The Month-End Effect.

The streets are busier. Traffic slows to a crawl. Parking becomes a quest for the Holy Grail. Pavements are congested with shoppers. Taxis and buses carry as many packages as passengers. Lines at banks and fast-food outlets are longer. Barbershops and hairdressers are filled, and even the regulars must wait their turn. Men are at bars buying “rounds” and women are shopping. Mostly. Pick-pocketing, acts of violence and vehicular accidents increase in occurrence. It isn’t just Friday. It’s the Month-End.

The PayDay is the modern market-day. The rewards of labour are ours to spend as we wish, if we have any left after paying our bills. However, life is short, and bills will keep coming, so we might as well spend something on ourselves, just to keep motivated. “We work to live, not live to work” is the rationale of many month-end spenders. While a valid point, it is no excuse to succumb to the undisciplined binge-spending that leaves us awaiting the next paycheck for three weeks of the month. Life happens. School outings, a leaking faucet or a faulty electrical outlet, a doctor’s bill; any of these can suddenly become an expense we didn’t budget for. We may have a friend who can lend us a few hundred dollars until month’s end, but then what?

We start the next month a few hundred dollars in debt, or begin to avoid certain people. A strange car or unknown cell-phone number makes the heart beat more quickly. We hold our breaths. We peek from behind the curtains. We tell our children to say their parents are unavailable. Our credit and/or reputation may suffer another blow. By the month’s end we need a break, so we have a drink, or pamper ourselves, or buy the kids something for “helping Mummy or Daddy with the phone-calls”. The cycle continues.

I spent years wondering if I was being paid in ice. Money never lasted long enough to prove it existed at all. I realized money wasn’t the problem, my management of my money was. If you cannot manage a dollar, you cannot manage a thousand. Simply and honestly, I think it is better to have none than to be in debt. Instead of arranging standing orders with the bank for the day after payday, I staggered them throughout the month. It meant I always had a few dollars for incidental or miscellaneous spending. I had no more money than before, but I knew I had to leave some in the account to pay the next week’s bill so I was broken, but not owing. I became more disciplined…Eventually.

Now, I prefer to spend $100 a week on a few beers with friends as opposed to spending hundreds on a big tab, then heading to a club to buy drinks for people I hadn’t seen since last the month-end. Yes, I partied like that. Some people indulge themselves with shopping, or their cars, or gambling. I partied. We call them Vices, but a little indulgence can go a long way. What i suggest, rather, is to indulge yourself with moderation, on a regular basis and you will be less likely to go overboard than if you wait too long to de-stress. If I missed one “beer night” it was okay, because I knew I could do another the next week. The Month-End was just another Week-End. There was no need to go through the hectic errand session when everyone else did. I could avoid the Month-End Effect entirely, just by staggering my payments and errands, and taking the odd hour or two to indulge myself in a venting session. Note that I said stagger and indulge, NOT indulge until you stagger.

Staggering had another consequence: I could see my money. I might actually watch it dwindle to nothing, but I was getting to see it. I might even see some of one month’s money meet the next month’s money. It can be a beautiful thing. If an incidental expense came up, I could adjust my indulgence spending. Having a regular system of indulgence meant that it didn’t bother me if I had to skip a session or two. The smallest efforts add up. A dripping faucet can fill buckets.

A banker once pointed out that Wednesday midmorning was the slowest point in the work-week. I now bank on Wednesdays. Friday was the barber’s busiest. I go on Thursdays. A nurse told me the month-end had the most automobile accidents. It could be that there are more people on the roads, or that more were drinking. I can’t say for certain, but now you’ll see me a few days before, or after, the Month-End Effect. Remember: less time stressed is less time needed to de-stress.