Speaker 1: Episode two eighty eight, Budgeting as a contractor, tipped or
Speaker 1: self employed income earner. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast,
Speaker 1: where you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, rice and
Speaker 1: liver rich your life. Here your host Jen and Jill m.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill, and as former bartenders, servers, freelance writers,
Speaker 1: all around, self employed, out employed individuals, small business owners
Speaker 1: trying to start up small businesses, doing all the side hustles,
Speaker 1: we know how difficult it is to budget when your
Speaker 1: income is super a regular and so that's what we
Speaker 1: are are talking about in this episode. We're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about some of the nuts and bolts on how to
Speaker 1: and reasons too and kind of use our experiences to
Speaker 1: filter what the Internet is saying. But first, just a
Speaker 1: little message from our sponsor today, Breaking the mold. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Saby girl, It's what God did when he made you,
Speaker 1: and it's what you bosses are out there doing with
Speaker 1: your ten ninety nine statuses and variable incomes. We see
Speaker 1: you and this one's for you. And you know what's
Speaker 1: also for you our Debt Free Story series on YouTube.
Speaker 1: Speaking of breaking the mold. We got some fellow Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast listeners slaying their debt and calling in to
Speaker 1: talk about it. This is content you don't want to miss.
Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash Frugal Friends. We got ten, yeah,
Speaker 1: or we will have ten, not nine, but there are
Speaker 1: ten stories for you, and most of them are already out.
Speaker 1: We have a few more to debut, so be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so
Speaker 1: that you can get those when they release, when they drop,
Speaker 1: when they drop. So budgeting is a big thing that
Speaker 1: we're talking about in this episode. We could we could
Speaker 1: have focused on a lot of things, but I think
Speaker 1: one of the hardest things, like you can to an
Speaker 1: extent can and cannot control what you make. The more
Speaker 1: you work, the more you make. It's you know, for
Speaker 1: a lot of this, but we only have so much
Speaker 1: capacity to do. So let's let's really hone in on
Speaker 1: budgeting for this one. If you are interested in budgeting,
Speaker 1: if that really resonates with you, then check out episode
Speaker 1: two twenty two. Stop strict budgeting and start living in
Speaker 1: the radical middle. This is actually one that when we
Speaker 1: asked our Debt Free stories UM interviewees what their favorite
Speaker 1: episode was because we loved, you know, hearing, We love
Speaker 1: hearing people like what we do. Also we want to
Speaker 1: know what to do more of So when we asked them,
Speaker 1: several of them said this specific episode, Um, so we
Speaker 1: think it's a pretty good one episode to twenty two.
Speaker 1: And then also right back from the archives, episode eighty
Speaker 1: eight budgeting on an irregular income. So this one is
Speaker 1: for any irregular incomes, not just um like tipped employees
Speaker 1: and freelancers, So that one is also a good one
Speaker 1: to supplement this one. But but if you're if you're tipped,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're ten ninety nine, then this one
Speaker 1: is for I know, if you're tipped, you still get
Speaker 1: a W two. But I mean we'll just we're gonna
Speaker 1: we're gonna lump it in because it feels the same. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it feels the variable. Yeah, nature of it. Gosh, I
Speaker 1: wish I was tipped. No, you don't know, I don't,
Speaker 1: but like, on top on top of on top of
Speaker 1: what's happening, you know, it's kind of like I wish
Speaker 1: someone would tip me. Okay, Well, if you want to
Speaker 1: send Jill a tip, just email her Jill at Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends Podcast dot com. So we'll get into this first
Speaker 1: article from wallet. Oh, I love this the way it's spelled.
Speaker 1: I get it doesn't makes sense until you say it
Speaker 1: out loud. Wolet it's w O L L I T
Speaker 1: wallet dot com and it's budget. You're a regular income.
Speaker 1: Ten reasons to get started now. So this is essentially
Speaker 1: an article convincing us to budget. We're not going to
Speaker 1: spend too much time here because we all kind of
Speaker 1: know what those reasons are. But I do appreciate how
Speaker 1: they point out that this is especially used full for
Speaker 1: those of us who are on irregular incomes, irregular paydays.
Speaker 1: Like they call out the fact that like it can
Speaker 1: be really difficult to budget or feel as though budgeting
Speaker 1: isn't for you or you can't do it because there's
Speaker 1: no set payday pattern, you don't actually know exactly what
Speaker 1: you're going to bring in when you're going to bring
Speaker 1: it in. But really, what this can lead to for
Speaker 1: a lot of us is stress and anxiety and overwhelm.
Speaker 1: And what budgets do for all of us, whether on
Speaker 1: a regular irregular income, is reduced that stress. It is
Speaker 1: laying out a plan and a pathway forward for our
Speaker 1: purchases there's also a fun little gift of a woman
Speaker 1: who is saying a budget as a statement of our priorities.
Speaker 1: She looks like your mom. I mean kind of actually maybe,
Speaker 1: but like your mom, everybody, if your mom got on
Speaker 1: a zoom call, this is what it would look like.
Speaker 1: Bad lighting. Not something I'd make into a gift. No,
Speaker 1: we digress reflection on the glasses. So yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: few different tips. I think the I'll just start out
Speaker 1: with to simplify. The first is it simplifies you're spending.
