How do people not remember or care that it's payday?

[MgoSam]

At 19 I had not yet discovered the joys of saving but I definitely knew that I did not need to spend lots on money to be happy!

That's the first step....

[LiveLean]

I've been self-employed since the end of 1998. That's the last time "payday" meant anything to me. I'm a 1099 and LLC mercenary with most all income, including main-gig income, rental income, royalties, and side business income, coming via direct deposit. Every few days I'll log in to see what arrived and what, if anything, is lagging behind. 

[lemanfan]

I seldom miss payday.  I'm the one making the bank transfer at the office for all employees. :)

But even personally, it has two meanings for me:

- First I just enjoy making my monthly investments

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

[Alternatepriorities]

Several years back the company I worked for announced they were changing from a biweekly pay period to a weekly one. I thought, "great I'll be able to get an extra week of returns on 1/2 my money." I was shocked when several coworkers complained about the change. The concern was that if the money was "their's" a week earlier it would be spent before their bills came in!

[FatCat]

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

I had no idea why restaurants were so packed on Fridays for many years. I thought people were just celebrating that it's the weekend. Or we just had some weird cultural quirk about wanting to eat out on Fridays. I found out much later that it's because they got their paychecks Fridays. I felt kind of dumb for not understanding it sooner.

Even if I was living paycheck to paycheck, I would wait until Monday - Thursday to go out to eat. You don't have to wait for a table, the service is better, and there is usually some discount or special offer that doesn't apply on Fridays and Saturdays.

Another weird thing is people not getting a reservation on Friday. If decide to go out on a Friday anyway, I call before I get in the car and ask for a reservation for as soon as possible. When I arrive I usually just walk around the mob of people waiting at the door and get seated immediately. Those people would probably be mad if they knew call ahead seating can bump you to the front of the line.

[Cecil]

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

I had no idea why restaurants were so packed on Fridays for many years. I thought people were just celebrating that it's the weekend.

I'm 31 and thought this until just now.

[KCM5]

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

I had no idea why restaurants were so packed on Fridays for many years. I thought people were just celebrating that it's the weekend.

I'm 31 and thought this until just now.

Wait, what? I was a waitress for years in high school/college and this never even occurred to me. Mustachian before I even understood the game, I guess.

[Marus]

I might get facepunched for this one...When I was just out of school I basically didn't pay any attention to my paycheck or payday.  I had about 10 grand in the bank and I had enough of a sense of my expenses that I didn't feel like I needed to ever know what the exact balance was or how much I was saving.  I just had a bit of a "money comes, money goes" attitude. 

No regrets!  But I'm very glad I'm more money conscious now :)

[lemanfan]

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

I had no idea why restaurants were so packed on Fridays for many years.

In my neck of the woods (the kingdom of Sweden), most people get monthly salaries, and most of those on the 25th.  This means that one Friday each month is extra crowded.   Actually, even McDonalds have longer lines for lunch of the 25th.

I guess it could be called antimustachian but some friends and I almost always go to the same resturant ever friday night, mentally checking out of the work week by having a steak and a beer.  Tonight is this payday friday meaning that it WILL be crowded.  Usually one extra waitress, and still very stressful for the staff - but I guess they do get more tips as well.

At some bars I've even seen it taken one step further - people who've run out of money go to a bar on the 24th and open a tab which they cannot close until after midnight.  At mignight, it's the 25 and new money comes in and they can pay the tab... Not 100% mustachian, eh?

[Threshkin]

At 19 I had not yet discovered the joys of saving but I definitely knew that I did not need to spend lots on money to be happy!

That's the first step....

....Not too long after that I bought my first car.  I quickly discovered that it was expensive in three ways, 1) Paying for the car itself, 2) Ongoing expenses (gas, insurance, maintenance), and the worst of all 3) Having the ability to go places where you can spend money!

I managed to stay debt adverse but it took me a long time to get over #3.

[MgoSam]

At 19 I had not yet discovered the joys of saving but I definitely knew that I did not need to spend lots on money to be happy!

That's the first step....

....Not too long after that I bought my first car.  I quickly discovered that it was expensive in three ways, 1) Paying for the car itself, 2) Ongoing expenses (gas, insurance, maintenance), and the worst of all 3) Having the ability to go places where you can spend money!

I managed to stay debt adverse but it took me a long time to get over #3.

Yeah, that's my biggest concern. I love doing things, but hate activities that cost a ton of money. Thankfully I have friends that enjoy doing things that don't cost too much.

