Unexpected Shortfall?

Every week my husband's unemployment check arrives (direct deposit) on Tuesday morning. Every other week my paycheck arrives on Saturday. Except... when it doesn't. This past Monday, being Memorial Day, slowed things down and so the check did not arrive in the account until Wednesday morning. Not a big deal except when the bills need to go out Tuesday night.
We have several items that come due yearly; others need to be paid quarterly; still others bi-weekly or weekly. In all honesty, it's tough to keep straight. If the money coming in greatly exceeds the finances being paid out it may not be such a big deal. In our case it's pretty much 50/50 on a good day. When only 1 of us is gainfully employed the ratio sways in an unfortunate direction.  Throw in a late pay check or unemployment check and if it doesn't spell disaster, it spells "serious meltdown" on my part (since I am the one sitting down to pay the bills). That's where serious budgeting comes in. Every long term bill or significant bill gets budgeted every time I get a paycheck. Long term bills are any bills that get paid quarterly, semi-annually, or yearly. Significant bills are anything big (such as the phone) or potentially (relatively) unpredictable such as the credit card.
Budgeting is easy. For each bill, figure out how much the bill will be when it is due; divide by the number of weeks or paychecks until the bill is due and place that much into the designated account each time you get paid. We have a dedicated savings account just for these bills. In addition, I keep a notebook with a breakdown of how much money is currently allocated to each bill. We also have a section titled "undesignated". It would be fun if this section could be available as extra money for an upcoming vacation. Instead, for us, it is extra money in case one of the car breaks down or the well pump dies. In this way, even though we know we have X amount of dollars in the account, we also know how much of that is available to each bill. Here is a link to my sample budgeting form. https://www.dropbox.com/s/owzsq6izpl8zlaz/Sample%20budgeting%20book.xlsx
Knowing how much money we have; saving all year long for those long term bills; takes much of the pressure and anxiety off when one of the checks is delayed. It doesn't solve all our money woes, but it's easier for me to see in black and white, and it also keeps us in the black more than the red.
I hope this is helpful for you.