HOW TO SURVIVE ON A UNPREDICTABLE INCOME

When I went full time as a photographer, I was well aware at some point I would encounter the downside to having your own business, creating your hours, and overall doing it all yourself.

What I did not intend to be such a pain was the inconsistent and unpredictable income. I have always been really good handling, saving and budgeting money. Like super good.

So it never occurred to me I would run into any type of problems.. but oh did I.

So I listed some tips I followed to help you conquer the dang inconsistency!

For starters, I prepare and saved for them. And thank god I did because I swear money just evaporates. As tempting as it might be to go crazy and book a whole vacation off all the money you made this month - try and keep in mind your next month might not be as busy. For me, October was NUTS and my season was primarily end of August - beginning of November. But December? Not so much. So I saved all my extra money from October to get me through my off season.

I cut my spendings drastically ( both because I really just stopped shopping / trying to be more aware of what I do with it / ext ). For no reason really I just hit a phase where I decided I don’t need a whole bunch of stuff. And I would prefer to cut back on the literal things I had. So shopping slowed down drastically. And I was more interested in spending money on memories than things. Along with this I became very aware where I spent my money and how much went to it.

Lastly, probably one of my most important tips, I divided my money into months. By this what I mean that as I earned money I would take that and figure out how much this allows me to have as money each month. I knew I had X amount I needed for bills/ext but once I hit that number the remainder could be used for:

emergency funds

spending money

ext

So rather than feel like wow I just made a thousand dollars and I already paid my bills this month, let me blow this. I would put it in my account, immediately put some into my savings then say:

“okay I have 800 left over and next month I have no money for my car so I’ll add $300 there and the rest for the next month”

It might seem dumb but it was so helpful to kind of make the inconsistency consistent for myself! Hopefully these help someone figure out how to handle it a little more! I’m by no means a professional but wanted to share what I learned!