[Scubanewbie]

I had to go check it out.  Nope, not payday today.  My ridiculously large mileage check cleared though.  $1,300 in cold hard cash, which will immediately go into the car replacement fund as is only proper considering the number of miles work is making me put on my honda civic with a 200K+ odometer.  Based on MMM calculations, over the lifetime of the car my car costs about $0.30/mile so the $0.56/mile isn't too shabby.

[Syonyk]

Mileage reimbursement is nice if you run a cheap vehicle.

I worked for a while at a small IT company, and rode a late 70s motorcycle everywhere.  Cost me around $0.05/mi in fuel, and since I did all the work on it myself, it was fairly cheap to run in terms of money as well (pretty expensive in terms of my hours, but... it wasn't like I had anything else to do with my evenings, and it beat sitting inside in the cold - this was during the "I can't justify heating the house except to keep pipes from freezing" part of my life, which I'd add my ferrets *loved*).

For what it's worth, a lot of our customers thought it was cool as hell that their IT guy showed up on a motorcycle in a leather jacket. :)

One particular paycheck, I'd had to make a few ~100 mile round trip runs to a remote office.  As the guy doing the paychecks was looking over that, he asked, "You took your motorcycle for all these trips, didn't you?"  Me: "Yup."  Him: "You're really making out on this mileage reimbursement, aren't you?"  Me: "Yup."  I ate well that week! :D

[nobodyspecial]

Non-mustachian colleagues at a previous job who ran out of money at the end of the month would arrange a meeting at our other plant 300miles away to get the mileage - because expenses were paid in cash.

[MrStash2000]

I watch payday now more than ever. I love to see the net worth numbers rise.

It is like ringing the cash register.

[Left]

I never know when it is pay day, I don't even know how much I have in the bank outside of it is enough until whenever I get paid next but I don't know when that is

[pancakes]

I know when pay day is because I love looking at my bank balance after it haha. We get paid monthly so it is a nice chunk all at once.

I also know exactly when pay day is down to the second because the person who sits next to me refreshes their browser constantly and then 10 minutes after announcing that our pays have gone arrived, they announce that they've nothing left.

[Left]

I also know exactly when pay day is down to the second because the person who sits next to me refreshes their browser constantly and then 10 minutes after announcing that our pays have gone arrived, they announce that they've nothing left.

yes and then they run down to vending machine and buys a "reward" right?

[libertarian4321]

I am not living paycheck to paycheck, but I love payday. I can't imagine ever not loving payday. Who doesn't like to see their balances go up?

When I was young, first earning my massive pay as a 2LT in the Army after growing up lower middle class, I paid attention every month, counted every penny.

But at some point, after I had saved and invested for years, my "paycheck" became nothing more than a secondary source of income. 

Once you get to the point where you can gain or "lose" thousands a day on your investments due to normal market fluctuations, it gets a bit hard to be "excited" about your pay check.

So I haven't paid attention to my pay check in years, probably not for well over a decade.  When I get my bank statement, I'll usually check to see that it has been deposited, and that's about it.  Every few months, when the account balance gets ridiculously high, I'll go online and move the money from that extremely low interest bank account into something that pays a bit more.

We get paid every 2 weeks (26 times per year).  The checks, apparently, get deposited a day or two later.  When people at work occasionally ask me "if we've been paid yet," I tend to give them a blank stare-  How the Hell would I know?

[libertarian4321]

Actually, I want to completely amend my last comment.

I DO CARE when "pay day" occurs.

Not my pay day, that's irrelevant.

But I do care when GOVERNMENT CHECKS ("pay day") get mailed out and AFDC/Food Stamps/SNAP (or whatever the Hell they call it now)- because that means it will be a mad house at the bank, Walmart, the grocery store, liquor stores, etc.

A good day to stay the heck away from any retail establishment where the welfare types go to spend their gubmint check. 

I made the mistake of going to the bank to cash a small check a month or two back (I physically go into a bank maybe once a year), without realizing it was the day after the government checks went out. 

Holy cow, it looked like a bread line in Moscow circa 1983.

I won't make that mistake again.

[zephyr911]

You think that's bad, check out a commissary on payday. Holy fuck.

[MrStash2000]

Actually, I want to completely amend my last comment.

I DO CARE when "pay day" occurs.

Not my pay day, that's irrelevant.

