Actually, I disagree. There is zero difference if you’re any good at budgetting, but I’ve met many people in the US who considered one of their monthly pays “the bills pay”, the other one “the food pay” and any month with a third pay “me pay”. The bad ones consider the second one as a “me pay” and the horrid ones don’t realize bills are due until they’re showing off their new clothes to their roomie…
Wow, I had no idea! But you’re a Brit aren’t you? Which island?
If you don’t have the basic adult life skills to budget each month, getting two small checks doesn’t magically make budget problems go away vs one big check. You’ll just run out of money every two weeks instead of every month.
Zero difference. None.
Missed the edit window: I note, of course, that I’m not being callous to the OP; needing to catch up after a tough spell sucks.
But unfortunately it’s going to suck regardless of how many paychecks your monthly salary is divded in to…
Regardless of how often you’re paid: When my finances were more precarious, I did three things immediately upon receiving my paycheck. I paid all bills, pre-paid whatever I could (i.e. fill up with gas, pay for bus pass, pay kids’ school lunches, etc.) and then divide the remainder into weekly increments (“allowance.”) I’m perfectly capable of budgeting, but life was much less stressful if I knew that the important bits had been covered in advance. As others have mentioned already, planning ahead will also help with your daily necessities, like groceries. Lentils and rice may not be exciting, but they’re cheap, nutritious, filling, and a better all-around choice than McDonald’s. As you can afford it, you may also want to stockpile a bit extra in the pantry. If you’re hit with an extra expense, it’s comforting to know that you at least have enough in the larder to tide you over. Finally, I’m a big believer in the change jar: you won’t miss them on a daily basis, but at the end of a lean month, the few cents you threw in every day can add up to enough to tide you through until payday.
True (and there was a recent thread about different pay schedules and budgeting), but monthly vs. semimonthly or biweekly is an especially challenging catchup, because it’s that much longer before the first paycheck (where the OP has to catch up on a good chunk of his / her outstanding obligations), then that much longer until the second. So it WILL be that much tougher initially.
Someone going directly from semi-monthly to monthly has less backlog.
Of special note is when you go to monthly, and payment is a few days or even a couple of weeks after the end of the pay period. So you might find yourself going 6 weeks or more before the first paycheck.
jjimm Yes I’m English. I live in Antigua.
DragonAsh I’ll be playing catch up for a while yet. This first cheque isn’t a full month, and Novembers will allow me to pay my car tax and insurance … That’s one thing about monthly paid, you do get a good wad of cash in one go.
**Lacunae Matata ** That’s pretty much what I do, fill the gas tank, pay the bills and survive on what’s left.
**Mama Zappa ** It is funny about the lime tree. I’ve been overly broke all summer, yet surviving on avocado pears, guavas, finger roll bananas, fresh fish - someone gave me a four foot dolphin fish (mahi mahi) last week. A friend showed up from England a few days ago so I got a bottle of rum in. 1.75 litre was just under ten US dollars!
A couple people mentioned this but I want to emphasize it.
Have something in your cupboard that’s easy and convenient. Lentils and rice is awesomely cheap but if you get home and just don’t feel like dealing with it you want there to be an “escape valve” that keeps you from running out for Chinese food or mcD’s or whatever your local equivalent is. Because that day WILL come, no one can be 100% dutiful 100% of the time. Rather than expecting perfection, make sure your plan accounts for a little imperfection.
Even cheap fast food is going to cost $6-8. If you see, say, some frozen meal you like, and it’s $4, yeah, it costs more than 2 lbs of rice but you’re saving money if it helps you not go out.
BTW - you mentioned you can’t get cheese because it’s so expensive. Can you get milk? You can make a farmer’s cheese/riccotta-like cheese with just milk and lime juice (or vinegar, if you have it.). bring a quart of whole milk to a boil. Stir in 2 Tablespoons Citrus juice or vinegar (about 1 big standard ice cube’s worth!). You’ll see the curds start to form. let it sit 5 minutes and stir again. You should have some clumped up curds and a thin yellowish liquid (the whey). If the liquid still looks whitish and milky reboil it and try again.
Pour the curds thrugh a strainer lined with cheesecloth or an old, clean piece of t-shirt material. Let it drain an hour or until you get bored with gravity. Grab up the cloth into a ball and gently squeeze out the liquid until you have a texture you like. Congrats you made cheese!!! The leftover whey’s not very nutritious, but you can feed it to animals (dogs, goats, pigs) and they enjoy it.
Works great in all pasta dishes, and can also be sweetened and used for fillings in crepes, beaten into breads or pancakes, and eaten straight. Russian ciriniki - mix the cheese with an equal volume beaten egg and some dried fruit if you have it and fry in little patties - also very tasty and can be frozen for future nomming. You can flatten and compress it under a weighed down plate, and it can be sliced in cubes and added to stewed veggies (its basically paneer, if you are familiar with indian dishes).
Do you still have guavas? I believe it’s quite simple to make guava preserve or guava paste.
I lolled! Definitely going to do this. I usually cook a big pot of rice and peas because of what you say, I come home hungry and want to eat right away.
Well, I got paid today, so I’m going to portion off half of it for bills and money I borrowed off my mates and see if I can stretch the rest for the month. I would like to park my jeep - it does 35mpg - and ride a scooter, but don’t have the capital to get one. That would be a huge saving. The cheque goes into my empty bank account so it’ll take a few days to clear. The roommate moves in tomorrow - a refugee from his own financial crisis …
I’m the champion guava eater, they don’t get any further than the blender if they’re lucky enough to get that far.
Another practice I instigated during a time of having a tight budget was to open a second current account. My paycheque went into account #1, then I transferred to account #2 everything required to pay bills, loans, etc. with a few ££ on top as a buffer in case of miscalculation.
In the UK I did this via direct debit but not sure if Caribbean banks do that. Nonetheless the principle was the same. I didn’t have a debit card on this account (though I did have a chequebook). Once that money had gone into account #2, it was gone gone gone. I never dipped into it. Account #1 was spending money for the month. It sounds elaborate, but for me, psychologically, it was great.
Anyway I guess if you have to be skint, doing it on a tropical island is a good way to be. Imagine if you were skink in Croydon. And since you’re in the repayment phase, you know it won’t always be so bad.
Re. the jeep/scooter conundrum, I don’t know how far you have to travel but is it feasible to borrow or rent a pushbike instead?
Uh, yeah, on re-reading I left something IMPORTANT out of the instructions.
IMPORTANT THING:
Once the milk is at a boil – which is really a very strong simmer and takes about 20 minutes – and before you add the lime juice, turn off the stove and take it off the heat.
Also while you’re waiting for it to come to a boil, stir it frequently, and scrape the bottom of the pan with the spoon. When it starts simmering, it can boil over quickly without even looking like its boiling. It’s like: nothing doing, nothing doing OHFUCK. and it makes a sticky mess.
Can you get some smaller fishes free/cheap or the carcass of a large fish? Frozen, portioned soup stock will be a lifesaver when you go to make yummy rice.
If you ever get a chance to prepay a bill the month before, do so; that cushion may be invaluable the following month.
Didn’t mean to imply you’re a lizard.
All good advice of what to buy in bulk.
I’ll just add go to some cupon sites and order cupons for free. I thought this “hobby” was for old diddys until I saw an episode of that cupon show. You can really save some money if you know what your doing.
Don’t mind being a lizard, it’s the Croydon bit that’s scarey.