Living on an uneven income does add some complexity to budgeting and managing your expenses, however with the right system and a bit of discipline it does not need to be difficult. In my previous blog I outlined the two broad categories of uneven income as: The Seasonal worker – This sort of income is typical in industries such as farming, sales and tourism where income comes in lumps followed by long periods of little or no income. The Penalty Rate Worker – This type of ‘uneven income’ occurs when you work shift work or in a job that includes overtime penalty rates.
How to Budget on an Uneven Income Part 1: The Seasonal Worker
Living on an uneven income does add some complexity to budgeting however with the right system and a bit of discipline it does not need to be difficult. Uneven incomes can be broken into the following two categories:
How to Budget : Physically Have the Money to Cover Your Expenses
How to Budget Principle #5 In Grandma’s days, budgeting was always a very tangible task. Either the money was in her jars or wallet to spend or it wasn’t. It was always very clear if you had the money to cover an expense. In today’s world of virtual jars and online banking it is easy for there to be a disconnect between what our budget says we have to spend and what our bank account says we really have available.
How to Budget: Have a System for Tracking Your Spending
How to Budget Principle # 4 At the beginning of this “How to Budget like Grandma” series, I shared with you how my Grandma used a simple system of glass jars to manage her finances. Grandma knew how much she needed to put in each Jar every payday to ensure that she had sufficient money set aside to pay each bill as it turned up.
How to Budget – Understanding Your Budget Shortfall
How to Budget Principle # 3 In this series of blogs, I look at the 5 core principles that made my Grandma’s budgeting system so simple yet so powerful. While we no longer budget using a collection of glass jars tucked away in the kitchen cupboard, the principles behind Grandma’s system are just as relevant today as they were 25 years ago. In our first blog in this series, we discussed the importance of taking time to thoroughly identify all of our expenses. Not only do we need to know what our expenses are but we also need to know how much each expense is, how frequently it occurs, and, where appropriate, when it is next due. In our second blog, we outlined the process and importance of converting all our income and expenses to a monthly figure so we know exactly how much we need to set aside for each expense each and every month. The logic behind this principle is that if we set aside 1/12th of our future expenses each month we will have accumulated sufficient money ready to pay each expense when it turns up. However, there is one glaring problem with this system when first …
How to Budget – Calculating Your Expenses
How to Budget Principle # 2 In this series of blogs I am looking at the 5 core principles that made my Grandma’s budgeting system so simple yet so powerful. While we no longer budget using a collection of glass jars tucked away in the kitchen cupboard, the principles behind Grandma’s system are just as relevant today as they were 25 years ago.
How to Budget – Understanding Your Expenses
How to Budget Principle #1 One of the most important steps when it comes to setting up a successful budget is investing time in gaining a true understanding of your expenses. Too often do we turn to budgeting at a point of financial crisis. The pressure is on to pay the bills, we need a budget and we need it now! In our hurry to pull off a financial miracle, we deliberately leave some expenses out, completely forget some, and naively underestimate others.
How to Budget – An Introduction to Grandma’s Jars
After finishing school back in the late 80’s I spent a year working in the UK as an adventure training instructor. Throughout this year I was fortunate to spend a couple of months living with my elderly Grandmother in a seaside town called Weston Super Mare. I have some wonderful memories of living with my Grandma. Her beautiful garden, the forest full of squirrels and the endless plates of cakes and crumpets just to name a few. But the thing that has stuck with me the most was the lessons I learnt from Grandma about money management.