Speaker 1: That's the first reason. And so I did not budget
Speaker 1: when I was like a tipped employee, and it was
Speaker 1: so easy to go through all the money. It was
Speaker 1: just so easy. And I know some people I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was a cash thing for me, but
Speaker 1: so many people like have reached out to us. When
Speaker 1: Jill said that it was hard for her to keep cash,
Speaker 1: like cash was easier to spend because she just wanted
Speaker 1: to get rid of it, so many of you reached
Speaker 1: out and we're like, yes, I'm the same as Jill,
Speaker 1: and so I really think there's something to this. But
Speaker 1: with a budget, you can simplify your spending. And I
Speaker 1: have like a whole process on how to like for
Speaker 1: really wildly irregular incomes, how to budget we'll talk about
Speaker 1: in the next article. But when you budget, then you
Speaker 1: can afford to put that money away in your bank
Speaker 1: account and not worry about spending it kind of out
Speaker 1: of sight, out of mind, and you can practice this
Speaker 1: values based spending plan that we talk about because you
Speaker 1: have some kind of guideline. So taking the time to
Speaker 1: do this, even though it's harder than somebody who has
Speaker 1: a steady paycheck every month, it will look different. It
Speaker 1: has to look different. When you earn different, you spend different,
Speaker 1: you budget different, and that's okay. But it does simplify it,
Speaker 1: and we are big proponents of simplifying. I'll also call
Speaker 1: this next to an out number two. They're advocating that
Speaker 1: budgeting can improve your focus, that budgeting brings structure to
Speaker 1: our spending habits. We can know when things are a
Speaker 1: little tight, we can know when we are bringing in
Speaker 1: a little bit more. It helps us to know if
Speaker 1: we need to cut back on spending, if we need
Speaker 1: to adjust our spending, or if we have more to spend.
Speaker 1: So just having something like a budget can help just
Speaker 1: to bring clarity and attention to something. I think without it,
Speaker 1: we can feel really almost like tossing about in the
Speaker 1: wind in the water without an anchor of any sort.
Speaker 1: And when you're already on a variable income, not having
Speaker 1: regular pay days, it can probably already feel that way.
Speaker 1: So almost looking at a budget like an anchoring point
Speaker 1: to bring about some level of stability within what can
Speaker 1: feel maybe a little bit destabilizing at times. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: and that goes into your ability to earn as well,
Speaker 1: Like as a shift worker or a freelancer, you can
Speaker 1: most of the times, like if you are budgeting and
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, I don't have as many shifts this month,
Speaker 1: I need to make more, you can choose to pick
Speaker 1: up a shift, or if you are earning more than
Speaker 1: what you need, you can, you know, choose if somebody
Speaker 1: wants you to work a shift, you can choose to
Speaker 1: say no if you really need the time to not work,
Speaker 1: or if you're a freelancer, you can choose to pick
Speaker 1: up a gig or to turn one down. So so true,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't know that if you didn't have a budget.
Speaker 1: You would Yeah, you wouldn't know it. If you didn't
Speaker 1: have a plan, plan for your spending. Because another thing
Speaker 1: that can happen when you control your own schedule is
Speaker 1: that hustle culture can really come in and just you
Speaker 1: can work and work and sit like pick up another shift,
Speaker 1: pick up another double, take another assignment. It can become exhausting.
Speaker 1: But when you have a plan and you're focused either
Speaker 1: on your goal and you pick up that work knowing
Speaker 1: that it's for a short time or knowing it for
Speaker 1: it's a specific thing, or if your goal is more flexible,
Speaker 1: you can turn down work knowing that your mental health
Speaker 1: and your self care are your priority right now. Yes,
Speaker 1: so it can. These are all like a lot of
Speaker 1: things that we touch on all the time. So it
Speaker 1: helps you avoid debt. Build an emergency fund waste less,
Speaker 1: which I think also goes into the time bit. But
Speaker 1: I'll also say something about the emergency fund. You should
Speaker 1: have at least two thousand dollars in an emergency fund.
Speaker 1: I know a lot of times will say a thousand,
Speaker 1: but we really think it should be two thousand. And
Speaker 1: so when you are able to put away cash and
Speaker 1: not spend it, then you're able to build that emergency
Speaker 1: fund quicker and put it in a separate account. So again,
Speaker 1: out of sight, out of mind, so that you're not
Speaker 1: spending it on Taylor Swift ticket, which is what which
Speaker 1: is an actual Sorry Chris, if you're listening, my friend
Speaker 1: who's a bartender, just he did that. I don't even
Speaker 1: think he really likes Taylor Swift. He was just invited.
Speaker 1: There wasn't a values base, no so and he had
Speaker 1: the money, so we spent it, which, depending on the
Speaker 1: field that you're in, an emergency fund could be far
Speaker 1: more necessary or at least a b for your emergency
Speaker 1: fund again depending on the field. Yeah, but that's definitely
Speaker 1: something we all need to be keeping a pulse on.
Speaker 1: I think right now especially is something like if you
Speaker 1: don't have two thousand dollars in your emergency funds, it's
Speaker 1: time to get there. It's definitely time to get there
Speaker 1: because the economy it's just an it just at a
Speaker 1: place right now. You know, it's having a moment and
Speaker 1: you need to be as somebody with Again, if you've
Speaker 1: got an irregular income, your job isn't like promised to you.
