Trying
to manage your finances with a steady income is hard enough but when you
never know what your paycheck will be seems almost impossible, but it's
not. It is, however, going to be a little more tricky.
In
my Budget and Bill Organizer I talk about averaging your expenses like
your phone and electric bills that vary from month to month. The same
principle can be used to average your income.
The
first step you need to take is to find records of your pay for as far
back as you can. It would be best if you had records going back for at
least 6 months. Take these records and total the amounts you were paid
for the entire period. Then divide that by the number of months you have
records for. This will give you your average monthly income.
If
you don't have any record of your previous pay you may need to go to your
employer to get the information. If there is no way to get this information
you should start a log of how much you get paid and use this to develop
your budget.
Once you have determined your average monthly income you will need to
develop your budget just as if this was your regular pay. Here's where
it gets tricky. You aren't always going make the amount you have budgeted.
The only way to handle this is to save when you make more than what you
have budgeted. Here's an example: You have determined that your monthly
budget is $2000 per month; In January you earn $2500. You will need to
put away $500 of that money so that you can make up for any month that
your income falls below $2000.
This
sounds like a simple solution to a complex problem but it may not be as
easy as it sounds unless you accustomed to saving money. It will take
some discipline to make sure that money is there when you need it.
There
could be a bright side to this method. If you are able to put the extra
money away and you have several months that you make more than your budget
you could end up with a sizable savings account. When setting up your
budget make sure that you don't underestimate your bills and expenses.
This is one of the major reasons many budgets fail.
By averaging your income it will prevent the "Feast to Famine" approach
to your spending. It only makes sense to spread your income out so that
you can cover all of your bills and expenses every month.
Terry
Rigg is the author of Living Within Your Means - The Easy Way
http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/ebookadpage.html
and
editor of the Budget Stretcher web site. Join the thousands of subscribers
to The FREE Budget Stretcher Newsletter and get great articles, tips,
downloads and a lot of Budget Help by visiting his home page at
http://www.homemoneyhelp.com