We understand that most people get paid either fortnightly or weekly, but believe it or not, budgeting to a fortnightly or monthly pay cycle actually makes things more difficult, not easier.

Here are some reasons why:

• When setting up a budget, we need to give ourselves a standard way of recording both our income and expenses so we can make a direct comparison. For some people, the hardest part of budgeting is balancing fortnightly pays with quarterly bills or monthly pays with fortnightly mortgage repayments, etc. Establishing a consistent way of recording your income and expenses will overcome many of these problems from the start.
• More and more people are caught in the paycheque-to-paycheque method of financial management. We want to move away from this pattern of financial survival and establish, once and for all, healthy money management strategies. Operating on a monthly cycle takes the focus off payday. Once your Grandma’s Jars system is up and functioning, it will not matter what day you get paid. The money will always be there to pay upcoming bills and expenses.
• Most expenses are monthly or multiples of one month. The math is a lot easier when dealing in multiples of months. And let’s face it, we don’t want this to be any harder than it needs to be.
• There are certain calculations that we need to do each month to check that the budget accurately reflects the balances of our various bank accounts and credit card statements. If we operate on a monthly system, we balance the budget at the end of each month, i.e., 12 times per year. If we operated on a fortnightly system, we would need to do the same calculations 26 times per year. The monthly option is much easier and cleaner.