My soapbox

For those of you who don’t know me- I’m an accountant (Well, a bookkeeper really but this is my blog and I can sound fancy if I want to).


I am a budgeting, coupon clipping, deal finding, checkbook balancing obsessive compulsive freak. I will give anyone and everyone my advice on what they should do with money if they talk about it in front of me. Ya, I’m one of those people. I’M SORRY, I can’t help myself.

But I do think the way I have my bills set up is a pretty nifty way to stay on track, so I decided to share my philosophy.

I get paid weekly, so I took all of my monthly bills and by due date and amount, split them out so there was approximately an equal amount to pay each week. I looked those over, round up to the next hundred and came up with a number to use as my Minimum Output Per Week.

I get paid hourly, and my MOPW ends up being approximately equal to 31 hours of work. I work 40 hours a week, give or take.

Each week I pay in bills the same exact amount, my MOPW. Any money that is left after regular bills goes to paying off debt, up to the MOPW. Any money I make over that amount is what is left for “fun money”. Sometimes I work a full week and end up with extra, and sometimes I just barely make the threshold. It doesn’t matter- I always pay out the same.

Also, I based a month on 4 paychecks and just repeat them every 4 weeks. So I end up ahead, and about once a year I get so ahead that I have an entire paycheck free. It’s awesome.

I like this system. It helps add extra money to my regular debt payments, and gives me a nice stable amount I know I need to make. It’s clean and easy and it works for me. Just thought I’d share.