Speaker 1: Work isn't promised to you. I mean, it's not promised
Speaker 1: to you if you have a W two either. But
Speaker 1: it's most volatile for our contractors and our tips, you know, listeners,
Speaker 1: So you especially need to have that emergency fund. Now.
Speaker 1: Number five on here is that a budget or a
Speaker 1: plan for your money can reduce stress, especially if you're
Speaker 1: on an irregular income. I've already said it, but just
Speaker 1: highlighting this again that stress can cause all kinds of issues,
Speaker 1: like lack of sleep or interruptions to sleep. Sometimes it
Speaker 1: can lead to depression, anxiety, maybe even reduced performance levels.
Speaker 1: There's so many ways that stress impacts us and our bodies,
Speaker 1: and this is one small tool that can help us
Speaker 1: to exert control and influence over at least the pieces
Speaker 1: we do have control and influence over, like a plan
Speaker 1: for our money, and especially again when when we're kind
Speaker 1: of uncertain about it, some sort of pathway forward is
Speaker 1: going to help to alleviate some of that stress. M Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's all I have to say about this one. And
Speaker 1: we're going to spend a bulk of our time in
Speaker 1: the next article. Yes, let's do it. So our next
Speaker 1: article is how to budget when you have an irregular income?
Speaker 1: And so this is when really everybody wants to know.
Speaker 1: So like we had to budget, teach me? Why is
Speaker 1: that not us media I'm feeling a real Yeah. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we are going to talk about this capital one
Speaker 1: article and it's how to budget when you having a
Speaker 1: regular income. We're going to infuse some of our own
Speaker 1: tips into it. What do you think about the fusion? Well,
Speaker 1: this one was my favorite one Goldie. You've all heard
Speaker 1: about Goldie, she's our favorite. She helps us with our
Speaker 1: outlines and selected like three different articles. So if you
Speaker 1: if you're interested in knowing more about this. No that
Speaker 1: there is a lot of info on the internet. There
Speaker 1: were plenty of options, but this one I felt was
Speaker 1: one of the most straightforward and helpful articles about how
Speaker 1: to actually do this that I liked it. This one
Speaker 1: is my favorite. We'll spoiler alert few not all financial
Speaker 1: articles on the internet are created equally, and we go
Speaker 1: through them and talk about them on this podcast so
Speaker 1: that you don't have to wade through the entire first
Speaker 1: page and second and third page of Google. Yeah. So
Speaker 1: they just give a step by step, So we're just
Speaker 1: going to go through all the steps. Yes, yes, So
Speaker 1: the first step is to establish a baseline monthly in
Speaker 1: so this is my I will I'll actually put like
Speaker 1: a so if this is step one, I'll do like
Speaker 1: a Step zero is to save, in addition to your
Speaker 1: emergency fund, save one month of that baseline monthly income.
Speaker 1: So if you are a y nab user, which is
Speaker 1: you need a budget. You know they talk about aging
Speaker 1: your money, and essentially, when you make a budget, you
Speaker 1: are budgeting for what you have already earned, not for
Speaker 1: what you expect to earn. And this is no more
Speaker 1: important than when you have and a regular income. Is
Speaker 1: to be budgeting based on money you already have, not
Speaker 1: on money you don't have yet, especially when it comes
Speaker 1: to bills, like if your shift heavy on or gig
Speaker 1: heavy or invoice heavy on the back half of the month,
Speaker 1: and your bills are in the front half, you're going
Speaker 1: to be stressed. But if you are paying your first
Speaker 1: half the month bills based on what you made or
Speaker 1: got paid on the back half of the last month,
Speaker 1: then it's no stress. You have the money. So I
Speaker 1: would say yes, Step one, establish a baseline monthly income.
Speaker 1: So that's looking at your last year of work essentially
Speaker 1: and taking an average of that. So we know that
Speaker 1: Q four is typically a high income quarter for a
Speaker 1: lot of servers and bartenders and even sometimes freelancers. If
Speaker 1: companies are trying to spend money before the end of
Speaker 1: the year for tax purposes, so those months are obviously
Speaker 1: going to be higher than maybe your Q one. So
Speaker 1: what you're going to do is you're going to still
Speaker 1: take the average and then in Q four you're just
Speaker 1: going to live on the average, and everything you make
Speaker 1: over that you put in savings and save for Q
Speaker 1: one when you're not making as much. So that's kind
Speaker 1: of a way to get like a baseline, a monthly income,
Speaker 1: so you're spending and budgeting doesn't go all over the
Speaker 1: place like every single month. If you're more regular, then
Speaker 1: sure you can just do it month to month. If
Speaker 1: you're varying maybe like a couple hundred bucks on either side,
Speaker 1: then certainly just live off the last month's income. But
Speaker 1: if you're varying widely, take that average, save the difference
Speaker 1: in the months you make more to supplement on the
Speaker 1: months you save less. And that's definitely going to be
Speaker 1: an account you want to put out of sight and
Speaker 1: out of mind because that's the easiest money to spend. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I cannot stress this last bit of the step enough.
