Feast or famine, that’s my life lately. Some months I’m swimming in projects, others I’m scraping by. It’s making budgeting a nightmare.
I’ve tried setting aside money during good months, but unexpected expenses always seem to pop up. Anyone cracked the code on smoothing out the financial rollercoaster?
Yeah, it’s tough. I put some cash aside when I can, but it’s not always enough. Maybe look into steady gigs or retainers to even things out a bit. Just gotta keep hustling, I guess.
I’ve been in that boat too. What’s worked for me is setting up a buffer account. Every time money comes in, I put 30% into this account. It covers taxes and helps smooth out income.
For budgeting, I use the previous year’s lowest-earning month as my baseline. I live on that amount and anything extra goes into savings or business investments.
I also started offering retainer packages to some clients. It gives them a discount for committing to ongoing work, and I get more predictable income.
One thing that’s helped a ton is tracking my work pipeline. I keep a spreadsheet of potential projects and their likelihood. It helps me see slow periods coming and ramp up marketing efforts ahead of time.
It’s not perfect, but it’s made the ups and downs more manageable. Still a work in progress though!