My favorite uncle wrote me a few times this past week.  Yes that is right Uncle Bill sent me and my wife some notices that we owe him some money.  Money for my car, for the insurance on the car, that he needs money for the phone and utilities, as well as the credit cards that I so absentmindedly ran up before I met my wife.  Even though I really hate having to spend my hard earned money on some of those bills I do not worry about having to send the money out.

You see we have an oppurunity that most civilians do not have.  We can divvy up our paycheck into allotments that get paid on the first.  If you start an allotment for the first payment to be on 1 Oct this is what will happen:  your paycheck on the 15th of Sept will be light 1/2 the amount of the allotment.  So if you start an allotment for 1500 dollars your check on the 15th will be light 750 dollars.  Your paycheck on Oct first will also be light 750 dollars thus completing the 1500 dollar allotment.  This allotment will then be placed into the account that you designated when you set up the allotment.  Your paychecks on the 1st and 15th are then a little light but on the 1st you get your paycheck as well as the allotment amount.

So this is in my opinion the best way for a military member to pay his or her bills and what I recommend to all my junior Marines. The first thing that I did was set up an allotment for just more than my rent amount (most people’s biggest bill). This allotment is placed in one of my checking accounts on the first and I can easily pay my biggest bill on time without having to worry that I will not have enough money for the rest of my bills.

That leaves the rest of my monthly income to be deposited into my other bank on the 1st and the 15th. This way I know exactly how much I have until the next pay day. This really helps because I used to have to budget my money from the 15th to make sure I had enough for rent and everything else that I paid off with the 1st’s paycheck.

Now for the rest of my bills. I use online bill pay (through my bank not the company sites) to pay the rest of my bills. If a bill is due between the 1st and the 14th it gets paid on the first. If it is due between the 15th and the end of the month it gets paid on the 15th. This way by the 2nd or 16 I know exactly where I stand financially until the next payday.

This system has allowed my to pay all my bills on time thus saving me money by not paying late charges. Also I know how much discretionary money I have because all bills are paid early in the pay cycle and I really only have to have a money for gas and a few groceries (major grocery shopping goes on or near payday.) Now instead of living from paycheck to paycheck I routinely have about $125-175 in my account come the next payday.