Speaker 1: Of what you calculate for your kind of I can
Speaker 1: count on earning this much in a month, you're kind
Speaker 1: of baseline monthly income. That should be your net monthly earnings,
Speaker 1: whatever that number is, after you've set aside what you'll
Speaker 1: owe an estimated taxes. This has been overlooked by so
Speaker 1: many people, not just young people, not just those new
Speaker 1: to the workforce. Like I know plenty of people every
Speaker 1: year every year who forget and think that they can
Speaker 1: just live off of whatever they've earned in the year.
Speaker 1: But if you are, especially at ten ninety nine, employee
Speaker 1: that means you or a worker, that means you don't
Speaker 1: have an employee paying half of your income taxes. My
Speaker 1: recommendation is to set aside somewhere between seventeen to twenty
Speaker 1: percent of what you bring in just for taxes. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the twenty percent is going to be very nice and cushy,
Speaker 1: and so then at the end of the year you
Speaker 1: have some money back into your pocket. But this is
Speaker 1: an absolute must, because you could end up at the
Speaker 1: end of the year or come tax season and owe
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars and be completely blindsided by it and
Speaker 1: find yourself a good accountant. They will pay for themselves.
Speaker 1: This is not something to go frugal and dy unless
Speaker 1: you are a tax expert. Yeah, this will save you money.
Speaker 1: Getting an accountant who knows your industry, who has done
Speaker 1: like talk to other people in your industry to see
Speaker 1: who's doing their taxes and get some help. Yes, you
Speaker 1: must set that money aside and then determine your baseline income.
Speaker 1: So there might be two step zeros zero zero and
Speaker 1: then zero zero A and zero b. Yeah, and then
Speaker 1: step one and now we're on to step two, which
Speaker 1: is to make now a list of required monthly expenses.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about your most critical must pay monthly bills.
Speaker 1: This would include mortgage or rent, utilities. Food, We know
Speaker 1: that fluctuates a ton, but figure out a baseline number
Speaker 1: for food. What do you know you can live off of? Yeah, like, sure,
Speaker 1: I'd love to set aside a thousand dollars a month
Speaker 1: for restaurants and groceries. But if rubber meets the road
Speaker 1: and I can't afford that, what do I know I
Speaker 1: can live off of and still eat at what amount?
Speaker 1: Certainly insurance, medical insurance, car insurance minimum or required debt
Speaker 1: payments just kind of baseline monthly expenses. Now, your baseline
Speaker 1: monthly income may or may not cover all of these
Speaker 1: baseline monthly expenses that you've identified, and that's okay. The
Speaker 1: article will kind of take us through that. But this
Speaker 1: is some of the hard work of looking at what
Speaker 1: am I bringing in, what's kind of the minimum amount
Speaker 1: that I'm going to bring in, what's the minimum amount
Speaker 1: that's going to go out? Yeah, and if you have
Speaker 1: done our spending makeover, then you know the first thing
Speaker 1: you do in the spending make overs take a ninety
Speaker 1: day transaction inventory, and that can be really helpful in
Speaker 1: this step to figuring out what your required monthly expenses are,
Speaker 1: because if you're not budgeting, you will forget something. And
Speaker 1: over the past ninety days you're pretty sure it's one quarter,
Speaker 1: you're pretty sure to get almost everything besides some annual expenses.
Speaker 1: So this is where where we do the ninety day
Speaker 1: transaction inventory and then start to think like our is
Speaker 1: this monthly expense really required? Ken, is this amount of
Speaker 1: a monthly expense really required? And you can start trying
Speaker 1: to get creative with some of these bigger expenses. I
Speaker 1: was thinking the other day when we went in and
Speaker 1: bought Grant countertops for rental, and that's a very thousand
Speaker 1: thousand dollars and I negotiated a cash paid discount when
Speaker 1: when the girl was like, oh, this is already really low.
Speaker 1: I don't think we can do anymore. But I was like,
Speaker 1: check with your manager, yeah, and she did check with
Speaker 1: her management. I got forty dollars off, which in the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things is not a ton, but forty dollars.
Speaker 1: That's a light fixture now neither rental. Yeah, that's more
Speaker 1: than I could have saved by skipping a latte. A
Speaker 1: latte is six dollars, and forty dollars is more than that,
Speaker 1: or more than I could have saved with a rebate
Speaker 1: from Ibota or fetch. You know. So when it's doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like when we're making these big purchases, we neglect
Speaker 1: the big money that can be saved because it seems
Speaker 1: so insignificant. But when you're really looking at it compared
Speaker 1: to all these small saving decisions you're making, that's really
Speaker 1: where the biggest bang for your book is is these
Speaker 1: required monthly expenses, and so looking at your history and
Speaker 1: listening them out, I think is where you're you're going
Speaker 1: to get the most bang for your buck on savings.
Speaker 1: And then number three to pinpoint other monthly expenses, So
Speaker 1: the inventory works here as well. You're looking at all
Speaker 1: of these smaller, hopefully smaller discretionary expenses and then really
Speaker 1: trying to pinpoint what are the ones that I love,
Speaker 1: what are the ones I feel really good about that
Speaker 1: I want to keep moving forward, And what are the
Speaker 1: ones that just did not bring me the enjoyment that
Speaker 1: I thought they would or that they should have for
Speaker 1: what they cost. And what can I say no to
Speaker 1: in the future. So, yeah, this is a big benefit
Speaker 1: of budgeting, and I think, yeah, just a just a
Speaker 1: good habit all around. So then number four, once you've
Speaker 1: got it, it's kind of like part one in part two.
