Budgeting by pay period: why to align your month with payday
AmanaFi team · Updated · 1 min read
If your salary lands on the 25th, your budget month starts on the 25th and ends on the 24th of the next month. Aligning the budget with pay rather than the calendar removes artificial month-ends.
The problem with the calendar month
With pay on the 25th, by the 1st you are already six days into spending with no new income. Calendar tables then show a deficit early in the month and a surplus late in the month that do not really exist.
How to do it
Pick the day income really arrives, and count each period from that day to the day before the next one.
- Enter the payday in your settings.
- Attach each expense to the period it falls in.
- Compare pay periods with each other, not calendar months.
Special cases
If your income arrives on varying dates, take the most frequent one. If payday falls on a day that does not exist in a short month, use the last day of that month. AmanaFi handles this automatically when tracking your money left to live on.
Frequently asked
What if my salary arrives on different dates each month?
Choose the most frequent date as the start of the period, and correct it if your employer changes its payroll calendar.
Put it into practice with AmanaFi
Period budget, projects, debts and loans, zakat: free, on mobile.
Open the app