Whether you listen to Triangle’s Making Money Personal podcast or follow our YouTube channel, we talk a lot about budgeting. Sometimes it’s difficult to budget because of inconsistent income—perhaps you’re paid on commission, have a seasonal job or part time job that doesn’t offer a consistent number of hours per pay period. How do you budget with fluctuating income? Use percentages—that way when your income changes, your allocations do too because they are based on percentages, not a particularly dollar amount.
Here are the top guidelines for you to use when allocating percentages to your budget:
- Housing: 25%
- Savings: 10%
- Insurances (health, medical, auto, and life): 10%
- Food: 10%
- Transportation: 10%
- Utilities (including cable): 10%
- Entertainment (including going out to eat): 10%
- Clothing: 5%
- Miscellaneous (such as an expected birthday party): 10%
These allocations are guidelines. If you’re stressing over your expenses each month because of the percentages, than please take your liberty to change them to best fit your needs. In this type of situation, not all recommendations work. For example, there are some who might like the 50/30/20 budget which allocates 50% to living and necessities (like food and utilities), 30% to things that you want, and 20% to debt.
A budget is a plan for your money. Sometimes it takes a while to work out the plan. Don’t get discouraged, stick with it—it will be worth it! If you would like to learn more about budgeting, visit our YouTube channel for on-demand videos or watch out Budgeting 101 webinar.
