What is your comfort zone between paydays? How much do you typically have after the bills are paid for gas groceries and spending money?

When I was married the first time and had lots more money to budget with I kept at least $200 in the account between my weekly paychecks. Now I am lucky to have $20. My comfort zone is $100 but I have only one payday a month that I can do that. This week I had $3.39 for gas groceries and spending from last Friday until this Friday. Typically DH gives me some bill money but he has not been working (he is rebuilding our rental property and paying laborers out of our savings.) He had to cut me a "paycheck" for cleaning services so that I would have gas and food money.

If we weren't debt free (except for the monthly utility and living expense type bills) I would be in a panic.

I keep $500 in a savings account that my CU will transfer to my checking if I happen to go over. Its a comfort to have it there if something does come up. I will do the transfer myself to avoid the service charge to auto transfer. Our paychecks get spent systematically #1 goes to car and insurance, #2 goes to gas bill, student loan, phone bills and then I take my checking down to $150-$200 and throw everything I can at the credit card, #3 and #4 and the ocasional #5 stays in checking so I can build up enough to handle the morgage payment. Normally this works with out a hitch every other month it is a little harder because of the utility bill that is billed on odd months.

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

We are working on building up 6 months of income in our savings. It is going to take a while We always have atleast $500 to dip into if something comes up on top of everything else. Which I had to do this month, and when I do use it, I replace it the next pay period. But on average we have from 300-600 left in checking after all bills are paid. We are lucky, our paychecks come on seperate days. So, we are both paid bi-weekly, but not on the same exact days, this helps spread it all out KWIM?

I have a $2K EF, but it's for emergencies only, things like a major car repair or whatever. i do not touch it for "normal" monthly expenses.

In my checking account I have $100 hidden... so if my check register says I have $2, I really have $102. Since I've started this I've never had to dip into that $100 but it's nice to know it's there. Right now I have about $400 (really $500), but that's only because we have had 2 yard sales in the past 2 months so that is really my grocery budget that I haven't used because we've been using the cash from the yard sale for that. Normally I never get below $100 (really $200), but it was a long time coming. I used to be down to a few dollars in the past and just didn't like that feeling so cut some corners for a bit and built that cushion higher.

Ideally, about $200.00, but that isn't always possible.

I panic when we get under $500. but lately its been like $200 at the most since he switched hours and his check was cut about $500. We have about 1500. in savings if we need it. DH has a 401K but we never mess with that. I want to get back to spending less--when I was on my own I might be lucky to have $20 from paycheck to paycheck.

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We cut ours rather close too. We get paid twice a month, I pay whatever bills I need to right away, get groceries and usually after that have about $75 (or so) for my gas, extras and our entertainment for two weeks.

I would like it to be more cahs on hand, but DH stuffs a lot of his check into his work stock program. I would rather have him do that knowing that we can always cancel the programs if we need to, rather than have him give it up for the "just in case" or "extra cash on hand" now.

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We have $200 every two weeks (savings and emergency fund) and around $150 until the next pay. We are paying $900 on our credit card right now which will be paid in December. We choose to suffer now that way we can have fun later (ha ha ha I hope) I worry about it every now and then but I guess if the bills are paid what the heck. We got groceries, Dh got his allowance, besides that money will be sitting in the checking until the next pay.