Does anyone else roll the "snowball" forward?

[craftypam]

I try

Hubby gets paid every 2 weeks. I base our monthly budget on 2 paychecks. In theory this means when he gets a 3rd paycheck in a month ( happens 2 months a year ), the extra should be able to go into a cushion. Then the cushion could go to paying a bill in a bigger lump sum. Like if I could pay the vehicle insurance every 6 months, it would save us the service fee each month. Same if I could pay the fire insurance in one lump sum, it would save the $ 6 a month service fee.
He has a extra paycheck coming up real soon, that I want to add into the balance, and then subtract it back out on the next line, and call it cushion. Add it back in when it's needed.
In theory this should work....problem is that things can come up.

Our only bills are a small mortgage, and one truck payment. And the utilities, and property taxes. Everything gets paid on time, but having a tight budget, so far, has left nothing extra for a snowball.

My new insurance company does not charge a service fee if I have my payment automatically deducted from my chking account. My old one charged $1 a month. I still hated paying that.

[craftypam]

I came up with a wierd budgetary theory, and it's working really well!

I call it rolling the snowball forward, or the 5th week theory.

I set my budget up on a 4 weeks in a month basis, since Dh gets paid every week and the bills roll in once a month, and most months have 4 weekly paydays.

But that only accounts for 48 paydays a year, when in reality there are 51 paydays a year. (there are 52 weeks, but honestly no one really works a full week at Christmas)

That means there are three whole checks a year completely unaccounted for in the budget!

I paid off all debt except the mortgage. Then I had this extra money every month, about $250/month. So I started putting it in savings. But then I got wierd about ever taking it out of savings.

Soon it all felt really stagnant. (yes, I realize some people call that feeling security, but for me it felt stagnant.)
So I was sitting around playing with the budget numbers trying to figure out what to change to even further optimize the magical budget. That's when the 5th week thing jumped out at me.

So, I had a full paycheck plus the now extra $250. So I paid my $37/mo garbage bill up for the whole year.

Next month I had $287 extra (I put it in savings)... until the next time I had a "fifth week" when I took the extra $287 plus the whole check, and paid up my cable/phone/internet bill for 6 months.

For each of those six months I then had an extra $416 ( straight to savings) until...ha ha, another 5th week! So I paid the cell phone bill up for 6 months!

Does anyone else do this? I'm finding it amazingly useful!

In theory, at some point... when a bill comes in, I'll be able to start just "chunking" them 6 months at a time.

I really like your idea but my husband gets paid when the job is done.

[Thevail]

I did it!

It's the 22nd of may and I just put the money into the appropriate accounts for ALL of next months bills!

Now we can "save" the expected amount for bills out of each check and put the rest in savings (except the food and gas). We'll always be a month ahead. w00t!

[lisarenea]

I came up with a wierd budgetary theory, and it's working really well!

I call it rolling the snowball forward, or the 5th week theory.

I set my budget up on a 4 weeks in a month basis, since Dh gets paid every week and the bills roll in once a month, and most months have 4 weekly paydays.

But that only accounts for 48 paydays a year, when in reality there are 51 paydays a year. (there are 52 weeks, but honestly no one really works a full week at Christmas)

That means there are three whole checks a year completely unaccounted for in the budget!

I paid off all debt except the mortgage. Then I had this extra money every month, about $250/month. So I started putting it in savings. But then I got wierd about ever taking it out of savings.

Soon it all felt really stagnant. (yes, I realize some people call that feeling security, but for me it felt stagnant.)
So I was sitting around playing with the budget numbers trying to figure out what to change to even further optimize the magical budget. That's when the 5th week thing jumped out at me.

So, I had a full paycheck plus the now extra $250. So I paid my $37/mo garbage bill up for the whole year.

Next month I had $287 extra (I put it in savings)... until the next time I had a "fifth week" when I took the extra $287 plus the whole check, and paid up my cable/phone/internet bill for 6 months.

For each of those six months I then had an extra $416 ( straight to savings) until...ha ha, another 5th week! So I paid the cell phone bill up for 6 months!

Does anyone else do this? I'm finding it amazingly useful!

In theory, at some point... when a bill comes in, I'll be able to start just "chunking" them 6 months at a time.

There is also a debt reduction called snowballing, you pay off one debt then keep paying the same amount but add it to another bill.... you continue till you have paid them all off. It is amazing how much interest you will save. We are planning on starting this the in December, as we are paying off some small bills first then we will be working on the car and home. Hope this helps.