Payday Routines

[rebekah]

When you first get paid, what’s the first thing you do?

For me, I think a huge part of successfully saving money has come down to having a solid payday routine.

My routine starts by checking the amount I’ve been paid. I then pay myself first, by moving a set amount of money into savings. Then I move money into a separate bills account. I have a quick look to see if there are any transactions I don’t recognise on my account. And then, I figure out how much money I have left to spend/ sort out my monthly budget!

I’ve written about this in more detail here: https://bit.ly/3gvSZCe

Does your payday routine differ much from this?

[sebinsua]

Salary sorter from Monzo to place money into my bills and mortgage pots.

[rebekah]

Oooo I haven’t used the salary sorter before - does it work well?

Can you then pay your bills direct from the bills pot?

[Pa.ul]

I could not get to grips with the Salary Sorter as, once you have sorted that month’s salary, it disappears until next month

I wanted to the facility to see what I had set up in advance with the option to edit it prior to next month’s income.

Monzo did not update that, so I just use a load of Standing Orders instead.

Bills are paid directly from my Bills Pots. Easy peasy

[Joel]

I first look at my long-term budgets and see if anything has changed about the upcoming month - I’ll usually jot down any expenses I know are upcoming in the next month (bottomless brunch in September ) or anything I need to pay myself back for so need to take out of next months spending allowance.

I’ll then start transferring out my personal bills, household bills etc into my different current accounts. I’ll then transfer all savings out.

I’ll then take my spending allowance and my groceries allowance and split it by how many days there are in the upcoming month. I’ll then calculate how much I can spend per week for both spending and groceries and put each week into a different Monzo pot.

Each Friday, I’ll then move the money from the associated pot to my Groceries and Spending current accounts for spending in the upcoming week

[rebekah]

@Joel

I’ll then take my spending allowance and my groceries allowance and split it by how many days there are in the upcoming month. I’ll then calculate how much I can spend per week for both spending and groceries and put each week into a different Monzo pot.

This is amazing - so organised!!

Do you find that budgeting weekly ever restricts any of your plans? I feel like one week I can have loads of plans (and therefore spend loads of money) but then the next week makes up for it when I might not be as busy?

@Joel

bottomless brunch in September

Also, good luck

[Joel]

@rebekah

Do you find that budgeting weekly ever restricts any of your plans? I feel like one week I can have loads of plans (and therefore spend loads of money) but then the next week makes up for it when I might not be as busy?

It does sometimes but I don’t tend to make a lot of plans with mates that involves a large amount of spending.

I do have some flexbility but I’m strict with myself. Giving myself a weekly allowance means I have money to spend throughout the month rather than going bananas in the beginning, using up all my spending money and then being unable to do things towards the end of the month (which is what used to happen)

[rebekah]

@Joel

money to spend throughout the month

Yeah, that makes sense!

I guess that way as well you’re never chasing payday, because it’s almost like you’re being paid on a weekly basis!

[Joel]

@rebekah

I guess that way as well you’re never chasing payday, because it’s almost like you’re being paid on a weekly basis!

Exactly! Fridays are my favourite because it’s payday and the weekend