Paycheck to Paycheck

Family members have told me that the constant race between paycheck to paycheck is just a warm “welcome to your twenties!” I’d like to get around that and actually start building enough space to breathe between paychecks. Then we aren’t holding our breaths during those last four days between paychecks. My husband and I have accomplished this.

In our relationship, I am The Money Lady. Ever since we moved in together, I have been researching all over Pinterest for budgeting tips for organization, expenses and of course how to allot separate budgets for each expense- it is always good to know how much goes towards what parts of your expenses. And of course, a good estimate for a monthly income is the most important part. You must know how much you can afford.

Most of us, I am sure, do not depend on an income that is exactly the same every month. Sometimes you bring home $700/check, sometimes not. There is a lot of room for bottoming out unexpectedly. I soon learned that during the school year, my husband and I could manage on ROUGHLY $700 paycheck from his employment, and I wasn’t working enough to count my paychecks towards our monthly income.

I have looked at so many worksheets on Pinterest that explains, outlines, and tracks expenses, and manages the balance in your checking account. I printed a lot of these out, stuck them in a binder and hoped that I would actually keep up with this task. I failed. It was too hard to keep track and ignore a lot of other expenses that weren’t applicable to my situation. Like, I don’t need to think about mortgage or loans, and other stuff like that- so it doesn't need to be on my worksheet. My main focus is to make sure there is food in the fridge, rent payed for and reassurance that I have gas in my tank to commute to and from school. There are of course more to this, and this is where my 5 step by step tips come in….

1. 

   I hand write this info when I print it out,
   and stick in a FAMILY BINDER every month
    and write in the details as the month goes by.

   1. Be completely honest with where your money goes
   I still have a hard time remembering ALL the expenses we have, all the bills that need to be payed, the deadlines, etc. It's kinda blur together. I am always worried I will miss something. To solve that problem I use Google Docs to list all the bills, and also write near in what part of the month these bills are payed. I keep everything in a table.
   
   
   
   

   
   2. Separate Expenses by CategoriesThere are two kinds of expense categories that I keep in mind: Luxury and Necessities. I think there are more, but for this sake I am sticking with two. Luxury items may include: Pandora One, movies, going out to eat, Hulu and/or Netflix and sometimes internet- although, that’s not really practical for college students, we need internet available to us 24/7!  :D
   On my Google Doc, things are separated by bills that come out at the start/very end of the month and the other cell is the other types of bills: rent, utilities, and 'middle' of the month stuff. The grocery bill is kept in its own cell; and the Discover card is also kept on its own. NOTE for the young: Credit cards shouldn't be spent for the hell of it. Only use it for emergencies, 'the last days' before the next paycheck and if you actually have that in your bank account. I use it mostly for the latter so that we can build credit. 
   Necessities items: Food, sundries, (toilet paper, paper towels, feminine products, shampoo, cleaning products…). Health and car insurance, unless parents are helping you out on that part; car payments (if any); credit card bill- that might not be something you have at this point but my husband and I use it between paychecks and if there are promos and deals for stores. TIP: Use the redemption amounts to put back towards your statement and pay that small portion off without taking it out of your bank account. Check you balance often, I have the app for my credit card.
2. Round ‘Em Up
   My Nana always told me that when I think about my budget I should always round the expense UP. She also told me to round down for my checking account balance on a piece of paper but because I have a bank app, I check my balance at least daily so it doesn’t really work out for me.
   When I separate expenses on my worksheet I round up, even if it’s only $1.23 or $1.54- I round up. And even though it is just my husband and I, I estimate a much larger total for our expenses, I also combine food with sundries as our GROCERY expense.
3. Gloss over things every once in awhile. Even though there is already a worksheet printed out, it’s still good to keep things in mind the entire pay period. STAY ON TRACK. About once a week I review our spending, our upcoming expenses and balances for that day and the amount we have to us. I pretend that the money that is soon to be spent from our bills doesn’t exist in our account. After I take out all the payments that will be taken out soon, I tell ourselves that we have $X until that it is all we have. Then we know what we can and can’t do until then.
   
   
4. Electronic Payments. I highly recommend electronic payment. We have a few bills that have automatic withdrawals, others are just paid with our debit cards and the rest is paid online through an online submission. It’s easier when you are rushing through classes, homework and work- or just everyday errands if you aren’t a student- easier. BUT sometimes I use our checkbook at the grocery store and round the bill up to the nearest dollar, and then I put the change into a jar for a bit of savings.