Speaker 1: Part one is figuring it all out, looking at it
Speaker 1: all on paper, and now the rest of these steps
Speaker 1: are putting it into action, and so number four is
Speaker 1: now implementing your baseline income. They reference the importance of
Speaker 1: having different bank accounts, one for your business, one for personal.
Speaker 1: This especially important for your ten ninety nine people or
Speaker 1: your small business owners. If you just have variable income,
Speaker 1: this is not as important for you, but if you
Speaker 1: do have a business, or you're a tennin nine subcontractor,
Speaker 1: having two separate accounts will really help you it will
Speaker 1: help when tax time comes mandatory, actually mandatory. It's not
Speaker 1: just nice to have good to have it, Actually you
Speaker 1: need too. Yeah, So what you're going to do then, is,
Speaker 1: because you do have a separate business account from a
Speaker 1: personal account, is move that money from your business account
Speaker 1: to your personal account just the baseline income that's your
Speaker 1: payment to yourself. Then you're going to use that money
Speaker 1: in order of importance to pay for your baseline monthly expenses.
Speaker 1: So definitely prioritize the roof over your head, and food
Speaker 1: in your stomach, and your insurance and your debt payments,
Speaker 1: and kind of keep going down the list from their
Speaker 1: prioritizing along the way, they definitely reference you know what
Speaker 1: if you don't have enough to cover in your baseline income,
Speaker 1: what your expenses are that month. Of course, that's where
Speaker 1: it might highlight, oh, I need to pick up an
Speaker 1: extra gig, or I need to pull from these other
Speaker 1: accounts that I have stacked up money in for a
Speaker 1: time like this, Which is why it's so important that
Speaker 1: like step zero zero of having some level of an
Speaker 1: emergency fund that you can pull from, but then also
Speaker 1: having our sights on, Okay, if my income is not
Speaker 1: covering my expenses, and I can't cut my expenses down
Speaker 1: any further, then we need to look at what are
Speaker 1: some ways to bring in more to cover at least
Speaker 1: the baseline needs. Yeah, and that leads us into five
Speaker 1: is to then include additional earnings into that. And so
Speaker 1: this is the place where if you are in a
Speaker 1: higher earning month, then you save the difference for the
Speaker 1: later But I would also say too, this is a
Speaker 1: good time to point out how when you are tipped
Speaker 1: or freelancer gig, you are not only going to want
Speaker 1: to track your transactions, you also are going to want
Speaker 1: to track your income. So every shift you should be
Speaker 1: tracking your income, so you should know what you are
Speaker 1: making per shift. And this is just good like to
Speaker 1: analyze like these are the best shifts to work. This
Speaker 1: is where I'm going to get the best bang for
Speaker 1: my time buck. This client is going to be the
Speaker 1: best moving forward. It's a little less money than another client,
Speaker 1: but I do a you know, ten times less work,
Speaker 1: So you are unique and that you are you are
Speaker 1: going to want to manually track your income as intentionally
Speaker 1: as you track your expenses. So that is how you
Speaker 1: can really get a grasp on your income. And hopefully
Speaker 1: increase it while not increasing the time or effort you
Speaker 1: put into working. That's always the goal is always to
Speaker 1: be able to charge more for the same amount of work,
Speaker 1: or to work less and make the same or to
Speaker 1: maybe upgrade to a better position or better shifts at work,
Speaker 1: a better restaurant, whatever. So and tracking your income will
Speaker 1: help you get to at point and so then you
Speaker 1: will have more additional earnings to where you can eventually
Speaker 1: increase your baseline income. And lastly number six, which we
Speaker 1: have kind of reference to, probably be more so number zero. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this is where they're talking about creating that buffer account
Speaker 1: for your low months when you're experiencing a little bit
Speaker 1: more lean income, you've got an account that you can
Speaker 1: pull from. We would recommend this being a priority in
Speaker 1: setting up almost before doing the other steps. As far
Speaker 1: as the action steps go, you really don't want to
Speaker 1: find yourself with more month than income at the end
Speaker 1: of each month. So having something that provides a bit
Speaker 1: of that cushion kind of smooths out some of those
Speaker 1: dips will be really helpful and will make this process
Speaker 1: of making a plan for your finances more pleasant. It's
Speaker 1: going to be really difficult if we wait for this
Speaker 1: to be the final step of Okay, now, let me
Speaker 1: make a plan for my low months. Well, if you're
Speaker 1: already experiencing a low month, then there's no way to
Speaker 1: even get through the month or stack away. More So,
Speaker 1: begin focusing on how can you put a little bit
Speaker 1: extra aside and then move through the rest of the
Speaker 1: action steps. That's that's my little take on this article. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so getting your emergency fund first, then getting your buffer
Speaker 1: to where so you are budgeting based on what you
Speaker 1: have made, not based on what you are going to make,
Speaker 1: and then creating this buffer account for your lower earning months.
