How To Nail Your Payday Routine
A payday routine is so important to have to ensure your money is divided in the best possible way for you. I’m sure we’ve all had that same dread when we’re halfway through the month and destined to live on beans on toast as we’re poor. Or the heart sinking moment when you realise you’re not rich as your rent/ mortgage/ car payment is just about to come out of your account.
While everyone’s routine will be different I thought I’d share my payday routine. By following this routine I ensure I always have money to do the things I want to do. And all of my savings goals and regular payments are settled.
Transferring money for all your set expenses
I’ve spoken a lot about having a separate account for your bills and set expenses so many times. The first thing I’ll do when my pay goes in is have a standing order come out for all my bills. This means I know there’s money to pay them all and it doesn’t matter if they’re all coming out at different times of the month. Before I did this I’d always have to remember when my car insurance came out. Or my phone bill. And you don’t want to have that dread of forgetting a bill and not having the money to cover it. My payday routine is to set up a standing order for the day after I’m paid.
This also includes transferring money each week into our joint food account. This means we have a separate account just for food shopping. Some weeks we may spend much less and save up the excess so we can make a Costco trip. But it’s good to know we’ll always have money for the food we need.
Payday routine: Transfer all the savings
We’re currently saving for a few different things; Christmas, our wedding and an emergency fund. So the next thing which happens in my payday routine is a standing order for all of our savings come out. I much prefer to spend what I have after saving as I get used to the amount. Rather than saving what I have left over after spending as this would generally be considerably less.
As Luke is paid weekly we’re setting aside £25 a week for Christmas. This means come the end of the year we’re sorted for all of the families presents, extra food and this year decorations as we’ll be in our home for the first year. We’re also saving £100 a week for our wedding. We 100% know we’ll need a hell of a lot more than this, but it’s a start. Then we also save £60 a week into an emergency saving fund. I want to get this up to 3 month’s wages for us both but it’s always nice to know there’s money there should we need it.
Spending money
The final part of my payday routine is transferring the remaining money out to our Monzo accounts for spending. Again as Luke’s wages are weekly we get a weekly spending money. I prefer having weekly money as if you spend it all you only ever have to wait a week, not a month. So if we were both monthly paid I would split it into four Monzo pots and have them unlock a week apart. This week you know you only have a week’s money and not the whole month’s.
This money could be for anything like shopping, fuel, meals out, entertainment etc. And then it’s our choice how we want to use that money. I always use Monzo for this as it gives a really breakdown of what you spend. I’m sure most of it will be food or clothes.
Do you have a payday routine?
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22 responses to “How To Nail Your Payday Routine”
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Rhian Westbury
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I also set myself a weekly budget but transfer it from my main bank account into my revolut account at the start of the week. I keep hearing about Monzo but I haven’t explored it. Would you say it is a good app? I love the fact that you can transfer to it and then lock the money down To be released at a set time! I didn’t realise you could do that! It’s a great post and will help people budget for definite. Thankfully I’ve been budgeting for quite awhile but Monzo is still new to me so I’m going to be checking out
I absolutely love Monzo, for me the pots you can use to separate out your money out have been a game change and the locks etc are great x
For me, bills are always the first priority, so they go out first from my accounts. As a freelancer I don’t have a fixed payday, so I try to sort everything out at the beginning of each months, as I have bills going out on the 1st and the 15th of the month. I also have Monzo pots in which I split the budget, but also a Paypal account which is my holiday fund.
I think being a freelancer it can be a lot tougher, although if you can just take money out at the end of each month as your monthly ‘wage’ it helps massively x
I have a payday routine of transferring taxes each time some money comes in into a savings account and putting money aside for bills too. However I get money coming in different times of the month so it can be a bit complicated.
I do the same trying to save for taxes as I never want to have to find money when tax time comes x
I always love your finance post as I always pick up a new idea or tip. This time is setting some money for Christmas so that I am not out of pocket at the end of the year. Thank you for that tip.
Mine is all set up to move automatically in the first 5 days a dctgen I go in regularly to keep track and move money to our savings if we spend less than expected. Mich X
Great tips, I need to be better at having a routine, it’s one of the things on my list to get organised with so thank you for this!
I have standing orders going into 2 separate savings accounts which really helps me, otherwise I wouldn’t save at all
Standing orders are great as you almost forget about the money as it’s so automatic x
I keep seeing Monzo and hearing great things about it – I need to get around to setting it up to manage our savings 🙂
You won’t regret it, it’s such an easy tool to use and have one account but all your money separate x
We have spent alot of time getting money to alligh with our payments in, so its very clear what we have what and what we don’t have, planning is essential and budgeting goes in had with it, great post and tips.
This is a great post with some fab advice for sure. I always think it is super important to set finances and know whats what xx
I’ve never been organised with money although I manage to save a bit and pay all my bills each month.
At the end of the day that’s all we need to do, pay the bills and save some money x
I pay all my bills as soon as my money comes in and then I transfer some into savings, in case of a rainy day. I think that they may be used at the moment
Ohh yeah our rainy day/ emergency money is going to come in handy x
Being a freelancer, my money tends to come in sporadically, but each time I am paid, I separate it out in a similar was as to have you have described.
Some great advice here as i used to be terrible a few years back. As soon as payday arrived I would just spend spend spend rather than be sensible about it
This is such a good payday routine and definitely something I need myself. Normally I just have separate banks and pay bills a few days in advance! Atm Im living with my parents in Spain so I don’t have any bills to pay, but when I lived in Oslo I always saved a few weeks ahead the rent xx