How do you budget w/o a consistent income?

[Fuamami]

This is driving me crazy!

My dh was laid off last fall and has been working on his own since then, and doing pretty well...most of the time. But there are a few months when he has fallen a little short. And a few months when he went over. My budget is a wreck, and we've had to use credit cards to make up the difference.

Anyone else have some strategies for dealing with this?

[yeahwhat]

One possibility is a hills and valleys account/budget. You make up your budget with all your expenses accounted for, so you know what you need to live on for a month. If you make more money than that, you throw the extra in a savings account. If you make less money, you can pull the extra from the savings account. The key to that working is being disciplined about not spending the extras. The first couple of months might be pretty bare bones if you concentrate on living on the money that comes in rather than thinking of the credit cards as available spending.

[Fuamami]

Originally Posted by yeahwhat

One possibility is a hills and valleys account/budget. You make up your budget with all your expenses accounted for, so you know what you need to live on for a month. If you make more money than that, you throw the extra in a savings account. If you make less money, you can pull the extra from the savings account. The key to that working is being disciplined about not spending the extras. The first couple of months might be pretty bare bones if you concentrate on living on the money that comes in rather than thinking of the credit cards as available spending.

That's a good idea. We barely, barely squeak by as it is, so it might take us some time to build up a reserve in savings. Right now I've been trying to pay off the credit card debt in the peak months, but am still slowly falling behind.

[Thystle]

Yep the "budget" should be the very barest of a "bare bones" budget that you need to pay each month with NO luxuries (no cable tv typoe things or kids programs) and with the lowest amount you can squeek by for food.



Then you know what you have to make each month to pay the bills and just "live". Now figure out the MINIMUM you guys make each month... the monthly average. Then you compare the two.


Then when you have more you save it for the months that you do not.



And if you are consistanly "under" and have cut out everything possible, then it is time for one or more people to find a new line of work or "more" work.

[RoadWorkAhead]

We do it based on the bare month, which for us is unemployment + SSI for DD. And I budget that. Any month we have over that, I add the other necessities like retirement, colelge savings, and regular savings as well as a small amount of fun money to placate ourselves.

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by Thystle

Yep the "budget" should be the very barest of a "bare bones" budget that you need to pay each month with NO luxuries (no cable tv typoe things or kids programs) and with the lowest amount you can squeek by for food.



Then you know what you have to make each month to pay the bills and just "live". Now figure out the MINIMUM you guys make each month... the monthly average. Then you compare the two.


Then when you have more you save it for the months that you do not.



And if you are consistanly "under" and have cut out everything possible, then it is time for one or more people to find a new line of work or "more" work.

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