Speaker 1: That's kind of the but that's before you If you
Speaker 1: want to pay off your debt, cool, that's great, But
Speaker 1: these are the things that you should be working on
Speaker 1: before you start any of those other goals like the debt,
Speaker 1: the investing, the saving for the house, whatever. These are
Speaker 1: really priority. Do you know what our buffer account is
Speaker 1: that we try to keep full up for lean months,
Speaker 1: but we're never lean with this one. The bill of
Speaker 1: the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute
Speaker 1: of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and
Speaker 1: his name is William. Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 1: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. Bill Buffalo Bills, Bill Clint,
Speaker 1: this is the bill of the week. Hi. My name
Speaker 1: is Savannah and I live in Salita, Colorado. I just
Speaker 1: moved from Tully Ride because I bought a house, and
Speaker 1: my bill of the week is baby sitting. I am
Speaker 1: an early childhood teacher and babysitting has been the most
Speaker 1: amazing side gig for me. It is a way to
Speaker 1: make extra money, help out families, spend a lot of
Speaker 1: great time with kids, and so if you're good with kids,
Speaker 1: or if you're if you don't mind being with kids,
Speaker 1: it's such an easy way to make money. You can
Speaker 1: just like hang out with them, go to the park,
Speaker 1: watch movies, do crafts, and lots of times you're getting
Speaker 1: paid for when the kid goes to bed, and you're
Speaker 1: able to get paid to like read a book, journal,
Speaker 1: do whatever. And it's just such an amazing, such an
Speaker 1: amazing side gig. So that's my bill of the week.
Speaker 1: It's enabled me to help move and buy a house,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful for it, and I definitely recommend
Speaker 1: it for anybody out there looking for a side gig.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much, oh Savannah. Good for you. There needs
Speaker 1: to be people in the world like you, because there's
Speaker 1: people in the world like me who have kids soon
Speaker 1: to be kids that hate all of the things that
Speaker 1: you just mentioned, the things. I am also a little
Speaker 1: bit blown away because not only is being a teacher
Speaker 1: part of your full time job, but then in your
Speaker 1: extra spare time, your side hustle is also babysitting. So like,
Speaker 1: you must really be a gem of a human being
Speaker 1: who truly loves being around all kinds of children, and
Speaker 1: like you found this great side gig. For me, my
Speaker 1: side gigs need to be totally different from my day job.
Speaker 1: But for you, you really found your niche and that's
Speaker 1: that's just a great bill with some extra earning, and
Speaker 1: people moms like me will pay you good Monday to
Speaker 1: do that with their kids because you can't hide like
Speaker 1: you must be really great with kids and enjoy them
Speaker 1: if you're choosing to do it in whatever additional time crafts. Okay,
Speaker 1: I will pay a premium. If you're out here listening
Speaker 1: and you think you two are an angel from heaven
Speaker 1: who is able to do your full time job as
Speaker 1: your side hustle. And you're great with kids and you
Speaker 1: just want to talk about you just do crafts or
Speaker 1: your name is Bill specifically Bill Curtis, but any Bill
Speaker 1: or you or you also know the drill other types
Speaker 1: of bills you get creative friends visit Frugal Friends podcast
Speaker 1: dot com, slash Bill, leave us your bill. We're just
Speaker 1: here with open arms, ready to celebrate you. And now
Speaker 1: it's time for oh man. Okay, So what is the
Speaker 1: hardest part about budgeting with an income that flucks you weights?
Speaker 1: What do you think? John? Okay? So this is specifically
Speaker 1: non w two is it is the taxes. For me,
Speaker 1: I hated that part about it, and it's why I
Speaker 1: hired an accountant. Have you seen those reels or TikTok's
Speaker 1: where it's like when they ask you what you do,
Speaker 1: say I'm an accountant. A song for people with like
Speaker 1: I guess, dicey um professions And when they're like, just
Speaker 1: tell them you're an accountant. Nobody asks what you do
Speaker 1: when you're an account there will be no more follow
Speaker 1: up question um. So I mean another I guess if
Speaker 1: you have a dicey tipped uh, you know, career. There
Speaker 1: you go. There's another extra tip for you, there's but Hi.
Speaker 1: So like when I started off of the W two path,
Speaker 1: because when I was a bartender still got a W two.
Speaker 1: I think I still had to claim I technically hadn't
Speaker 1: claimed my cash. Yeah, definitely taxes on it. It's not
Speaker 1: technically you. You definitely needed to huh and uh. When
Speaker 1: I got away from that, then it was no W
Speaker 1: two and oh gosh, I mess. I would mess at
Speaker 1: my taxes so bad. I did that for two years
Speaker 1: and finally I was just like an accountant literally instantly
Speaker 1: paid for himself. Yes, I and I still hate taxes.
Speaker 1: Five years of frugal friends in personal like writing personal finance.
Speaker 1: When I was freelancing, I would tell them the only
Speaker 1: things I don't write about are taxes and insurance. And
Speaker 1: I actually had a client one time my first assignment
Speaker 1: after I told him that was an article about estate
Speaker 1: tax which also has an insurance like compotponent. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I was like, never say never. That's then that's your bad.
Speaker 1: I didn't say never. I said I don't write about
Speaker 1: insurance and taxes because I'm not an expert, and I shouldn't.
