The Good Life on a Budget

• Posted by JvW on October 30th, 2007 filed in Uncategorized

As I mentioned in my sick post, the paycheck planets have aligned for November, starting with this week. We each get paid on separate schedules, so it’s very rare that we get paid at the same time.

My husband is simple - one paycheck on the first of every month. Quick and easy, direct deposit. At my day job, we get two types of pay - salary and commissions. The salary is paid every other Thursday. Commissions are paid on the last day of the month. These are all direct deposit as well. For my part time job, I get paid every other Thursday as well, on the same Thursdays as my day job. This is via a live paycheck, so I have to make a trip to the bank. Got all that? This is why I have Quicken!

Because there are 52 weeks in the year and I get paid every 2 weeks, there are 2 months a year that I get 3 paychecks. This year, those months are May and November. So November has two extra paychecks, one from my full time job and one from my night job. These paychecks are the basis for my Christmas budget, so I’m psyched that November is one of the months with an extra paycheck.

On top of that, for the first time ever, we will receive all four types of paychecks this week because November 1 is a Thursday payday. Do you have any idea how exciting that is? Our bank account is usually pretty low by the end of the month, and by Friday it’s going to skyrocket. Then it’s dropping again as I send a bunch of the money to the debt!

Since the extra paychecks are going to Christmas presents, our total amount of debt payoff won’t change drastically. However, we’ll have more money at the beginning of the month so I can front-load our debt payments. I just need to make sure to keep the rest of the month on track.