Here's some great suggesitons for how to budget when you aren't sure of your income:
Hope it helps

Self-Employed Budgeting Tips

I think that article would be useful for all of the self employed workers.

thanks for that link, kelkat. it is just so timely since i'm honestly struggling with my funds right now. although much of my problem is my self-discipline, i think it's high time i create a financial system for myself before i get into deeper trouble.

That's a nice article.

I think being able to keep a check on expenses is absolutely essential - at one point I didn;t set up a budget for expenses, and found myself simply paying out beyond my means.

Even if I think I *need* something these days, I set up a monthly budget - once the budget is spent, whatever it is the business needed gets pushed back to the next month.

Great stuff! I just found this forum! That article was great. I think poor cash flow management and planning are probably th biggest factors in surviving in the self emloyed arena! Its hard to be an expert at what you do and at everything else as well!

Hi Derick and welcome to The Finance Forums.

Every self employed person is going to have to find "their way" of doing a budget. If there is no regular income, then it becomes a bit more difficult. It can still be done.

Whatever you do - start TODAY!

i'm actually learning it the hard way. for a couple of months i only had "almost enough" money for my expenses. it's always nice to have a lot of allowance in case some inevitable events happen.

When I'm working with people on their budgets I try to always get them to set it to their highest bill in each catagory (if your air is higher than heat, go with the air figure - and so forth). I also encourage them to set aside something for entertainment and emergencies. Sometimes it's hard, but even a little will make you more likely to stick to the budget (kindof like a little dessert now and then will make it more likely you'll stick to a diet).

Wow, you posted this at the perfect time! I'm a self-employed writer and I just quit this longish-term contract job I had. It just wasn't working, I needed to get out, and so now I'm starting over again. So this is really helpful to me.

My sister and her husband are self-employed.When they first started out they never thought of the time when money was not going to come in. So they had to find out the hard way. It was ruogh for them, but they stuck it out. Now they are busy and the money is comming in they aolways but some aside for when things are slow. And they are doing great.

That's a very informative article. I've learned how to budget my money since I was in grade school. My mom used to give me a whole week's allowance and I should budget it carefully, not to overspend on some days, so I will have enough until friday. That helped me a lot now that I have a family of my own.

There's also a nice list of free budgeting software here.

Good article.

I work with a lot of self-employed (my practice is built around small and medium sized business owners) and this is a major issue for all of them. Not to mention having to go through this myself when I first opened my practice.

Budgeting, if made simple, is very effective. Like another poster mentioned, however, you have to build in rewards for yourself. Don't use annual numbers, but use the highest monthly value of any expense. Make sure things like car insurance that are paid quarterly or less frequently that you are disciplined to save ahead.

I liked the article overall.

Chris