Speaker 1: You shouldn't be writing on the internet unless you're an
Speaker 1: expert and what you're writing. Yeah, which is why we
Speaker 1: cover these articles because we know that's untrue. Yeah, not
Speaker 1: everyone's an expert who's putting the articles out there. And
Speaker 1: it's also why we're giving Yeah, it's why we're giving
Speaker 1: you our hot takes something, not that we're an expert
Speaker 1: on all of it. But oh, but taxes for sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that is a tough one. But if you are a
Speaker 1: non W two worker, then I think there is more
Speaker 1: reason permission to pay someone to do your taxes. But
Speaker 1: still it's a headache because you have to have so
Speaker 1: much more of a pulse on what's coming in, what's
Speaker 1: going out, keeping track of your business expenses like it's
Speaker 1: it's a lot of work. That is a you can
Speaker 1: be kind to yourself throughout the year and make it
Speaker 1: easier on yourself come tax prep season. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: I can't disagree with you, Jo. It is enough to
Speaker 1: want to work towards a W two and that's why
Speaker 1: you budget so that you can figure out how many
Speaker 1: shifts that you don't have to take, so you can
Speaker 1: use that time to learn or achieve or do whatever
Speaker 1: you need to do to get a W two job.
Speaker 1: If that's what you want if that's how much taxes
Speaker 1: are a burden for you. Yeah. For me, I think
Speaker 1: the hardest part it was is, I would say more
Speaker 1: so was I feel as though I've got a really
Speaker 1: nice baseline with the various types of jobs that I
Speaker 1: have that this doesn't feel as acute anymore. But the
Speaker 1: uncertainty and ambiguity and the feeling isolated are kind of
Speaker 1: different or other in the way that I earned money,
Speaker 1: and so it felt like none of the personal finance
Speaker 1: info out there was tailored to or even relevant for me.
Speaker 1: And even still I can catch glimpses of that now
Speaker 1: when people are like, take the four oh one K
Speaker 1: match from your employer, do this, do that, and it's
Speaker 1: like you're you, you have to be doing these things.
Speaker 1: It's like, oh, but I can't. Like some of the
Speaker 1: info or advice out there is like assuming that everyone
Speaker 1: earns in the same way and everyone can budget in
Speaker 1: the same way. Like especially all these budgeting people on
Speaker 1: social media are like and you just take this two
Speaker 1: week pay period and you put this this in this
Speaker 1: and it's so clean and pretty. But I'm just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: so I guess this space just isn't for me because
Speaker 1: my life and earning does not look anything like this,
Speaker 1: and so they're that feeling of isolation being different. But
Speaker 1: then like the uncertainty that then is attached to that
Speaker 1: of what do I do? Then if like this clean
Speaker 1: little box that apparently the rest of the world gets
Speaker 1: to live in doesn't apply to me. All that to say,
Speaker 1: we see you and we hope this episode was helpful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for listening. I hope that you,
Speaker 1: if you are tipped or gig or freelance, that you
Speaker 1: found some encouragement in this, maybe picked up a few
Speaker 1: new tips. Ultimately, there's nothing new under the sun, but
Speaker 1: there is there can be that feeling of isolation that
Speaker 1: Jill just described, and so we're hoping that you feel
Speaker 1: a little more seen and a little more confident that
Speaker 1: you can do this. And if you want a little
Speaker 1: more confidence and a little more seeing, we have a
Speaker 1: community for that. I've called the Frugal Friends Club, and
Speaker 1: it's for mainly people paying off debt, but also starting
Speaker 1: their savings funds and starting saving for houses and whatnot.
Speaker 1: So we want to congratulate one of our members for
Speaker 1: a big win. And this is a member who has
Speaker 1: a lot of big win, Yes, Debbie, So she said
Speaker 1: she had a win from the radical Middle. She said,
Speaker 1: our son and daughter in law came to celebrate Christmas
Speaker 1: with us. The gift we ordered for them is still
Speaker 1: in transit, so we had two smaller gifts. But ugh
Speaker 1: says every mom. She said focusing on progress. Part of
Speaker 1: me was like, we just need to be frugal and
Speaker 1: explained and not get them anything else. But the other
Speaker 1: part of me, the mom part, was like, let's just
Speaker 1: get them one hundred dollars gift card. So radical middle.
Speaker 1: We ended up at Low's and spent twenty three on
Speaker 1: a discount and air plant with some clamp tooty thing.
Speaker 1: She said. I was so excited. It took some discussion
Speaker 1: to keep Hubby from impulse buying. He's new to frugal
Speaker 1: I've been really working on him for a year, and
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to see how twenty twenty three unfolds financially.
Speaker 1: I could not have gotten my husband on board without
Speaker 1: the information and I've learned in here. It gives me
Speaker 1: great conversation, starting points and concrete data to support. So
Speaker 1: well done, Debbie. Oh, I feel yeah, there's something that
Speaker 1: happens during the holidays, where like all of our previous
Speaker 1: understanding and spending just kind of can go out the
Speaker 1: window when it comes to wanting to give freely and
Speaker 1: generously to others. It can cause us to compromise in
Speaker 1: ways that we might not throughout the year. But the
Speaker 1: fact that you were still able to kind of hold
Speaker 1: true and keep a pulse on and be aware of
Speaker 1: what was going to be a good idea and what
Speaker 1: was just going to end up in like regret and
Speaker 1: why did I do that? Is so amazing. And also
Speaker 1: the fact that this club has helped you in your
Speaker 1: conversations with your husband is really amazing. I'm celebrating with
Speaker 1: you just for that little side piece of what you shared.
