The payday budgeting method: a complete guide
What it means to budget by pay cycle instead of by calendar month, why the maths is simpler, and how to run it with two bank accounts.
Read more about the payday budgeting method
Blog
Budgeting, one pay cycle at a time
Plain-English writing about budgeting by pay cycle: the set-aside method, what fortnightly pay does to monthly bills, and how budgeting apps handle your money data. No jargon, real numbers.
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Moving from a budgeting spreadsheet to an app
A spreadsheet is free, private and as flexible as you make it. Where it quietly slips on fortnightly pay, when it is the better answer, and what switching involves.
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Budgeting together: two incomes, two pay cycles
One person paid fortnightly, the other monthly, one set of shared bills. Working out each share as a yearly figure so the joint account stays covered.
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What to do when a bill changes mid-year
A price rise changes one line of a payday budget, not the whole thing. Recalculating that bill, and closing the gap that has already opened.
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How big should your bills buffer be?
Most of the balance in a bills account is already claimed by upcoming bills. A real buffer sits on top, sized to how far your own bills can run late or over.
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Saving for Christmas and back to school
The two predictable spikes that no invoice announces. Give each a figure and smooth it across your paydays, the same way you smooth the power bill.
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Where debt repayment sits in the set-aside order
Minimum repayments are bills and get smoothed like any other. Anything above the minimum is a choice made from the leftover, not the set-aside.
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Budgeting on casual or irregular income
Why the set-aside is driven by your bills rather than your pay, and how to size the plan against a lean fortnight instead of an average one.
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Budgeting on Centrelink payments
Centrelink pays fortnightly, so the set-aside method fits it with no adaptation. A worked fortnight, converting each bill to a per-fortnight amount.
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Why monthly budgets do not fit fortnightly pay
Twenty-six paydays against twelve billing months, the two months a year that carry a third payday, and what that mismatch actually costs.
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How to smooth big bills across your pay cycles
Turning a yearly registration or a quarterly power bill into a per-payday number, and where that money should sit until the bill lands.
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How much should be left over each payday?
Why the honest answer is a calculation rather than a percentage, and how to work out your own number from bills you already know.
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Choosing a budgeting app in Australia: what to compare
Five things worth comparing before you commit, from what the pricing actually funds to whether the app understands fortnightly pay.
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Local-first or cloud: where your money data lives
What a bank feed actually grants access to, what open banking changed, and the trade-off between convenience and holding your own data.
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One-time purchase or subscription: the five-year maths
What a monthly app fee adds up to over five years, and the questions worth asking before a budgeting tool becomes a recurring bill.
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Setting up a payday budget: a worked example
One fortnightly income, eleven real bills and a savings goal, worked from a blank page to a finished set-aside number.
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