The Paycheck Plan for Multiple Paychecks: How to Budget with Messy Pay Schedules | 602

0:00We have three different pay schedules and I feel like that confuses me a lot. What do you mean when the money drops? I don't touch it. We're not going to sign things to paychecks. We're going to look at everything from a bird's eye view for the whole month. Don't tease me with a good time.

0:12Soraya:You'll have$1 ,100 back in your budget. You can go anywhere, really, if you disturb. Do you make good money but have nothing to show for it? Are you tired of living paycheck to paycheck? Do you have big dreams for your financial future? Do you want to get debt free but you don't want to live on beans and rice? When you don't want to give up those pumpkin spice lattes. If you don't already know how to budget or if you're using credit cards to get through the month. If you want to seem like you have your finances all together or you're not on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances.

0:41We know what you're doing probably isn't working, but guess what?

0:44Soraya:You're in the right place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages, and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

1:16We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate

1:23Soraya:mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. All right, Soraya, we are so excited to have you on Financial Coaching for Women. Thank you for coming on. Tell us a little bit about how we can help. Yes. Originally, we've been budgeting for the longest time. I feel like maybe eight years, but I feel like I could be better about it or see different ways that I can be better about doing it. I think we've been budgeting for yeah like seven or eight years mostly using the cash envelopes but for the last two years I've been doing like all digital like you guys say to you so we have all the separate cards and that's how we keep our separate accounts.

2:10We don't make a ton of money but we don't have any debt besides besides an RV that we're trying to pay off. So I feel like that balances out not making us much money since we don't have to give out as much too. So that helps too. Let's see. I have my little thing here that I printed out. Yes. Okay. For anybody who can't see, it's a beautiful one page budget template and it's printed out and she's got all of her little stuff written in it. So it's perfect. Yeah. Do you want me to go over like how much we make and what we spend or what do you want me to? Yeah.

2:42Soraya:So basically just let us know what the problem is. Like, where are you feeling stuck? What is, what's causing the block? Yes. We have three different pay schedules and I feel like that confuses me a lot. Yeah. That would, that would, that seems fair. Yeah. So I get paid every first and the 15th and my husband gets paid every Friday and he also gets paid from, he's a veteran. So he gets from the VA every first of a month. So we have all. Wonderful. And the whole month. Yeah. It's actually nice to always have money coming in. Yeah. So you're like, you're already a paycheck ahead because they pay you the day before the first or the two days before the first.

3:17So it's perfect. But yeah, keep going. Yeah. So we just, I feel like I, I just need a little bit of help knowing what bills to allocate to which paycheck or add them all together and then just let it be. Yeah. So that's my main concern.

3:32Soraya:So I see that you printed out the one page budget template and you've written in it, which means you don't have our budget system yet. I don't. Okay. So when you're saying you've been budgeting for a long time and it's still not clicking and you're not really sure how to get a paycheck ahead and what paychecks go with what paycheck or what bills go with paycheck, the reason all that feels messy is because it's still not a system. You don't have the full system yet in place. And I will say, not that I'm trying to promote it, I'm just saying the reason why it works, the reason we created it was for people like you who know how to, they want to know how to budget, they're excited to budget, but something still isn't clicking.

4:07Soraya:And it's all the behind the scenes in the course, all the videos, all the training, all of that to get you to that point. Yeah. And one of the things that you'll learn there, or if you keep listening, we were talking, you listen to this while you're doing the dishes or driving in the car or whatever. So if you keep listening, you'll probably hear it. But the thing is what we've been doing, I don't know if we've necessarily were taught, but it starts early, right? You get your first paycheck from Chick-fil-A or wherever cool place you worked. And you're like, okay, I have a hundred dollars here.

4:35I'm going to fill up my gas tank and then we're going to get my nails done. And then you're done and you spent money according to the paycheck. Right. And that's how that's like our general habit that we start with. And so that's how we can when we thank praise God, we're making more money when we're older. We're still going off that paycheck. What do I allocate to each paycheck? And that's not how we want you to work, especially because like you said, you have three different pay cycles. You get paid on the first and 15th, which is fantastic. He gets a good beginning chunk of money to start the month out on the first and then he gets paid every Friday.

