Unequal semi monthly envelope amounts?

1

I looked for an answer but I’m not exactly sure how to ask this. Apologies if a thread is out there already.

I want to set up my budget to be semi-monthly to coincide with my paychecks. I know it’s recommended, and I believe it would give a more accurate view of how much is in the envelopes.

My budget differs from the first half of the month to the second. For example, my kids’ tuition hits on the 1st of the month. Therefore I use my first paycheck for that, and for my second paycheck I have more to spend on bills or save.

It looks like I can only have the exact same amount in each pay period for a given envelope. Do I need to figure out how to split all of my expenses down the middle and try to cover half in each paycheck, or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

2

I budget monthly because that is the period of all the big expenses (mortgage, utilities, etc). That said, if your budget period is semimonthly, you can still set up a monthly envelope for Tuition and fill it from your first paycheck, then fill your other envelopes from your next paycheck. It’s always easier to match an envelope to the period of the expense. I have a quarterly envelope for my HOA dues which I add to every month but only pay from every three months.

1 Like
3

Adding on to the above, your Fills and your Budget don’t need to coincide. In your case, I would create a separate Fill for each of the checks, with the first one covering those early-month expenses and the second one covering the later ones. Once the tuition is paid, you know you don’t need to put any more money in that envelope until the next month, and a scheduled Fill can take care of that automatically. Does that help?

1 Like
4

Thanks @kschedler! I may be losing my mind but I swear I didn’t see a “Monthly” option for envelopes. It stood out to me as strange because I wanted to use it. Will definitely be using that now.

5

Thanks @Tiffany! I was thinking that about fills and budget but it wasn’t clicking for me. A separate fill for each of the checks plus the monthly envelope options I couldn’t find are a big help.