Best Tip to Budgeting with Irregular Income - Adopting a Lifestyle (2024)

What if I have irregular income?? There’s no way I can budget!

Raise your hand if you’re guilty of thinking this! …. (yes, my hand is raised as well.)

Last year there was a study done of 5,000 Americans and their current financial status.

AND GUYS –44% of them stated that their expenses were more than their income.

This is almost half the population!

I just want to take you all under my wing and be like, “Hey! You don’t have to be one of these shocking statistics!”

There’s a huge myth that when you have irregular or variable income, you can’t budget.

Pretty sure the person that came up with this myth just said it because they were lazy and didn’t know how to take care of their money.

Because the truth is ….

You CAN have a budget –even if you have irregular income.

If you work for yourself
Work part time
Have side hustles
Your expenses are currently more than your income

“But, howdo I budget if I don’t even know how much I’m going to make?”

Before we begin, WHY should you budget when you have irregular income? Does it even matter?

First, I want to dip into the whole why we budget when we have irregular income (or any income for that matter).

And I’ll start with a couple of questions:

Do you like living paycheck to paycheck?

Or being stressed to the max about paying your bills and affording X, Y and Z?

There’s always that one person who thinks he’s being funny in front of the rest of the group by responding yes to the above questions, while slowly crying inside because he’s really a lost little boy and uses sarcasm as a cry for help. So even if you answered yes, I know the true deep down answer.

You’re FED UP, TIRED, STRESSED, ANNOYED … all the emotions when it comes to money.

Then why NOT budget?

Why NOT have it easy with money and stop with the stress?

A budget is a way for you to be in control which = less stress; which then = a longer lifespan.

Now that you understand the why let’s get to the how …

HERE’S YOUR #1 IRREGULAR BUDGET TIP:

Start your budget out using the least amount of income you’ve made in the last 2 years since working for yourself, going part time, starting side hustles … etc.

McKenzy – that’s waaaaaaay too simple.

Guys, budgeting is supposed to be simple and it really can be that easy!

First, get yourself a budgeting template to write it all down.

Next, you’ll start off by taking the lowest income you’ve made in the last 2 years.

Let’s say it’s $800.

That $800 is going to be the base of your budget.

From there, you’ll take that $800 and put it towards bills and needs. Any leftover will then go towards wants, extra debt payments or savings.

Pay needs first – this is utilities, mortgage, groceries, insurance, fuel, phone. (Not Netflix ..)
Evaluate what’s leftover
With whatever’s leftover pay minimum payments on any debts, then repeat step 2
Continue putting money into additional categories as needed while focusing on paying off smallest debt completely

What do I do when I make more than my base?

That’s awesome!! In your budget you’ll list in order what you’d like any extra money to go towards.

The very, very first number 1 thing you need to be saving for is your $1,000 emergency fund. Working for yourself is so rewarding but can also be inconsistent. Having that buffer of $1,000 to start out with is going to make the difference from you succeeding and being stuck living paycheck to paycheck.

For instance:

Savings for emergency fund – $200
Taco Money (Eating out money) – $125
Student Loan extra payment – $150
Personal spending cash – $100
Savings for family vaca – $50

When you make more than the $800 you can automatically put money into these categories that you had chosen. Just start at the top of your list and continue down funding each one of those.

Simple enough, right?

What if I don’t have money leftover after my base?

So maybe at the first step there’s no money leftover to make minimum payments let’s evaluate our needs and income.

Sometimes you gotta take a reeeeeeaal hard look at your needs and decide if Netflix is really THAT important. (To me, it totally is important … however, it is NOT a need.)

There’s 5 things you can do right now:

Cut out cable, Netflix, Hulu any additional subscriptions TEMPORARILY until you get back on track (we all know I can’t live without my Hulu and I don’t want you to either … but when it’s between eating and watching The Bachelor … I’ll let you make that choice)
Get additional quotes for home, auto and life insurance – you can typically find something better and cheaper
Switch phone service providers (we recently switched from AT&T to Sprint to save our family a couple hundred a month, they’re always wanting to give you deals)
Make extra moneyonline
Get rid of your car payment – sometimes that means moving down in car and then saving up CASH to upgrade (remember, think temporary).

Those are 5 things that you can start doing right now to A – lower expenses, or B – increase income.

The key to budgeting is finding ways to make it easier for yourself, not harder. If you don’t hit all those extra categories in a month, THAT’S OKAY!

That’s why they’re numbered into priorities.

Just for a quick recap, we learned:

Why we need to budget
That it is totally possible to budget an irregular income
What to do when you make more than your base
5 things to do if you’re short on cash

This whole budgeting thing is 10X easier if you just LET IT be easy. There’s no need to complicate things.

And I’ve just made it THAT much easier for you because I wrote a whole post about how I budget in ONLY 30 MINUTES A MONTH. That’s right people, 30 minutes. I spend more time doing laundry than I do on my finances. You can find that life-changing, time-saving post here.

And for even more exciting (ok, not always exciting) budgeting/money tips you can join the course below to finally stop living paycheck to paycheck.