, where you need to adjust payment dates.

So you must be blowing 4 weeks budget in 3 weeks then. Get an app on your phone that may help. You must have been aware though that you were burning through more money. Evaluate what additional spends you were making and cut those out.

We have almost an identical amount left - similar sort of situation. I’m struggling to manage too!

OP when you budget don’t forget that there’s not 4 weeks in a month….. unless you are paid 4 weekly as I once was in an American company.

The easiest way to do it, now you are through that first month, is on pay day to split the wage in 5 and put 4/5 in a savings account leaving you with 1/5 for the week. 1 week later transfer another 1/5 back and start again, etc.

As you've divided by 5 rather than 4, and as most months are about 4.5 weeks long, this should mean that you don't run out of money at the end of each month and in fact start to build a buffer.

You CAN'T dip into next week early though.

But October is 4.5 weeks long.
February is the only month with 4 weeks.
Other months may have had 4 or 5 pay periods, but all have more than 4 weeks in them.

He gets paid on the 3rd of every month yeah I didn't look at that, I should have I was very anxious about monthly pay and I made a poor judgement. We also did a lot of Christmas shopping in the first week and half way through the second week I started to think we were going to struggle come the end of the month. Also with what was left over I asked him if we should pool it all together or split it in 4 so we had equal spending money each week. We did it the first way, huge mistake. Spending money was kind of spent like 50:25:20:5

rather than 25:25:25:25 percent. At least I've learnt something

My dh and I are on monthly pay. I figured out set amounts to have at set times of the month.
for example: 4000 on the 1st, 1800 on the 15th, and 100 on the 30th
in our case most bills come the first week, a few the third.
i actually know what the balance needs to be each day.
It’s not about control as much staying on track and having it last.

I get paid 4 weekly from my job but it's just typical that November the 3rd his wages my wages and our daughters disability allowance will all fall on the same day. So on the 2nd we will be living on beans one toast and the next day we will be partying again. (But we won't) because I am going to try that 5 way split method because I really want to try and save. Not having a buffer makes me incredibly anxious so we do need that. Between us we bring in between 3.5-4k (differs because he's a tradesman) a month which I know isn't massively well off but it's not pennies. With nothing to show from it I'm baffled where it's gone this month. All I can think was

we spent quite a lot in smyths the first week on christmas

he went to 2 funerals and wakes

we got a few takeaways

we took our middle daughter to the cinema to see paw patrol

I went to soft play and what not

and as he likes to say, he might aswell transfer his wages to the one stop shop by my sons school because I'm in there every morning £2/3 a time (which I've stopped)

Hi OP. A bit more solidarity here. I'm early 50s, been monthly paid, 4 weekly, weekly and random through self employment over the years. The transition from one to another is always tricky. My tips (for what they're worth):

1. Don't panic! Seems obvious but it really doesn't help.
2. Set as many of your direct debit and regular payments as you can to go out within the first day or two after pay day. That way, they're gone and what's left is variable spends that you can control.
3. Fuel for the car. I know I'm not great at controlling my spending at times, but I need fuel money to get to work. I therefore have a separate bank account that I transfer a fixed sum into on pay day to cover my fuel for the month and only use it for fuel.

Beyond that, you need to be realistic with the budget and engage a bit of self control (the hard bit, if you're anything like me!). Good luck.

To manage our money we have a number of pots. On pay day we transfer money to one account that all of the bills come out of. We also move money into our savings pots; Christmas, car, everyday and holidays, and give each other £200 ‘keepy back’ to spend as we wish. This means what’s left in the bank is solely for food, petrol, days out and our daughters clothes.

We budgeted £100 for petrol which to be fair has lasted. We hardly use the car as he has a work van with a fuel card so we only use the car for me going to work other side of town and nipping the kids too and fro. The longest journeys we did this month were about 40 miles to and from pumpkin picking. 60 miles to and from smyths and him going over to the crem in the next town over. We haven't gone far

We have a few pots. On my payday I just separate the rent and car money into pots to wait for there dates and then sent the renaming £30 to the joint account. On his way pay we send all bills in my name to my person account, all bills in his name to his personal account, put a lump aside for food, some aside for petrol and whatever is left in sent to the joint account to be used for whatever, days out, treats for the kids, clothes, meals out, whatever we want. We both have a card for that account and we just use it when we want. We never question each other, or bother what the other person is spending. It's a monzo account too so we get notifications when anyone spends and it's absolutely fine. He dosnt mind what I do and I didn't mind what he does. We just say to each other when it's looking low, that we need to be careful for few days. Obviously if I wanted to buy something expsensive I'd call him first to talk about it and the same the other way round. I don't just go on mad shopping sprees. We spend majority of our money on the kids

Would it maybe help to have a joint account for all bills? You could also set up another account for food shopping and fuel, and have savings for yearly expenses. This is what we do so that money is separate from spending money. We then both have what is left over for personal spending money. That way you know from the start of the month how much you have to spend.