My Income Is Different Every Month. How Do I Budget When I Never Know the Number?

Everybody hands you the same budgeting advice, but it assumes you get the same paycheck every month. And maybe you don't. So what do you do when your income is this moving target?Well, I've got a special treat for you today because there's a budget that actually built for you. Stay with me and let's build a budget that bends without breaking. Hello and welcome to Financially Confident Christian.I'm Ralph Estep Jr. And I'm your guide every day to helping you break that cycle of financial shame and give you confidence. And today we're going to talk about how to budget when income changes every single month.If you've got one of those jobs, like my youngest son is a barber, his income varies. He works with tips and commissions. Maybe you have gig work or maybe you're self employed and you know exactly what I'm talking about.You've got those great months where everything is hitting perfectly and then you've got those lean months that really hurt. And what you found is what most people find who live in this gig economy. The standard budgets just don't fit. And I get it, the stress you're under.You're trying to plan a life on a number that you can't predict. And that's exhausting and it's real. Now, if you've got a question for this show, this show is all about answering your questions.You, you can reach out to me at financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question We'll put a link in the show notes. But let's get right to today's listener question. And I'm going to start with the subject line.This is what the listener wrote. She said, Ralph, how do I budget when my paycheck is never the same twice? What a great way to start. Well, let's get right into the question.Hi, Ralph. I do hair and most of the money comes from tips. And how many clients booked that week? Some months I do really well. Some months are scary slow.I never actually know what's coming. Every budget video I watch starts with take your monthly income. And. And I just stop right there, Ralph, because I don't have a monthly income.I have a guess. So I don't budget at all. Honestly, in the good months, I feel rich and probably spend too much.In the slow months, I panic and put things on the credit card just to get by. Then the next good month, I'm just paying that back off. And I never get ahead. I want to be responsible.I just don't know when the number keeps moving, how to do it. Is there a way to do this for people just like me? Thank you. Well, thank you so much for sending in that question.And I get what you're going at, but I've got a good news for you today. There is actually a budget that actually works.And, and we can use what you reliably make, not what you might make, so you can stop living on this month to month roller coaster. Let's build it step by step. Here's the first step to this whole thing. You got to start by finding your floor.Now, what I mean by that is, what is the minimum amount of income that you've had? I had my son over yesterday for a pool day and we had this discussion and he said, dad, here's how I would answer it.So actually him and I worked on this episode together. But start by pulling 12 months of income. Include your tips in that. Once you have that data, then look at your lowest month.I don't want you to look at the average. I want you to look at the lowest month possible. And then you're going to build your budget around that.But make sure you're including your essentials, your rent, your utilities, your groceries, those minimum payments. And yeah, you got to drive to work. So make sure you put your gas on that. And then you work to survive your worst month.If you think about it, if that's your worst month and you can make your budget work, then every good month just gives you breathing room. So step number one is budget on your worst month. And every good month becomes a gift instead of a temptation. But here's the second piece to this.And this is the secret to the whole thing. You've got to work to get a month ahead. Your goal needs to be to build one full month of expenses and put that in the bank.That way you're always living on money that you've already earned. So this month funds next month. And you bank everything above that baseline until that buffer is full.And when you're a month ahead, a slow week stops being a crisis. Now here's another key to this. You've got to start by paying yourself a salary. Here's the way I recommend you set that up. Have two accounts.Have a holding account where all your income lands, and then have a checking account where you spend. And. And then each month you pay yourself that baseline that you determined in step one. You put that into the checking account.The holding account has the rest of that money that will smooth out those income inconsistencies. This way you've got A practical and predictable paycheck instead of that unpredictable income.The extra stays in the holding account and smooths out those lean months. You can give yourself a steady paycheck even, even when your work isn't so steady. Now here's another little secret.You gotta give every good month a job. What I mean by that is when you have one of those months like you talked about, those months that are really above that surplus isn't extra.You gotta start thinking in terms of if it's extra, it gets wasted. You got to assign it to a purpose. Maybe you set it for paying down your debt. Maybe you create a savings plan.See, if you don't have a plan, those good months becomes the overspending months. One more thing I'm going to encourage you to do is you've got to review this weekly.Just take 10 minutes a week, know your numbers, know what came in, know what went out, and know what you got a plan for for next week. It's all about building faithfulness, paying attention even in the midst of uncertainty. Now, you said something in your question.You said you have a guess, not an income. And when I hear that, I hear worry underneath of those words.And I just want to tell you right now, being a person of faith doesn't promise that every month is going to be good. It doesn't promise that you're always going to know what's next. But here's what it does promise.God has never needed your income to be predictable, to take care of you. You think about back in the Old Testament times, the word manna when it talks about that, it's this daily, this fresh.You couldn't hoard it because it came every single morning. Well, your variable income is modern manna. You have to think in terms of God's going to provide a buffer in the bank.And trust in the heart are not opposites. So today, work on building that system with diligent hands and carry that uncertainty with an open heart because he's fed you every month so far.And listen, you're not irresponsible. You're just never given a way to build a system that works for your income. But now you've got it.Steady is something you create, not something you're handed. So here's your win for today. I want you to add up the last 12 months and find your single lowest month. That's going to be your baseline.Open up your banking app and total each month, tips, income, all that stuff. Write down the smallest baseline number.You don't have to build that whole system today, just that one number, it rests on all of it, because you can't budget on a moving target until you find a floor where it never drops below. Which leads me to today's Bible verse. It comes to us from the book of Proverbs, chapter 27, verse 23.Now, this one hits close to home because I've got a flock of cows out here. But we call them a herd of cows. But it says this, Proverbs 27, 23. Know the state of your flocks and put your heart into caring for your herds.If you think about flocks being income, your income can be wildly unpredictable. The call wasn't, if you look at it, to have steady income, it was to know your numbers and tend them. That's being faithful.It's being faithful even with that variable income paying attention, even in times of uncertainty. Well, how about we pray together right now?Heavenly Father, I bring before you someone who works hard for every single dollar and never knows quite what the next month will be and what they're going to be able to do. And, Lord, they're not asking for riches. They're asking for steadiness and peace.So, Lord, today I ask that you would help to give them wisdom to build the buffer and really discipline to protect it. Steady their heart, Lord, in those slow seasons so panic doesn't drive them to debt. And help them give every good month a purpose.Help them to focus on manna in every wilderness. And you provide for all of us, Lord, don't you? And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. Friend, you started today with Ralph.I don't know how I'm going to do this, but now you've got a system that's actually built for you. So here's the recap. Find that baseline that's your worst month and build that buffer so that you're living on last month's income. And.And then pay yourself a steady salary and give every good month a job. And don't forget to check in weekly.And if you've got a question for this show, one of the things you can do is you can actually record me a voicemail message. It's super simple.Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail now, we'll put a link in the show notes, but you just go to that website, click, record, and I'll hear your voice again. That's financially confident Christian. I just want to thank you so much for joining me today. As I always say, stay financially savvy.May God bless you and you have a truly great day today. It.