if your paycheck was 500.00.......

[favesis37]

how much would you pay in bills? and how much would you leave in your account? i am wondering if i don't pay enough and leave to much.

[Marie78]

Is this paycheck every week or every other week or only once a month? I am just wondering how the money flows in. If you get paid every other week (2x month), then I would list all the bills and expenses you have for the month and pay the bills that are due now, until the next pay check then pay the rest. That's what I do. I don't make that much more a paycheck than you (I don't have children though, so I can't begin to imagine the extra cost of caring for them too.)

For the new year (after the chaos of the holiday) I set up my financial journal (notebook) to reflect the expenses I need to pay out of the first paycheck including food, prescriptions and gasoline. The second paycheck of the month takes care of the bills in the later half of the month and the food and gasoline for those two weeks. Then I have budgeted a set amount to save for those expenses that will come up later, not always in a set time frame (car repairs, dental work, dr copays, presents, clothes, hair cuts). Whatever extra money is left from the second paycheck I put extra towards cc debt.

I hope this helps a little. I explained it a little better in my journal under the journals here at FV.

[favesis37]

thanks, i make mor ethen that and dh makes alot more then that, i was just wondering how much every one leaves . we both get paid every 2 weeks. then db pays his rent on the 5th and 20th. on paper it seems like we make alot every month jsut not sure what happens. we bring in a little over 4100, a month. i am terrible at the whole money thing

[Marie78]

I take home around $1,400 and I budget only $1,000 for my half of the living expenses and that includes the $225 I set aside for the expected expenses that I need money for and then ~ $400 a month goes towards cc debt. I know you can do it! I don't have any debt other than CC. I live in an apt. so I don't have a mortgage. It helps me to know where my money needs to go and with the money I don't "need" to survive I have decided to put the maximum towards my CC debt. Good luck .

[FrugalMomof3]

My DH get's paid bi-weekly, so what I do is this. Each paycheck I set aside half the mortgage and the first paycheck of the month I pay the electric bill.

Paycheck 1 : half mortgage and electric bill.

Paycheck 2 : half mortgage (make full payment), home phone and cell phone bills.

I do this for each and every month and if we charge money on our CC's we usually pay it like 1/2 with paycheck 1 and the rest with paycheck 2 so it's paid within the month.

[Kitten20]

I would really suggest setting up a budget and using an Excel spreadsheet to track your finances. It's really eye-opening to see where your money is going exactly. To answer your question, I get paid $600/bi-weekly and I take out $60 for gas (2 vehicles) and $60 for groceries. The rest goes towards bills. :surprise: Of course, DBF gets paid substantially more than I do.

[Jenna]

I generally spend one paycheck on rent, utilities, gasoline for car.

The other goes towards food, irregular expenses (insurance - gifts,) fun money and retirement.

I have very little liquid savings... most is tied up in a ROTH. I also have very little debt, and we don't have a mortgage or any kids in the house. I could temporarily stop my retirement savings to cover virtually any unexpected expense.

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I keep a notebook of which bills need to be paid for the month, and then check them off as they're paid. I also make frequent payments to my c/c's and deposits to my ROTH w/every payday.

In my notebook, I also track when the irregular expenses will pop up so I don't forget about the big insurance payment due in Feb, or my niece's birthday in Dec.

[monkeymia]

The way I do the bills is I pay so much off it and if i have money left at the end of the week (day before payday), I will pay that off the bills too.

This way you don't leave yourself short but you also don't spend the money on things you shouldn't.

[favesis37]

thanks so much for the ideas