https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sun, 26 Jul 2026 05:36:09 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-723113 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:32:52 +0000 PurplePumps 723113@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our accounts are always growing, both the savings and checking. We put most toward retirement accounts and savings accounts, but leave a generous amount in checking also, which gets wiped out by periodic big expenses like house projects or vacations. Last month the checking account had grown to almost 10k, this month after paying taxes, some home repair and for a vacation, it's been knocked down to 3k, which will be just enough to pay the mortgage next month, but luckily we get paid this week so we're still ahead. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-723016 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:52:08 +0000 mrsjyw 723016@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yep, we have a comfortable savings, and we are a month ahead as far as daily/monthly expenses go-- we charge and pay off monthly and are ahead. </p> <p>It feels so good to say that!!! (Def a change from my first job/single days) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-723013 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:51:21 +0000 thismustbetheplace 723013@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We use YNAB and are at least a month ahead, plus built up an emergency fund. It took some persistance: we work hard but don't make very much due to DH being in grad school, but we did it. DH does all of the expense tracking and we are good about not spending on things we don't need. We've been using YNAB since 2008 and it took us at least a few years to get this far ahead. Stick with it! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722991 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:46:11 +0000 ShootingStar 722991@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We kind of live fake paycheck to paycheck. I use the money that comes in from each paycheck to pay the upcoming bills. Every so often I take a look and make sure there's enough there for the upcoming bills, and then I transfer the rest (minus a $250 buffer) to savings. We have enough in savings that we can cover all our bills for a while, but I like for savings to be slightly less accessible. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722960 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:40:02 +0000 JoyfulKiwi 722960@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I put other, because we kind of do. We both only get paid once a month, at the end of the month. Our deposits go in around the 30th, so that's the money we use for the next month. (So, March 29th's paycheck is paying for April's bills). But I don't know if that really counts, because if we got paid once a month at the beginning of the month, we'd use that money for the rest of the month.</p> <p>We had/have YNAB and I really liked it as a system for keeping track of our bills/expenses &amp; budgeting. But I'm not a great money person - every month I'd have a breakdown about how we are poor and will never have enough money to do XYZ (buy a house, have a kid, take a vacation). Except, we are not "poor" and do have money to save/spend, so my husband took pity on me and now does the finances. All I need to know is if I need to think twice before making a "frivolous" purchase :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722934 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:31:33 +0000 mrskc 722934@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: ah I see. I think it's better for me to just enter each transaction one by one. Right now I just collect the receipts and enter them in every couple of days. Or i just do it right away on my phone. Then when I get my cc statement, I just double check to make sure I didn't miss anything. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722883 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:10:25 +0000 pui 722883@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We live on many past months income. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722879 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:09:19 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 722879@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrskc: it's not automatic imports like Mint... you still have to download the file from your credit card accounts, and manually import it into YNAB... but yes, it still makes it less tedious than manually inputting everything all the time! i was reading on the site that they intentionally made it this way so you're more accountable.</p> <p>since i check my accounts almost every day its not tedious for me to manually input 2-3 transactions per day so i don't mind doing it that way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722874 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:07:28 +0000 Raindrop 722874@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Bookworm: That's what we do too. ^_^ We also put a lot of our extra money into our mortgage after building a pretty good savings account. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722857 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:01:45 +0000 looch 722857@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bluestriped bee: hmmm, does it make a huge difference? Let's put it this way, if either my husband or I didn't get a paycheck this month, we could pay for our expenses. </p> <p>So I guess that makes it last month? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722855 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:01:26 +0000 mrskc 722855@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: whoa I didn't know you could do automatic imports. I've been doing it all manually, but I think that's better for me. </p> <p>Yes, we have last months pay in our checking acct and we have a hefty savings as well. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722843 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:57:51 +0000 BSB 722843@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: Oh, I'm just saying when you pay for your rent or mortgage each month or other expenses, is it coming from this month's income or last month's income?</p> <p>One day, I would love to live on last month's income and bank that month. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722834 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:55:25 +0000 looch 722834@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I am not sure how to answer the question...do you mean if we spend more than we take in per month?</p> <p>Sometimes we do and it can not be avoided, but we have savings to cover that (apart from our emergency fund). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722814 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:50:58 +0000 Bookish 722814@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No, we don't live paycheck to paycheck but we do live off the month's salary, if that makes sense. All the 'extra' money goes into savings, so our checking account can look kinda paltry after we pay the mortgage at the end of the month lol! I do think we do a great job of managing our money, it just makes more sense for us if we keep it out of our checking account. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722810 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:49:57 +0000 BSB 722810@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs. High Heels: Ahhh, that's a good idea. I should give YNAB another try and not do the automatic bank imports! Thanks! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722809 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:49:56 +0000 HLK208 722809@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>No. We aren't there yet. We are cutting back on unnecessary expenses though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722803 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:49:13 +0000 Mrs. High Heels 722803@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, now we are! But only after we started using Ynab. It has been an amazing source of accountability for us. I had trouble reconciling at first too, but now all my numbers match whew!</p> <p>I prefer to manually reconcile by inputting my transactions in vs. downloading so I login to all my spending accounts at least once per day or every other day. It keeps me aware of my spending too. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722796 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:47:38 +0000 autumnlove 722796@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yes, we have a few months worth of savings tucked away. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722791 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:46:22 +0000 .twist. 722791@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@bluestriped bee: Yea, we have 2 separate savings accounts. A tax free saving account (high interest) and a general high interest saving account. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722789 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:52 +0000 BSB 722789@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Meltini: Way to go! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722788 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:42 +0000 chopsuey 722788@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Currently we have 6 months worth of living expenses in our checking acct. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722787 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:17 +0000 Meltini 722787@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>In our checking account, yes, but we always have a few months in savings. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722786 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:45:09 +0000 BSB 722786@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@.twist.: Yeah, we have money saved up (savings and investment accounts) but the money (income) that comes in each month is mostly used that month for expenses. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722773 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:42:32 +0000 .twist. 722773@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have about 3 or 4 months worth of income (at least?) in our bank account.<br /> ETA: it's taken us a long time to get here though. I have been on a pretty strict budget for yeeeeeeears. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/do-you-live-on-last-months-income#post-722764 Wed, 17 Apr 2013 12:39:12 +0000 BSB 722764@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We are getting there but not quite living on last month's income. I hope to get there one day. We are saving money each month and we usually aren't paycheck to paycheck. Although, in the past we have been skirting by. </p> <p>I should start using YNAB (you need a budget) software/app again to get me to my goal quicker. YNAB can really help you get out of the paycheck to paycheck situation. I didn't stick with it long enough plus I had some accounting issues that didn't make the software add up.</p> <p>ETA: We do have a savings and investment accounts that we could rely on if something big happens but our income each month usually goes towards that month's expenses. </p>