Getting Paid Once a Month Is Like My Own Personal Lent
My entire career I have been paid bi-weekly. It was nice and dependable. Made budgeting and planning quite easy. All those bills due at the start of the month? No problem, there was always a paycheck lurking nearby either a few days before or after. Nothing to worry about.
For some reason, I thought everyone got paid bi-weekly. Or for those truly crazy folks, the 15th and 30th of each month.
Then I moved to Smallville and took a position with a research group at Pleasant U. Now my paycheck only arrives once a month, on the last business day of the month.
Life, why art thou so cruel and mysterious? Is it a research institute thing? A non-profit thing? A university thing? An academic thing? A Smallville thing?
Girlfriendy, at her job at Researchtopia, gets paid monthly as well. And, she says when she starts her GTF (Graduate Teaching Fellowship) her stipend will be making monthly appearances only.
Because of this financial turn of events, the last week of the month has turned into a frakkin’ Austerity Festival around our house. We’re running on fumes and concocting all sorts of creative meals from whatever is left in the kitchen. Beans? Awesome. Rice? Tastes like chicken. Canned pasta sauce? Goes with everything.
I have been fantasizing about what we’re going to buy next week at Costco…
The thing is, when I work the numbers we shouldn’t be cutting it so close. We shouldn’t be feeling like we live paycheck to paycheck. I guess my budgeting technique needs an overhaul. Three days until we move. Two days until I get paid!