Monthly budget, bi-weekly paycheck

[hamchan]

That's not what you said here.

The concept of living paycheck to paycheck is that you pay the total bill amount with a specific paycheck. Dividing the amount over all your paychecks gives you more control in the long run, and you aren't worried about whether or not the paycheck is big enough. No offense, but your method seems unorganized, lackadaisical, and prone to mistake.

What I said is that certain checks go to pay certain bills depending on the time of the month and what is coming due. Not that there is nothing left over after they are paid, which is what living paycheck to paycheck means. My method may seem unorganized to you, but your method seems needlessly complicated to me. I have never not had enough to pay a bill when it was due because our total monthly income is significantly more than our total monthly expenses are.

What you quoted was also just an oversimplified example, as I already said. In reality we get at least one paycheck every Friday, plus two more on the 15th and 30th of every month, and I take home cash every week as well from my work. The last two paychecks in any given month go towards rent, and there is always a buffer in the checking account, money in the savings account, and in the absolute worst case scenario we have a line of credit for overdraft protection which has never been dipped into because of a mistake.