Avoiding Feast or Famine

[PoorRichardsGirl]

I'm wondering how other people deal with this:

I was wondering why money felt so tight the past couple of months, and it finally hit me. April and May have been two months with no "extra" paychecks.

I'm really tired of having no spending money for two months, then the next month thinking there's extra money that can be spent or saved or paid on debt--when really there isn't.

I guess what I mean is, I'd like to feel like we have the same standard of living each month, not based on how many paychecks there are in it.

When I plotted it all out, I noticed that annually there always seem to be 6 regular months and 6 months where either DH or I get an extra paycheck. Mostly all the budgeting ideas I've tried are based on monthly budgets, but they don't seem to take this into account.

I have some "freedom accounts" set up where I save monthly for various goals and big bills like property taxes. That was supposed to avoid the Feast or Famine feeling, but... now I can see when the same amount goes into savings in a lean month as in a more flush month, it can leave you with not enough to live on. And I've been kicking myself wondering why I ended up charging things, or having to take money out of savings sometimtes.

So what I've done so far is plot out all our paychecks, bills, savings, and expenses for the next year and saw which months had too much surplus and which months were in the red. I'll put money aside in the flush months that I *know* isn't permanent savings. Then in the lean months I'll know it's ok to take the money back out because that's what it's there for.

I can't decide whether to open yet another savings account for this or handle it some other way.

Has anybody done this kind of thing, or solved the problem another way?

[homesteadmamma]

I think the best way is to learn to live expecting no extra paycheck so when you do get an extra paycheck it can go right into savings, the EF account or on debt. It does take discipline and its not easy but it can be done.

When dh was working he always ended up with 2 extra paychecks a year. We used those for our holiday and to pay down debt.

[Telephus44]

I'm with homesteadmamma - I just wouldn't plan on them. I have the same sitation since I get paid weekly - so there are 2 months out of the year with 5 Thursdays in them and I get an extra check. I don't always have the discipline not to spend it, but I don't budget it in. Since DH has become unemployed recently, I have been putting it in savings, knowing that I'm going to have to touch it in a month or two, but at least its there and I make a few pennies in interest on it.

On a side note, I did have one job once that paid me monthly - that was a GREAT help in budgeting!