But I do care when GOVERNMENT CHECKS ("pay day") get mailed out and AFDC/Food Stamps/SNAP (or whatever the Hell they call it now)- because that means it will be a mad house at the bank, Walmart, the grocery store, liquor stores, etc.

A good day to stay the heck away from any retail establishment where the welfare types go to spend their gubmint check. 

I made the mistake of going to the bank to cash a small check a month or two back (I physically go into a bank maybe once a year), without realizing it was the day after the government checks went out. 

Holy cow, it looked like a bread line in Moscow circa 1983.

I won't make that mistake again.

Don't they know that they can just take a picture of the check and send it to the bank on one of their government iPhones?

[Paul der Krake]

You think that's bad, check out a commissary on payday. Holy fuck.

In my neck of the woods, it's the post office. Savage stuff.

[Left]

You think that's bad, check out a commissary on payday. Holy fuck.

I skip that... https://www.shopmyexchange.com/ for military/former, "tax-free" shopping... not very MMM but it is an option. Or the VA gift shops too, they function like the PX. Along with the govx site for shopping too. But all these options aren't "cheap"... I just use Amazon/Ebay/Craigslist mostly but I like seeing what is out there.

I don't really notice any spikes in activity on pay day but I don't go out often to notice :S. If there is a line, I just assume it is always like that

[Daisy]

I love payday and have a recurring reminder every two weeks on my calendar to remind me.

Payday is the day I get to update my FI spreadsheet and increase the amounts in my accounts in the spreadsheet! When I'm having a slow Monday, I peek at my calendar to see if this is payday week. If it is, I get joyfully happy. I'm going on a vacation and see I will get a paycheck while on vacation, and that makes me happy to think I'm getting paid while goofing off on vacation. :-)

Don't tell anyone - but - I actually update the spreadsheet a couple of days before payday in anticipation of the great event. I tell myself I technically haven't received this money yet, but I get antsy and want to update the spreadsheet before the money hits the accounts. I should probably get some therapy for this...I'm suffering through OMY or TMY so doing this helps me get through the time to FIRE.

[sunshine]

I have a coworker that gets snippy about me not picking my checks up. I  work Thur and Fri. I'm not driving in on Monday mornings to pick it up. Every single time she hands it to me she says " Must be nice to not need the money!!!"  I never say a word but just smile.

[Rural]

You think that's bad, check out a commissary on payday. Holy fuck.

In my neck of the woods, it's the post office. Savage stuff.

 Groceries here, every Friday just after first shift gets off. Third shift, too, but the Walmart's closed when second shift gets off.

[goldensam]

I am not living paycheck to paycheck, but I love payday. I can't imagine ever not loving payday. Who doesn't like to see their balances go up?

Once you get to the point where you can gain or "lose" thousands a day on your investments due to normal market fluctuations, it gets a bit hard to be "excited" about your pay check.

I'm there, but I still love payday.

[Cookie78]

Don't tell anyone - but - I actually update the spreadsheet a couple of days before payday in anticipation of the great event. I tell myself I technically haven't received this money yet, but I get antsy and want to update the spreadsheet before the money hits the accounts. I should probably get some therapy for this...I'm suffering through OMY or TMY so doing this helps me get through the time to FIRE.

Ha! Me too! :p I know how much I'm going to get (usually). This week I had to update it a few days early just to see if I was going to be able to break 80% savings rate this month (I get paid 3 times this month and only have 4 mortgage payments). So far so good. :D

[Merrie]

I know that it's the Thursday (or possibly the Wednesday) after the pay period ends. I usually do know when the pay period ends if I think about it, because our schedules are published per pay period and usually I know when we flip from one schedule to the next, as my schedule changes all the time and I check it multiple times a week.

But typically I don't pay all that much attention, and log the payment into my spreadsheet when next I sign into my online banking, which typically I do once a week or so.

[runningthroughFIRE]

I love payday, because I'm still relatively new to my job, and I get to see how my latest auto-deduction tweaks change things.  I'm still working towards getting everything optimized for my life, and I like playing around with my options. 

I honestly couldn't tell you exactly what I have in my bank accounts, at any given time.  I could give a guess that'd be within about $1K give or take, but that's as close as I ever care to be.  I fill the appropriate accounts up when they get lower than I'm comfortable with, and when my direct deposit account gets high enough from payroll, I send a big chunk into student loans.  I do monitor the transactions in and out carefully, so I'll notice any weirdness, and that's fine with me.  I keep enough liquid to live worry-free, and if something comes up, I can make special arrangements.