5:04Okay. So we want you to look at all of that as one month, one full, one full pay cycle. Really, if you want to think about it, like instead of assigning, we're not going to assign things to paychecks. We're going to look at everything from a road's eye view for the whole month.

5:17Soraya:Imagine just not, it doesn't matter how much money is in the account. It doesn't matter when you get paid because money is always there and your bills are being pulled. It doesn't matter which bill is tied to which paycheck, but you've been for so long stuck in that mentality. Like Shannon said, it just happens naturally, not on purpose, but we just form this way of living with our paychecks and knowing, okay, I need this much to get by to the next one. But our goal is for you to just, again, have that bills account. Money is always in there and bills are always coming out and it doesn't matter.

5:44Soraya:The only thing that's coming out systematically is going to be your spending money, right? So you can, but with you getting paid on the first and the 15th, that is a great way to say we get spending money on the first, we get spending money on the 15th. And that is the only pay cycle that you're really paying attention to as far as divvying, divvying your money out. Yeah. So with what you're doing, you're going to look at, you reprint another one of those, or you can, it probably will work the same way, but we're coming into June, right? And you're probably, Oh, excuse me. I'm already there. Okay.

6:12We're coming into June and you're going to get paid probably on Friday, if not Thursday for the VA, right? Um, so that's going to come in and that's going to be the first paycheck for June. And you're going to put all of the paychecks that are going to happen in June. You're going to list all your bills. Your goal here is to put all of that money in the bills account to have you separated accounts. You have a spending. Yeah. Okay. Okay. So you're going to put all of that money and then you're just going to each, you can even set it up on the first and the 15th, or you can set it up every Friday.

6:38Vanessa is not wrong when she says weekly is a really good way to start and stay, especially for spending money, getting a little bit each week just means all I have to do is make through the week. And most of us can do that. So then what you would say is like all the rest of those are, everything's going into the bills account. But then every Friday, according to our spending budget, what we put over there, let's say you put a thousand dollars for groceries, which is not enough. Let's just say then every Friday, 250 from his paycheck is going to go into the groceries account. And then a hundred dollars for you and a hundred dollars for him, or however much you guys decide for personal spending, everything else is in the bills account.

7:11And you get that set up and you get that going. And luckily the VA paycheck is going to help you be like a paycheck head. Once that's all good, then we can talk about savings buckets.

7:19Soraya:Yeah. And it really doesn't matter when all the other money drops. You need to decide which cycle you want for your spending accounts. And then like she said, if it's every Friday, if it's the first and the 15th, if it's every other week or whatever you want to do, you get to pick that. And so when the VA money drops, if you decide I want to put, I want to fill my spending accounts on the first and the 15th every month, then when that VA money drops or whatever on the, on this coming Friday, you don't touch it. Nothing happens. It just sits there until your automatic deposit or transfers go out or if you're still doing it manually into those spending accounts.

7:51Soraya:I think that is the idea of that's hard for a lot of people is what do you mean to win the money jobs? I don't touch it girl. You don't need it. Right. That has that been really hard for you? Yeah. It's just, I guess, since you're stuck in this, what you've been taught or what you thought was normal. And then this comes, it's just hard to transition your brain from this to this. Yeah. And if you still have a couple bills at the end of the month that you're still waiting on that paycheck to help you out with, put those in June's budget and say last bit of May's bills or whatever. And then just make sure that you're accounting for that paycheck to help you out with those bills.

8:25Soraya:But then now you're a paycheck ahead and you don't have to worry about it because I know sometimes some people with getting paid from the VA or they're getting paid on the first, they get paid early when there's holidays. And they, I had a client one time, she spent like half of her paycheck in three days when it came early. I feel like I could easily do that. And it's not hard. No, what is it? Don't tease me with, but that can get you into a lot of trouble when you need that to last you for so long. So if you can just get in the habit of saying the money is here, but Hey, I don't need it because all the bills are taken care of.

