One of the questions asked on my survey was “How do you budget with inconsistent blog income?”.
I would love to write a “5 steps to managing an inconsistent budget” but I can’t because I am still trying to figure it all out.
What you all know is I have an inconsistent income but what most of you probably don’t know is that David works on commission, so his income is also inconsistent.This make budgeting a bit of a nightmare challenge.
Dealing with this instability is probably a bigger challenge from me.
I come from a picture postcard family – my parents both had good, stable jobs with a steady income, my dad saved and planned for their retirement. My parents both epitomised stability and security. I am sure there were months that were tough but overall my parents had their stuff sorted out! Stability and security are my frame of reference, they aren’t really David’s which is why he deals with our monthly fluctuations a whole lot better than I do.
So how do I do it?
I budget. I have a spreadsheet where I keep track of our fixed expenses – medical aid, insurance, cars, Jane, swimming, school fees etc. I make sure that the main stuff is always paid first. I follow up on any discrepencies – increases in the electricity, water, phones etc.
I don’t buy what we don’t need. I do a menu plan and buy just what we need. It makes for pretty boring shopping, I am sure if you check my PnP smart shopper card it would be the same things month after month. I know exactly how long the sugar should last, how much milk we need. I know roughly what it should cost for groceries per month. I buy fruit and veg weekly and have a budget for that too. I only buy what is on special.
My income generally goes to cover all the variable items – groceries, petrol, dance stuff, swimming stuff and what not. Kiara’s school is really great and they let us know well in advance what needs to be paid – like concert fees etc. As soon as I have amounts and have money, I pay it.
Because my income is so varied it is hard to actually budget, sometimes a client will pay a few days after invoice, other times they take the full 30 days so it is a waiting game and dodging bullets until the money comes in. So I plug holes with what income we do have and then pay stuff when money comes in.
Some months we get it right, mostly though at the moment we don’t. It’s pretty stressful and one of the main reasons my new job is a godsend – the set income, on top of my blogging money, will take a lot of pressure off us. I am just extremely grateful that I have been able to make as much as I have from blogging this year, even on the low months it has helped tremendously.
I am getting used to living like this but each month the uncertainty and stress until everything is paid does freak me out. I am learning to prayer, trust and have a lot of faith that everything will be ok.
Maybe if there are other moms who also budget with an inconsistent income they could share how they do it?
7 Responses
I don’t know how you manage. I have one retainer client that covers all my major expenses, so blogging and projects and project client income doesn’t stress me out too much. But I totally hyperventilate if we have somehow overspent or have an unexpected expense come up. I don’t write up a budget because I am too scared to know how close to the wind we actually sail ? I have the love of lists and the OCD but not your discipline. Sorry youve had to stress; as if being a mommy times 4 isn’t stressful enough!
You are brave! I would loose my mind, honestly
cat@jugglingact recently posted…Pretorias’ best kept ice cream cake secret
One of the best things that happened to us (me) is that when we moved to Israel Paul got a job with a set salary (and leave days). The years we spent stressing when he worked for himself were enough to give me multiple ulcers. I did learn to spend wisely though, buying only what we needed and everything on special. I do have to say that those years of heavy budgeting and living month to month helped me to cope with living here in Israel where our salaries are much lower than what we are used to.
Gina recently posted…Wobble
Yip we learn how to stretch every cent which regardless of the amount of money you have is a good lesson I think!
Ours is also 100% inconsistent. If it goes well, we try have some on the side for the following month but at the moment, it is depleted.
I deal better with inconsistencies than my husband does. He also comes from a more stable background.
This has NOT been a good financial year for us.
Wenchy recently posted…Miraculously recover or die. That’s the extent of our cultural bandwidth for chronic illness.
I could not do it. I am such a high J. I love the security of a regular income. Even when I was “between jobs” I was drawing down a regular income from my savings because I love a budget and working towards it.
My business (when it makes money) is completely money I don’t need to live on and that’s how I like it. There was a time pre-kids when I was thinking I might want to do this coaching thing full-time and the business became so stressful – I wasn’t coaching from joy it was always, “so much to go to reach my goal”. That’s why I don’t want to take photography jobs for money – stressssssss!
Marcia (123 blog) recently posted…This is exactly me… in 17 minutes of pictures
5 years ago if you had asked me I would have said the same – but here I am 🙂 I take it as a life lesson in growing as a person!