[MishMash]

You think that's bad, check out a commissary on payday. Holy fuck.

In my neck of the woods, it's the post office. Savage stuff.

 Groceries here, every Friday just after first shift gets off. Third shift, too, but the Walmart's closed when second shift gets off.

Oh I experienced the worst ever, commissary on payday, case lot sale AND seafood roadshow...there was a line to get into the parking lot half a mile back from the entrance.  I hadn't been food shopping in a month, I turned around and said no Fing way, then set a reminder on my phone for when payday weekends were so I could avoid the commissary like the plague.

[MgoSam]

Actually, I want to completely amend my last comment.

I DO CARE when "pay day" occurs.

Not my pay day, that's irrelevant.

But I do care when GOVERNMENT CHECKS ("pay day") get mailed out and AFDC/Food Stamps/SNAP (or whatever the Hell they call it now)- because that means it will be a mad house at the bank, Walmart, the grocery store, liquor stores, etc.

A good day to stay the heck away from any retail establishment where the welfare types go to spend their gubmint check. 

I made the mistake of going to the bank to cash a small check a month or two back (I physically go into a bank maybe once a year), without realizing it was the day after the government checks went out. 

Holy cow, it looked like a bread line in Moscow circa 1983.

I won't make that mistake again.

Don't they know that they can just take a picture of the check and send it to the bank on one of their government iPhones?

Yeah I absolutely dislike making a run to the bank on Fridays to deposit checks because there usually is a line. They have a separate drive through lane for commercial customers, but there is usually someone already there and since commercial transactions seem to take longer than someone simply cashing in a check, I usually will opt for one of the regular lines.

I've looked into depositing by phone, it wasn't worth it. If I'm on the road and it's a single check, then I'll do so. Plus I would need to make my way to the bank anyways to deposit any loose cash. Not worth keeping them sitting in the office.

[Rollin]

One of my coworkers just walked up to me and started complaining about how she was talking to someone who forgot today was payday and how this made no sense. She explained that by the time payday comes around, she usually has like $20 left in the bank and is desperately waiting to get paid, so she could never just not remember. For some context, this woman is in her 40s, both her kids are out of the house, and she makes significantly more money than I do. But she can "never get to payday without being almost broke!" and was talking like she was extremely pissed at people who actually do that.

I just smiled and nodded because I was scared she'd punch me if I admitted to being one of those people...

If you're so smart, why does she make more money than you?
Conversely if she's so bad with money why not ask her why she's so poor if she makes more than you?  A punch may hurt for a day but you might hurt her inside for longer.

Maybe "she" has been at the job for more years, or has a degree, or a different job, or....?

[maco]

- The resturants are more crowded in the first friday with new money in peoples wallets.  Often makes me stay home instead. :)

I had no idea why restaurants were so packed on Fridays for many years. I thought people were just celebrating that it's the weekend.

I'm 31 and thought this until just now.

27, and ditto

[Reynold]

I only pay attention so I can make sure that payroll did their job and put all of my money where it's supposed to go (retirement, savings, checking). Even though I'm sure it's automated I still remember the horror of the military when they would screw up something on pay day and then I wouldn't get paid for a pay period because of their glaring error.

They are not the only ones who can mess that up; long ago, when we banked at a Savings and Loan, we were surprised to get a bounced check notice (it didn't really bounce, they had automatic transfer from savings to cover overdrafts).  I went in and followed up, and they had changed their accounting system around so my direct deposited paycheck went to our savings account instead of checking, which we kept low, because it paid no interest, so didn't have much margin.  They very nicely moved the money over, and removed the "bounced check" fee.  I then asked if this would happen again next month, and after thinking about it for a few moments, the lady said yes, it would.  So I asked her to change the entry in their system so my paychecks would go back to going into checking, which she did.  If I hadn't asked the same thing would have happened next month, sigh. . .

[lostamonkey]

I am not living paycheck to paycheck, but I love payday. I can't imagine ever not loving payday. Who doesn't like to see their balances go up?

Once you get to the point where you can gain or "lose" thousands a day on your investments due to normal market fluctuations, it gets a bit hard to be "excited" about your pay check.

I'm there, but I still love payday.

Me too. I know this is not entirely rational but I value non-investment account funds a lot more than investment-account funds. For example, I would probably be more upset losing $20 from my wallet than being down $1,000 in my investment account due to market fluctuations.