Speaker 1: It really is the bandwagon effect in reality, like the holidays,
Speaker 1: when everybody else around you is doing something thing, you
Speaker 1: just hop on the bandwagon without even thinking, Oh, I
Speaker 1: think this happens with like birthdays and weddings and it's
Speaker 1: not negative, and yeah, sometimes you don't even realize you're
Speaker 1: doing it. But when you have a community, when you
Speaker 1: have a different bandwagon who's talking about different things, it's
Speaker 1: easier to identify and say no when you want to
Speaker 1: say no. So that's the one thing I love about
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends Club. If you are interested in checking it out,
Speaker 1: we've got courses, interviews, challenges, community. Head to Frugal Friends
Speaker 1: of podcast dot com slash club to check it out.
Speaker 1: See you next time. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 1: I was just talking with a friend about some of
Speaker 1: the new or maybe adjusted standards for tipping. Ooh, and
Speaker 1: it can feel I think. I think we've had requests
Speaker 1: from people like can you talk about tipping? I don't
Speaker 1: even want to get into the weeds, though, I'm like,
Speaker 1: here's how you save in tipping? Because you don't. It's
Speaker 1: like the opposite of what gratuity means. But right, how
Speaker 1: can I be less gratuitous? Yeah? It brought yeah, right,
Speaker 1: it brought the concept up for me because I'm like,
Speaker 1: surely my understanding of tipping is antiquated. Surely whatever my
Speaker 1: previous understanding was kind of through this pandemic and what
Speaker 1: we've seen, and I think we've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: really awesome generosity for some of these arenas and fields
Speaker 1: to do decent not not through the whole thing. I'm
Speaker 1: not like, yeah, everyone has their own experience, but sure enough,
Speaker 1: standards of tipping have gone up, like just baseline like
Speaker 1: where I previously thought getting your hair done or your
Speaker 1: nails done, like the standard was somewhere between ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen percent. And I don't think I'm wrong. I think
Speaker 1: that that was the case. But now it is like
Speaker 1: twenty percents the baseline almost across the board, like going
Speaker 1: out to eat, getting some version of a service done,
Speaker 1: Like twenty percent is where you start and it goes
Speaker 1: up from there. And I was just like floored and like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what do I need to do to adjust myself in here?
Speaker 1: And that's where the thought came of, Man, I do
Speaker 1: feel like I'm tipping everybody, Like I'm tipping someone who
Speaker 1: delivers things to my door, who brings my you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're doing a lot of renovations, We're getting
Speaker 1: a lot of deliveries. We're tipping. Those people were tipping.
Speaker 1: The people who install were tipping, the contract workers. I
Speaker 1: have friends who clean homes and they get tipped and tipping, tipping, tipping, tipping,
Speaker 1: and then realizing, like, man, as many professions as there
Speaker 1: are that get tipped, I'm not than any of them.
Speaker 1: And that's why you want to tip yeah. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm tipping so much, and I'm I'm glad too. I'm
Speaker 1: glad to give my grat If you don't want to tip,
Speaker 1: don't buy the service, right, you know. But then I'm like,
Speaker 1: how do I get myself in an arena where like
Speaker 1: someone can thank me with their money. That's so true. Um,
Speaker 1: I Heart thanks us with their money. No, no, no no,
Speaker 1: I Heart has a contract agreement with us and a revenue. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know we make them. I'm very bad bartender.
Speaker 1: You didn't make many tips? Oh, I mean I did
Speaker 1: enough to where I only had to work like two
Speaker 1: days a week. Yeah, but very good. Yeah. I was
Speaker 1: a horrible server. Yeah I was an adequate bartender. Yeah. See,
Speaker 1: Like my background is in the field of social work,
Speaker 1: where it's actually unethical to receive anything from your clients. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I when I was an acupuncture same, we were not
Speaker 1: able to receive tips. Done. Mean I didn't tips or
Speaker 1: gifts or anything. Yeah. The one thing I could say
Speaker 1: is like, you can send me. You can give me
Speaker 1: a card writing out how you felt this time went
Speaker 1: and for you, because that hards it. No gift cards,
Speaker 1: so I patients give me alcohol. Wow. Yeah, and you're
Speaker 1: just like, I can't receive that but leave it under
Speaker 1: the chair. Ituncture is different, Yeah, definitely is. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well I mean that, you know, there's pros and cons
Speaker 1: to every type of job, and I think there are
Speaker 1: a lot more. I feel a lot better about the
Speaker 1: way I make money now. Yes, it is difficult when
Speaker 1: a lot of your income is dependent on other people's
Speaker 1: versions and realities of fortunity. Yes, absolutely, good days and
Speaker 1: bad days. I'm sure all up in there, and I'm
Speaker 1: glad to not be subjected to that, yes anymore. And
Speaker 1: but we see you and if you the work that
Speaker 1: you're doing and that's how you're earning, then yeah again
Speaker 1: that that episode is Yeah, I will, I will serve me.
Speaker 1: You should tip me, You should tip me, You should
Speaker 1: tip me. I'm a tip you