When I was in the military 35 years ago people used to talk about "The dreaded Three Weekend Payday".
Paydays were the 15th and 30th. If one of those days was a Saturday or Sunday, the eagle would sh*t on Friday (in the form of a green computer punchcard). So if the 15th was Sunday, you would get paid Friday the 13th and Monday the 30th. Of course this was before ATMs, Saturday banking hours were rare and overdrafts didn't exist. A couple units I were at didn't have dining halls and one I had to live out in the economy with a housing allowance designed to be less what you paid in rent (that was changed after I left). I'm not sure how many people had to borrow money. I didn't (except when the YN1 messed up my paperwork and didn't get housing for 2 1/2 months. Naturally she got a commendation medal when she rotated out. And if I ever run into her and her equally dopey husband, I won't say hello). I did loan money to one guy and you guessed it, major problems getting it back but I did.
I am always astounded when I accidentally go to the commissary on payday. All those people are living so close to the edge financially that they run out of groceries the day before payday, and then don't have enough money to be able to shop even one or two days before they get that check. It's probably 30% busier on payday, and that's with a good number of people avoiding shopping those days. So I'd say at least 40% of the community runs things so close that they *must* shop on payday. Crazy.
I've told this tale on other threads, but I'll encore it here.
The U.S. military's pay service sends out alerts to the financial institutions, so servicemembers & families know exactly what day their pay will be electronically deposited to their account. The only unknown what
time of the day it will be deposited.
So on payday (or for some military-friendly banks, the day before) it's common to see shoppers in the commissary with full carts parked off to the side of an aisle near the cashiers. If they've timed it right then the money is in their accounts by the time they get in the cashier's line. Otherwise they're refreshing their banking apps on their smartphones to see whether the pay deposit has hit their account yet, so that they can get in line and buy the food to feed their families.
I was once at a checkout register behind a woman whose debit card was declined. She wasn't even fazed by the "insufficient funds" rebuff. She whipped out her smartphone, logged into her banking app, drew on her home equity line of credit, added money to her checking account, and then swiped her debit card again. Her proficiency and speed of execution made me suspect that she does it a lot.
We avoid grocery shopping during the three-day period centered on a military payday, especially if it's a weekend. But on a Wednesday morning in between paydays, the commissaries are nearly deserted.