Monday, June 9, 2014

The Little Big Paycheck

Typically G-man's paystub is available the day before the money actually hits the account.  So our every other Sunday "ritual" is checking the paystub so I can work on the checkbook.  He also checks our Retirement account....just to watch the number go down.  Yeah, we are exciting people.

So this paycheck was screwy.  Screwy in a bunch of ways.

First off, it was too high.  These things always scare me until we get to the bottom of it.  If there is an error, I would rather write them a check for the error and just be done.  I have always HATED when they take money from his paycheck to fix it.  I know we already had received the money, but it is just one more accounting duty.  (we will come back to this in a minute)

Upon investigating the paystub, we also noticed that he didn't get holiday pay for Memorial Day.  This has happened before and usually it gets corrected by the next paycheck.  There are so few people who actually work on standard holidays, it is easy for the mistake to sneak through.  It happens.

Then we looked at his real hours, and his travel screwed with his Sunday differential (25% extra).  Since his "work week" was considered M-F, no differential.  That makes 3 Sundays in a row that we didn't get differential (2 were due to taking vacation day).  It adds up.

Between all the Sundays off, and lesser hours at the part time job (only 4 shifts to go!), our over all income for the past 4 weeks has been close to 15% less than usual.  EEK.  I will be very happy when all the dust settles and we are back to business as usual. 

G-man also got his 3rd overtime shift approved for June, so we will see how that goes.  Two of the shifts won't get paid out until his first July check because they are later in the money.  I will share a separate post how we decided to account for this new change in cash flow.

So now back to the extra amount.  Our first thought was it had to do with his travel (even though travel is paid out separately).  No....the number doesn't match anything with travel.  The number of hours were correct (80) even if the holiday was messed up.  It wasn't like he was paid for 90 hrs or something like that.

And before I tell you....you have to realize how complicated G-man's paystub is to read.  I have gotten better at it over the years, but in the beginning, it might as well have been written in Greek.  There is almost no logical flow to the check, and backing into numbers is crazy hard.  But that's the government for you.

He e-mailed it to me, and said "I think I found it.  Check out the highlighted line."  Holy moly!  He got a $1000 cash bonus!!!!  Now, once taxes and all came out, it dropped to $631 (no, they don't do it as a separate check so they can adjust the taxes for a bonus.....this is just how it goes).  But yay him!!! 

Today he will go on a fact finding mission to find out WHY.  Yeah, wouldn't it be nice to know BEFORE we get the money, but that just doesn't happen. A bonus would have been submitted a few month ago....it goes to headquarters for approval....then it goes to payroll.....THEN they tell the office that it was approved.  He "thinks" it is from something in March, but isn't sure.  And he hasn't gotten a bonus in years, so this is a rare treat.

Of course now we are discussing the fate of this money.  He wants to "spend" it.  I want to use a small amount to spend and the rest to debt (like $500 to debt).  So for now, we put it aside until we can discuss it more.  My BFF said let's go gambling.....turn it into 120k to pay off both of our debts.  Um, yeah.....no.

So there ya go.....his little paycheck due to holiday error and travel.....and his big paycheck due to bonus.

13 comments:

  1. Thank goodness I've never really had much of a payroll error. It happened once, but with my PT job, where they shifted a spreadsheet cell, so the person in alphabetical order before you got the % bonus of the person below, and so on. I ended up with a little over $60 extra, which was deducted later. Again, no biggy at all. I had a professor that once said he joined a school and they kept delaying his checks for 1mo at a time. He said he was fine with it, but not his landlord!

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    1. The holiday error is a difference of $130 (ish) before taxes. No "biggie" since he was paid for regular time. Just that we had anticipated it on this check. Like I said, this has happened before (not frequently, but it has happened).

      I didn't use the bonus money to make up anything. It just got transferred to savings for safe keeping for the moment.

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  2. Very nice!! Congrats!! you know me and I call this found money, pretend you never got it and save it. This may sound weird but get 6 $100 bills, the power of cash is amazing! You will find it much harder to spend.

    HS

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    1. I have no problem spending $100 bills :)

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    2. Too funny.. I treasure them like there's no tomorrow lol

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  3. Thanks! Hubby will disagree with you on cash though...he has NO PROBLEM spending cash!!!

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  4. There are so many things you have said you wanted to do to your home. Pick one and put some of the money towards that - even if it is just towards a couple cans of paint or lamp or whatever. Take some money and have a date night (or a day date while the kids are at camp - it does not have to be expensive) and put the remaining towards debt or savings whichever you prefer.

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    1. You are thinking along the lines I am. There is a wall hanging we have had our eye on....and I would love to get that (about $100), and the rest toward debt.

      G-man wants to buy a patio set and fire pit!!

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  5. Since about last August, my pay has been wrong about 10 times. It is always short. I am always told I have to wait two weeks until the next pay day to have it corrected as they will not cut a cheque to correct it. This past Thursday I actually cried when I saw 12.5 hours missing. I am beyond the point of frustration. Like your husbands, the pay stub is so confusing to read it is a guessing game as to what you are actually being paid.

    As for your extra money, do not make any plans to spend it. If you were not told about a pending bonus, I would just leave it there in case it is a mistake.

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    1. I am sorry about your frustration. It only happens to us occasionally....so if it was a regular thing, I think someone would have to talk me off the ledge!

      Right now, the bonus is just in holding. Like you said...just in case there was an error (although the bonuses usually aren't an error....they just get tied up in red tape). We are NEVER told about a bonus until after the fact because headquarters has to approve it first, and that can take months. Even if you are put in for one, it may not be approved, and there is no way of knowing when it will be approved, or when it will show up! So he will ask the big boss's secretary to look into it today, and we should have an answer later this week.

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  6. My vote (as though I get one ;-)) is to split the bonus in half. Half to you/your husband for fun family/house spending, or whatever sounds right to you. Half as an investment in your future (paying off debt), so you can accelerate the time when the debt is paid off & you can add a bit more frivolity to your spending more regularly.

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  7. I giggled a little when "it was too high" scared you because that is SO me :) I like things to be predictable ;)

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