[Dicey]

Oh, this thread makes me so sad. I don't have paydays since FIRE. Okay, not sad. Okay, okay, pretty damn happy not to have an employer or a paycheck.

My thought about the woman in the original post is that perhaps she is having so much directed to savings that she might actually be living paycheck-to-paycheck, but for a good reason. Dunno, but this strategy worked for me.

[maco]

Oh, this thread makes me so sad. I don't have paydays since FIRE. Okay, not sad. Okay, okay, pretty damn happy not to have an employer or a paycheck.

My thought about the woman in the original post is that perhaps she is having so much directed to savings that she might actually be living paycheck-to-paycheck, but for a good reason. Dunno, but this strategy worked for me.

For me it's the last few days of the month that feel tight, because my budget is set up on a monthly basis.

Before I started using YNAB last year, I was definitely feeling the pinch before payday for exactly the reason you stated: after getting paid, the first thing that happened was $500 went into savings and a sizable over-payment went to paying down student loans. That eliminated any feeling that I still had money to spend, because no, I did not still have money to spend--I had it saved.

[rob in cal]

  Doing pizza delivery, every night I work is payday, as I keep all tips and delivery fees that I made on that day, and then get a paycheck for my hourly pay twice a month as well.  Its a nice steady stream of cash.

[jinga nation]

I don't keep track of payday, I don't spend above my means so I don't have to worry.
Our paperless payroll system emails pay notifications, a new feature to remind the masses to spend, baby, spend!

[dubbin(coz I'm stubborn)]

Unless you  don't worry about cash flow then it does not matter when payday is. I used to have all my expenditure lined up so I know when to transfer cash/funds if need be and would only transfer funds out of my savings/investment account if it is absolutely necessary ie bill due before I get paid. Having said that I do give myself a buffer if the pay transfer is late for any reason. Just one more tool in my financial arsenal. I use my credit card and pay it off in full each month, use the banks money every bit that stays in my wallet/account has to be good

So imho if you don't care when it's pay-day you are not utilizing the time value of money properly.It's like being a merchant and saying you don't care if your creditors are late in paying you hence losing the ability to get investment value from the outstanding amount.

[Syonyk]

Interest rates are low. I keep about a $5k minimum in checking. It's not worth it to monitor closely.

[marty998]

Knew it was pay day (yes I also like seeing balances go up). I didn't know what to do with my last paycheck (2 days ago). When you spend so long throwing cash at a mortgage and suddenly it's gone I was like a deer in the headlights. Such an idiot, I don't actually know what people do with their cash because all I've ever done is pay off the house.

"You mean, I get to choose now what to do with my money?"

Throwing it at the investment debt in order to get greater borrowing capacity seems to be the logical thing to do now.

When I was a kid, and there was still a fishing industry, there would be a line of taxis waiting for the boat, the crew would be paid-off pile into them and be taken to bars and ladies-of-negotiable-affection then deposit the same crew back at the boat 3 days later for the next trip, broke.  It was unlucky to take any money to sea so they would throw any coins left in their pockets to the kids on the shore.

A few of the lucky ones would have wives who take all the money, give them pocket money for a few drinks, and bank the rest - they ended up owning their own boats.

The taxis were taking them to the Shades of Ankh-Morpork???  :P

[BDWW]

Unless you  don't worry about cash flow then it does not matter when payday is. I used to have all my expenditure lined up so I know when to transfer cash/funds if need be and would only transfer funds out of my savings/investment account if it is absolutely necessary ie bill due before I get paid. Having said that I do give myself a buffer if the pay transfer is late for any reason. Just one more tool in my financial arsenal. I use my credit card and pay it off in full each month, use the banks money every bit that stays in my wallet/account has to be good

So imho if you don't care when it's pay-day you are not utilizing the time value of money properly.It's like being a merchant and saying you don't care if your creditors are late in paying you hence losing the ability to get investment value from the outstanding amount.

I agree with this, but I'm a bit neurotic about it too. I have what I like to refer to as input and output streams to my checking account. I know when payday is so I schedule extra mortgage payments, transfers to brokerage/investment accounts, etc. on the days after. I generally have less than $1k in my checking account at one time. I have a savings account if I screw something up, but I generally like to run close to the edge. It makes me feel like I'm extracting as much as possible from each paycheck, and prevents complacency in my spending.

[nobodyspecial]

ladies-of-negotiable-affection
The taxis were taking them to the Shades of Ankh-Morpork???  :P

Well Aberdeen - but it's very similar ;-)