How to Budget With Irregular Income Without the Feast-or-Famine Cycle | 625

0:01It will show you the real numbers which a lot of people are very surprised the first time they see oh, this is actually what we cost. I had no idea. Because you need to know for peace of mind as a woman that everything is covered when your husband gets paid the least amount as possible. So if we need to have$400 a week for groceries or$200, whatever it is, then we need to put that in the budget. You're not 500 pounds and then 100 pounds. But it still allows your monthly budget to be consistent, which is your bills, monthly debt payments, and your spending. All of that should pretty much stay the same all the time.

1:03place. We're Shana and Vanessa. We're best friends, business partners, and master financial coaches trained by Dave Ramsey. We've been in business since 2019, helping hundreds of amazing people like you create budgets, get out of debt, stop living paycheck to paycheck, and know exactly what to do with their money. In this podcast, we'll share with you everything we know plus everything we're working on with our clients so that you have the best chance at reaching your financial goals. We want to help you take the guesswork out of your budget, improve your marriages and even bring your kids in on the conversation.

1:34We can help you no matter where you're at, whether you're the single mom who's never had$500 in her savings account or the millionaire who's paid off four real estate mortgages. And we're not going to shy away from the tough love. We'll tell you what you need to hear and encourage you at the same time. This is the Financial Coaching for Women podcast. All right, question here says, hi, I'm looking at purchasing your budget system and I think it sounds so good. Yes, girl. That's normal. I have a couple questions. First, my husband is in sales, so his income varies. How does that work in the budget?

2:05So let's pause there and answer that question, then we'll go to the next one. Okay, so when you guys have inconsistent income, there is a way for you to pay yourself consistently. We talk about this all the time. We need you to make a budget on bare bones, right? So that's your income, his income with the least amount that he normally makes. We want you to make your budget with your bills, your minimum debt payments, and your minimum amount of spending. And you have to make it work from there because you need to know for peace of mind as a woman that everything is covered when your husband gets paid the least amount as possible.

2:40Does that make sense? Yeah. And I think that the best part about our budget system, so we do agree that you should definitely get it, is that it can show you what you need to make. And yes, normally we want you to start income and then you take everything out there and and then eventually you get to zero on purpose. But in this case, then you would start with your debts and your bills and spending, which we're going to talk about here in a second, and savings. And that shows you what you need. And then you can go back and figure out if his income varies. We have podcasts about that, how to set up a separate paycheck account for him so that you can make everything kind of consistent.

3:11But that's what the beauty of this is. It will show you the real numbers, which a lot of people are very surprised the first time they see, oh, this is actually what we cost. I had no idea. Yeah. It really is an eye opener, but it's for the good. Okay. So then she goes on to say, I'm also wondering how it works if we spend different amounts each month on gas and groceries and other things that are in our budget, but change. Do I look back over the last six months and take an average? How do you estimate? Okay. We have a lot of different questions. How do you estimate savings buckets? So her first main question was wondering how it works if she spends different amounts on groceries and gas each month.

3:47So I'm curious as to why it's so inconsistent month to month. If it's because maybe you go to Costco or Sam's or another place and you buy things in bulk, so you don't necessarily need it every month, but you need it every other month, welcome savings buckets, right? Insert savings buckets for that. If you can figure out how much you spend in a year on those quote-unquote inconsistent things, and you can save for them and then you can pull for them on a monthly basis. Because we normally spend about the same on gas and groceries on the regular things, but I'm trying to figure out what you're buying that makes it so inconsistent.

4:19I wouldn't even know if it's what they're buying venousa versus what they're making. Right? Oh, you're saying they're – No, no, no. I think it's probably both. I have no idea. But also you might spend less because you made less. Yeah. And you might feel like I can have feast or famine. And so that's where we're going to say we want to end that. Yeah. We want it to be consistent, as consistent as possible. We can put a pin in the thing for bolsa for Costco if that's what it is. But really it should be the same. Really, you guys, why are gas and groceries not different? First of all, you eat the same – you should eat generally about the same calories.

4:51You're not 500 pounds and then 100 pounds. Like how much you actually need to eat changes. So really you can make that super consistent. And I actually think that's one of the best, loveliest things about our budget system. Okay, every week I have$200,$300, whatever. And I can just – that's the rhythm I'm in. That's how it works. And it feels really nice to know that. And then, so what you want to do is set that amount, obviously based on your income, but also based on reality so that you can stay consistent. All right, budget besties, it's time for some real talk. You don't need another budget.

5:26You need a budget system. Our simplified budget system is what you've been looking for. It's going to allow you to be bougie on a budget. You'll be able to easily set up a system that runs automatically and shows you exactly where your money is going. And it's going to give you permission to spend. Everybody loves that. It's straightforward, pretty, and packed with walkthrough videos that break down the exact methods we use with our clients to get out of debt, set up a bills account, separate spending, build savings buckets, and end the paycheck to paycheck feel. If you're new to budgeting, this is the perfect way to jump in.

5:59And if you're already a budget nerd like us, you're about to meet your new obsession. This is the upgrade to your finances that you need. Now back to today's show. now if it is i was thinking gas the only thing that maybe kind of changes is if work changes maybe sometimes you're taking travel or yeah especially if whatever job you have if you have to which then that's a different conversation but in general your gas and groceries can be the same yeah and when she's asking do i look back over the last six months and take an average yes that's what we recommend we taught we call the 90-day audit and we do it over three months when there's not a holiday season.

6:37So we want you to see how much you're spending on average on these things. However, like Shayna said, my brain wasn't going there. If you're making more money and you're feeling like, this is our moment to buy steak for six nights a week or whatever, right? Don't do that. It's like, it's not sustainable. It's not sustainable. And you're not going to love that, especially in the times that you're not making the fast. When you're fasting for Jesus. So I tell my kids, you really want to find what works for you on a consistent basis. Now, if one month he gets a really great commission or whatever that looks like, great sales paycheck, take that money and put it.

