Broke Before Payday? Put Your Bills in the Right Order

If you run out of money in the days before payday, the problem is often the order your bills come out in. When several bills are collected just before you are paid, your account empties at exactly the wrong moment. The fix is to list every bill with its date, find the ones that land before payday, and ask to move them to just after it.

Here is how to do that in an evening.

Why the week before payday hurts

Picture this example. You are paid on the 28th. Your phone comes out on the 24th, your gym on the 25th and your car insurance on the 26th. Every month, three bills leave in the four days before your wages arrive. Nothing is wrong with your budget overall. The money is simply needed a few days before you have it.

Moving those three bills to the 1st would leave the same total going out, with every bill paid from money already in your account.

Step 1: Write down every bill and its date

Open your banking app and find the list of direct debits and standing orders. At NatWest, for example, it sits under Payments, then Regular payments. Then scroll through a couple of months of card transactions for subscriptions that charge your card.

For each bill, note:

• the name
• the amount
• the date it leaves your account

Our bill-tracking guide has a fuller checklist of the bills most UK households pay.

Step 2: Circle every bill that lands before payday

Sort the list by date and draw a line at your payday. Look at the bills in the week or so before that line. Those are the ones draining your account when it is lowest.

If you are paid on the last working day of the month, the date moves around a little each month, so leave a gap of a couple of days rather than cutting it fine.

Step 3: Ask to move them

The company that collects a direct debit sets its date, so the request goes to them. Some companies let you do it without a phone call:

• EE, for example, lets mobile customers open Billing in the EE app, scroll to Change your Direct Debit date and pick a new date from a dropdown. Changing the date also moves the date your bill is produced, and EE adjusts the next bill for the days in between.
• Other providers: look in their app or online account for “payment date” or “direct debit date”. If you cannot find it, call or use their chat and ask.

Standing orders are different: you set those up yourself, so you can change the date in your banking app. Which? advises giving your bank at least three working days’ notice before the next payment.

When a company changes the date or amount of a direct debit, the Direct Debit Guarantee says they should normally tell you 10 working days before the money is taken.

Step 4: Make council tax smaller each month

Council tax is usually split into 10 monthly payments, which makes each one bigger. In England you can ask your council in writing to spread it over 12 months instead. That right has been in place since 1 April 2013, and you can ask before or after your bill has been sent. Councils such as Richmond have a short online form for it.

The yearly total does not change. Each monthly payment simply gets smaller, which leaves more room in the tight week.

Step 5: Give yearly bills their own pot

Some bills arrive once a year: car insurance paid upfront, a TV licence, breakdown cover. If one of those lands just before payday, it can wipe out the month.

Add up your yearly bills, divide by 12, and move that amount into a separate savings pot each payday. When the yearly bill comes, the money is already waiting.

If you are paid every four weeks

Some jobs pay every four weeks instead of once a month. That gives you 13 paydays a year, against 12 calendar months of bills. Most months have one payday, and one month has two.

Monthly bills do not line up neatly with that. A bill on the 20th might come just after payday one month and just before it the next. Two ways to handle it:

• Ask for dates right after your earliest payday in the cycle, so bills always land after you are paid.
• Treat the extra payday as a bonus month. Use it to top up your yearly bills pot or to build a small buffer, so a bill that lands early is covered.

A before and after, as an example

Bill	Before	After
Rent	1st	1st
Phone	24th	1st
Gym	25th	1st
Car insurance	26th	1st
Council tax	15th, 10 payments	15th, 12 payments

Payday stays on the 28th. After the changes, nothing large leaves in the last days of the month, and council tax is lighter every month.

Keep the new order working

Once your dates are sorted, the risk is forgetting a new bill or a date that changes later. Keep every bill on one list, check it once a week, and set a reminder a few days before each one. A bill tracker such as Billo lets you mark your payday, shows what is due before payday and what is left after bills, and reminds you 3 days before each bill.

If you have fallen behind rather than just being short before payday, read our guide on which bills to pay first.