8:55Soraya:And it's only going to be transferred out into my spending accounts when I said it needs to go. Yeah. I actually started doing that maybe a month now transferring every Friday. I feel like that helps us a lot. Instead of doing it twice or once a month, it just, I like seeing it coming every week so i like me too have a savings buckets with ally i think ally yep yeah so we have i feel like we're good but i still feel like we need a little bit or maybe just different way of thinking like somebody else looking at it from outside we do i put aside a thousand dollars every paycheck not every paycheck for the whole month of course it means but i was thinking that maybe it's too much and we should probably take some of that to give it towards debt, which is just the RV that we owe.

9:42It's only about 20 ,000, which is. Oh, yeah. You're doing one of those like guilt trips on yourself. I see. So we do about a thousand dollars for savings. And then, but I was like, should we be putting more into the RV instead of saving it? What do you guys suggest? It really depends on what you're saving for. So the good thing is you are obviously living within your means if you have no debt, or at least you are now, right? If you've paid everything off, which is great which means we are affording all the things that come up with the cash we're not using debt we want to keep that way so your savings buckets hopefully are saving for everything that are all the things that are maybe a little bit bigger that some people not you but some people would turn to a credit card or personal loan or something to pay for but you're saving for it so you won't have to do that and so as long as those are correct like you're you got your annual bills you have if you're going to do christmas you probably maybe want to take vacation or whatever, all the things that you need slash you really know you're going to do because we make good money, we're going to have a little bit of fun.

10:38Those need to be covered no matter what. And then you that whatever's left over, which like Vanessa was mentioning, our budget system does the math for you, but you can do the math by adding up the columns. What's left over after you have income minus debt, minus bills, minus spending, minus the thousand dollar savings, which is probably pretty conservative. That money, then you can either put towards debt or you can you can choose to put it more in savings or whatever. But you want to have the minimum savings buckets that are okay with you for your life, for your lifestyle. Because remember, we say you can pay off debt and live your life.

11:09And we do believe that. And sometimes people get tunnel vision and they feel like all that they're supposed to have to do with their money is pay off debt. We've been shamed and shamed and pressured and pressured. And that's how you feel. But it's not necessarily the case. All right, Budget Besties. It's time for some Real Talk.

11:25Soraya:You don't need another budget. You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going. And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. It's straightforward, pretty, and packed with walkthrough videos that break down the exact methods we use with our clients to get out of debt, set up a bills account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck-to-paycheck feel.

11:56If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in. And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need. Now back to today's show.

12:09Soraya:And when you said you're putting about$1 ,000 into savings, do you have this bucket separate? Yes. Okay, good. Yeah. And just look at your savings bucket tracker or planner. And, oh, I don't know. I guess when you buy the system, you'll have it there. but you can divvy out everything, your Christmas, your birthday presents, all of that transportation, travel, and just really see, am I covering everything? So then I can feel good about putting all extra towards the debt. When you do that, I think that's the biggest part is like Shana was saying, we don't want to go back into debt. We don't want Christmas to come around and realize we're$2 ,000 short.

12:43Soraya:And it'd be like, I'll just put it on a credit card and I'll pay it off later. That's you've done all this hard work. You don't want to go backwards. So just do a once over one more time into all of your categories and just make sure if you guys have kids, if all their stuff is covered for summer camps, like some kids have spring break camps, winter camps, all that, just make sure everything is, is taken care of. And then yeah, put all your extra towards that if you want to, but it doesn't, again, I'm not saying you have to, because I think you, maybe you're asking for permission on this, but, but I think you just, if you have everything covered and Shannon said the rest of it can go in debt.

13:17Soraya:Sure. But if you also want to use the extra to go on a fancy vacation or go on a fancy date night or whatever, you've done a lot of work to get where you are. And if you're already putting a little extra on the RV, because it's the last thing and you're paying it off, then you don't need to go crazy. Yeah. So we're putting about$780 extra on the RV. Already? Adding, yeah, adding to the RV payment. But then I was like, I just want to get it over with. I don't want to owe any money anymore. So then after that, I think go and have a fancy vacation, but yeah. Yeah. And it's a personal choice. I think some people would totally agree with that.

13:55What we want you to just, and you are doing a thousand dollars. Is that, is there anything fun in those savings buckets? Which savings buckets you got? Yeah, we have Christmas, birthdays, car maintenance, home maintenance, vacation, medical and dental, birthdays, registration, family photos, emergencies, CPA, clothing, kids gifts new cars okay so not much yeah not so you got it covered okay it's up to you if you and how long have you figured out again this would this populates in the budget system for you but have you figured out how long with how aggressive you're being it'll take you to pay off the rv i was thinking that it would take us a year or so but i haven't figured out how much is yeah Yeah.