7:15This is where your savings buckets come into play. And you're allowed to take the amount over the big paychecks and spread them out into your savings buckets so you can fund the things in the future that you've been wanting to fund. but it still allows your monthly budget to be consistent, which is your bills, monthly debt payments, and your spending. All of that should pretty much stay the same all the time. And I think this is where being in sales, being an entrepreneur, all this kind of stuff is really interesting to actually know your numbers. So what you need to do is know your numbers. So if we need to have$400 a week for groceries or$200, whatever it is, then we need to put that in the budget.

7:51And then we're looking back at the person making money and saying, this is what we cost. This is what we need to make or the people, maybe it's both of you, whatever. And that's, that is a different philosophy than doing it a different way. And so when you know what you cost, like Vanessa said, I can know, well, hopefully he always makes$4 ,000 a month, sometimes at six, right? Whatever. So then my budget really best case scenario will be based on$4 ,000. And then I know any of those, anytime the paycheck is over 4 ,000, that's when I get to go through my tier of my savings buckets or paying off debt, whatever my goals are.

8:26And I can, I can specifically assign that amount. And, and so then if it's drastic enough to where that doesn't happen, then the first savings bucket guys for these big paychecks needs to be an income account, right? So before you do anything else, you're going to say, we need, I need to have a backup paycheck or maybe a month's worth, whatever it is. So that I, if I, if he doesn't meet it and we really do cost this month should be Monday. We have to. There's nothing we can do about that. Then we're going to save for that. And then we can go down the list for everything else. And Shana's meaning if he normally gets paid$6 ,000, but he could get$1 ,000 in one month as a paycheck because it's so drastic.

9:05In a situation like that, it's not sustainable. We really need you to have that income holding account where you're funding it to be able to fund your life if that situation were to happen for you. But listen, sometimes you can't fund your savings buckets monthly. My husband gets paid weekly. Love it sometimes. But on a weekly basis, the savings buckets don't get funded. Those get funded on a monthly basis with my paycheck or his bonuses. Normally, they would get funded. He gets five bonuses a year. And that's when our savings buckets get funded. And we know that. So we plan for that. So like Shana is saying, if you know your husband's always at least going to bring in$4 ,000 a month, then when it's above that, that is when you fund all the other things that aren't in your normal, regular, everyday budget.

9:50So you know that they're going to get funded. You have peace of mind knowing that Christmas will get funded. Travel will get funded. Annual bills and stuff, those will get funded in time, just not on a monthly basis. And then really quick, I want to address the how to estimate savings bucket part of the question, which it is covered by buying the budget. We recommend that you do that and we go in more depth about that. But in general, what you want to do is maybe you can look back at the last year and say, what do we cost? You can look at your budget, say, what can we do? A lot of times with clients that come in for coaching, in the beginning, we're not funding maybe travel as much, or we're not funding Christmas as much as maybe they would want to someday, right?

10:27And that might come, but it's not in the very beginning. That's where you're going to look and see, because once you're able to figure all those numbers out, then you can look at it in your budget. But the reality is, give yourself some grace. It's going to take a year to really understand what your savings bucket, what your rhythm, what your family's rhythm is. You're not going to get it right for the beginning. I just had a fun client do homecoming for the first time. And then another client. Girl or boy. And then we had some people in our Facebook group talking about how much more they spent on back to school than they thought they would.

10:56And we said, just put it, make sure you put it in there for next year. Now, next year, you'll be way better prepared. But it's okay. Give yourself grace as you're figuring it out the first year. Even if you only have half the amount that you thought you needed, it's still half that you don't need now because you already had it. So it's just, it makes it so much easier. You know, my husband and I are putting a decent, oh, and I say decent, decent amount of money. You're really excited about it? Very excited about it. We had these last couple months, we've had a lot of extra in our account and in our bills account.

11:25And the idea is what are we doing with it? Because everything is covered. However, we have so much going on with my son's senior year and travel volleyball coming up again. And we still need to do a couple of last minute college trips for him. And so we're putting a lot of money in our vacation or actually ours is called travel. It's not necessarily all vacation. It's called a travel account. Yeah. Let's be real honest about that. It might go back to specific vacation, but then maybe also not because it's going to be like travel to see the grandkids and travel, which is all good things. So there's a lot going on and we're, and I told him, I said, I think it needs this amount, but realistically, I think it also needs this amount.

11:57And he was like, that makes sense. But just again, not cutting yourself short, not underestimating stuff. We would rather you over budget for things like this than under budget and make your just make your life a lot easier she also asked about coaching which total especially if you have sales and your income fluctuates it's really hard to we understand that's kind of hard to figure out on your own it would be really helpful to have someone so what do you you want to ask about that you should come on a free call with Vanessa but Vanessa so we take limited amount of clients so Vanessa gets to talk to all of you before we decide if you are a good fit and if we are a good fit because it's not always that you need coaching.

12:34So anyway, you should go to budgetfesties.com forward slash coaching. There's a button there. You can book a call with Vanessa to talk about coaching specifically. Yeah. It's a lot of fun. Love getting on these calls and meeting everyone. Again, it's not something that's for everyone. It's why we have these free calls to see if it is a good fit. So hopefully I will see you on the next free call. If you make good money, but have nothing to show for it, this quiz will help you figure out what's really going on with your money and what your next step should be. You'll get a personalized result and a simple action step to help you feel more organized and less stressed.

13:05Go to budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz and take the free quiz today. That's budgetbesties.com forward slash quiz to find out what's really going on with your money.