Every week for the last 6.5 years, money has “magically” appeared in our checking account every Friday (give or take a day). When my husband was working, we were both paid every other week, but on opposite weeks. While he was getting unemployment, a check came every week.

I LOVE budgeting with a weekly income. I love it. I find it to be the easiest budgeting I’ve ever done.

But now we’re in a transition phase. Unemployment is over. This is the first week there won’t be a check on Friday.

Now I make enough, as much as we used to make combined, so I know we have enough money, but now it only “appears” every two weeks, and I have to get used to that.

We are, once again, at the difference between a budget and cash flow. There is enough money in the month to pay all the bills- budget. But now I have to work to make sure the money is there at the right time- cash flow.

I really noticed this today as I was doing the cash flow projections for August. In the first 4 days of the month, we have $2,600 due in various bills. That is more than one of my paychecks. That means that I not only have to have all the money from my last paycheck of the previous month available, there still has to be money left over from the first paycheck of the month, too.

Now, September is a three paycheck month, so that will actually make it pretty easy to build in the cushion we need, but it was a bit of a shock really looking at the numbers.