14:38How much is the payment that you're paying on it? Payment is$457 a month. And then I do$700. She's putting double. So next year, you'll have$1 ,100 back in your budget. You can go anywhere, really, if you just start piling that up every month. So it really is. I think that a lot of people would agree with you. I really just want to take care of this and get this done. And then I will never be in debt again. And we are going to go on the bougiest, best birth vacation. Gosh, because we're going to be able to put at least$1 ,000 shorted a month if you want. You can change that too.

15:09Soraya:I'm going to say too, that when you first came on here, you made a comment that stuck with me and I'm going to release that shame a little bit because you said we don't make as much as some people, but I feel like we don't have a lot of debt. So that makes up for it. It's never been about how much you make. It has always been about how people spend it. Girl, we've had people come in with$40 ,000 a month's income and all of it is gone for $6 ,000 of it is towards debt, right? And it doesn't, that doesn't matter. The income doesn't matter. What matters is that you are being such a good steward of the income that you have, and it is enough.

15:41Soraya:Look at your budget. You're covering all of your bases. It's enough for your family. So it doesn't matter. Don't try to compare yourself to whatever other people have and what their numbers look like. Your numbers are fantastic. You're saving over$1 ,000 a month already. All of your buckets are covered. Your spending accounts are covered. You're putting an extra$700 and something dollars on debt. That's awesome. On top of the$400 and something dollar payment that you're making, you're doing great. So don't worry about how much you're making. It is working for you and your family. And like Shana said, in six months to a year, however fast you decide to pay off that RV, you're going to have that much extra back in your budget that you can do so much more with.

16:17Soraya:So it's really good. Y 'all are doing awesome. We do want to get a new car because the one that we have, it's fine, but we have three kids and I feel like it's a little bit tight for all of us. So we do want to get a new car eventually, but not yet. But after the RV is paid off, then we might consider it. but yeah yes i just needed somebody to tell me that i'm doing you're doing great you're doing an awesome job awesome fantastic very proud wonderful and then the only other thing is maybe you're already doing it setting aside money for the future in one of your checks or at your works or yeah yes i actually just that before i think it's been about a month now i've been a contractor with this company for about four years and then i finally transitioned over to a full-time employee.

17:02So then now I can actually have benefits. Okay. So yes, I haven't set it up yet, but I do want to contribute into a 401k too.

17:10Soraya:Yeah. Okay. At least do the match if you want to start there. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that would be really, that would be the only other thing that you, you're already there. You're already all of the, you've hit all of the to-do list and you're really young. So that's fantastic. But I would just add that and make sure you add that in there once, maybe once you're done with that or somewhere in the middle, just so that It's another no brainer, like your savings book. It's like, we're just doing this and we're prepared. And then all done. A plus gold stars. Yeah. Yeah. So I will buy your template.

17:41I have a lot of templates that I get off Etsy.

17:44Soraya:Yeah. I use them for a month or two and I just kind of. That's why they're like$15. Yeah. I'm just saying, girl, we tried. Yeah. We went to Etsy. We did. We were like going to partner with somebody that had already done all this. And then we saw them and we were like, absolutely not. And so we ended up having to come up with our own. And I think that it speaks for itself. And the reason why you get the downloads and you get all the updates and the course and all the information that comes with it definitely sets itself apart. And it's a system. It's not just a budget. The thing that I like about it the most is it creates your next month's budget automatically from when you do the one, the next month is already there populated, which you can edit it.

18:20But that's really important. Sometimes it feels like you're just recreating the wheel every time. And that's maybe a little barrier. It doesn't take much for me to not want to do something. You know what I mean? Like, and just that little barrier sometimes would keep me from doing it, but it's there. It's already there. And all I have to do is adjust the electricity or maybe within your case, the extra on debt that I'm going to do or whatever. And that's it. Cause it's already there. And I feel like, and then I can just check stuff off. So then I feel really good about my life. I'm so good at things.