I'm tackling a problem with budgeting in that I'm unsure if I should be making a budget from my weekly/monthly/yearly expenses and income. My income is paid bi-weekly on Friday but I have rent and other expenses on the 1st of the month.
If I look at a 4 week period for my expenses and income it could be drastically different depending on the 4 week period. I have the same problem if I look at multiple 1 month periods.
I've included some simple math examples below pretending that my income is $150 every pay period and my rent is $100 on the 1st of the month.
4 week periods | Jan 3-30 2021 | Jan 31-Feb 27 |
---|---|---|
# of Bi-weekly payments | 2 | 2 |
# of rent payments | 0 | 1 |
Leftover Money | $300 | $200 |
1 Month periods | Jan 1-31 2021 | Feb 1-November 28 |
---|---|---|
# of Bi-weekly payments | 3 | 2 |
# of rent payments | 1 | 1 |
Leftover Money | $350 | $200 |
My leftover money is totally different in many of those examples. Should I use data from a longer period of time like 8 weeks/2 months? I'm using excel and like to use exact figures so averaging income/expenses doesn't really reflect what's happening in my bank account. I could theoretically do a years worth of past data but that's seems a tad excessive because my income changes quite a lot month to month and will change a lot for the foreseable future.