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
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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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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.
Read more about fortnightly pay and monthly bills -
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.
Read more about smoothing bills across pay cycles -
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.
Read more about local-first and cloud budgeting apps -
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.
Read more about one-time purchase and subscription pricing -
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.
Read more about setting up a payday budget
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