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Budgeting for bills: The impact on daily spending

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  • Gilyard, Shaun

Abstract

This study investigates how consumers manage their budgets around bill payments. Using daily transaction-level data containing detailed expenditure records, I find that consumers are postponing non-bill expenditures until after a bill payment is made. I find that spending increases by 41% - 51% above average on the day of and days following a bill payment, compared to their spending before the bill payment. This behavior diminishes when consumers have sufficient liquidity before the bill payment but intensifies for individuals with longer pay cycles. Consumers making automatic bill payments do not show this behavior. These findings offer new empirical insights into how consumers adjust spending around bill payment commitments, with variation across liquidity, bill types, and pay cycles.

Suggested Citation

  • Gilyard, Shaun, 2026. "Budgeting for bills: The impact on daily spending," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jeborg:v:244:y:2026:i:c:s0167268126000818
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2026.107495
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    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • D15 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth

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