How to Manage a Budget With an Irregular Income?

November 9, 2022

If you are self-employed, work as a contractor on your own, or are paid by the hour, you probably don’t know when you will work or how much money you will make.

The uncertainty in the income can cause badly if your finances are not organised enough. Of course, you have borrowing option but that may add more debts to your already existing financial burden.

You might not be able to predict how much money you’ll make each month. But one thing is for sure: you need a spending plan to make sure you can pay all of your bills on time and save some money.

Even if you don’t know exactly how much money you’ll be making, you can still stick to a plan for how much you’ll spend and save. Use these tips as a starting point for your first steps toward making a budget when your income isn’t steady.

Tips To Budget With An Irregular Income

Not having the steady income does not mean you cannot have a peace of mind. There are some ways available through which you can achieve financial balance with uneven monthly earning.

1. Add Up Your Fixed Expenses

Some of the things you have to pay for will stay the same no matter how much or how little money you make each week or month.

When you want to make a budget but your income isn’t consistent, the first thing you need to do is get a good idea of your fixed expenses, like your mortgage or rent payment, your car payment, and your insurance coverage (health care, auto, and any other policies you have).

You also need to add up the loan repayments amount if you have taken out loans such as bad credit instalment loans or instant loans as these loans usually ask for weekly repayments. So don’t forget to add these amounts to your fixed expenses list.

Not only do you have to pay these regular amounts, but you also have to eat and move around. Look at your spending over the last three months to get a better idea of how much you spend on groceries each week and how much it costs you to drive or take public transportation.

2. Use A Zero-Based Budgeting Plan

Using a zero-based budget can help with irregular income. The goal of this strategy, which is reflected in its name, is to get your budget to zero at the end of each budgeting month.

Let’s say that your income this month is £3,185 just to show how it works. When you use a budgeting method called “zero-based budgeting,” you have to think carefully about every single pound you spend.

You will divide it among your necessary fixed costs, your optional spending on things like going out to eat or buying new clothes, and the different savings goals you have set.

A budget that starts at zero means that you have to carefully look at your spending and decide if it’s getting out of hand.

3. Make Saving A Default Setting

Every cost in a zero-based budget needs to be looked at by a person. One component of budgeting with unpredictable income should be automated: moving money to a savings account. It is not necessary for this to be a large sum of money.

In fact, you will want to start small if you are just starting out on a path that doesn’t guarantee a steady income. With the help of automated deposits, it will be easier to get into a routine. You can raise that set amount whenever your income goes up.

4. Know When You’re Going To Fall Short

When making a budget with a fluctuating income, watch for warning signals that you won’t have enough money. Find ways to get ahead of the shortage instead of waiting and hoping that work will pick up soon.

Knowing beforehand helps, as you can figure out if you need to apply for loans or not. If yes, then what type of loans will benefit you the most, loans for poor credit, cash loans, or no guarantor loans in the UK to cover your expenses.

Here are the statistics on income inequality in the UK:

Income inequality in the UK fell by 1% from 2020 to 2021. This was led by a 3.4% and 1.3% drop in the fifth lowest and wealthiest families’ disposable incomes. Fifth richest families reported a £957 drop in disposable income, while the poorest fifth saw a £568 drop.

This follows a very steady ten-year period (2012 to 2021) where income inequality from disposable income rose by 0.07 percentage points each year.

Source: ons.gov.uk

5. If You’re Over-Earning, Don’t Overspend.

You should be ready for the worst and best-case scenarios. The worst-case situation is not making enough money to meet your expenses.

If you get a big commission check or your extra hours pay off at the end of the month, you should think of creative ways to put the extra money to work for you.

You should definitely treat yourself for all the hard work you’ve done by doing something fun. This may be like going to your favourite restaurant for dinner or putting some of the money toward a trip you want to take in the future.

Conclusion

If you have an unpredictable source of income, it might be hard to make a budget. Therefore, we have given you some tips you can use to make the most of your money. When it comes to creating a budget and arranging your finances, do not be embarrassed to seek assistance from others.

You can make the most of the money you have by using the different tools you have access to. Planning can be there but its effectiveness will come to an ordeal when it gets implemented.

Therefore, a proper concentration is needed even if you lack the steady income. Our point of view is that you should be positive as much as you can. It will definitely be going to help you a lot. Just follow these methods, see the difference in your financial life.