income and costs

[marjekas]

how do you plan ahead when your income is not the same every month? for instance if one has base salary and then sales commission? do you only use your base salary for budgeting and have bonuses just for extra?

can someone write me how their expenses divide during the month? what is your average weekly foodcost? how much for car and gas, mortage etc i just need to understand if i am overspending in some areas or not..

thank you all for your help

[ellenmelon]

I hope this helps:

When I was first married and had absolutely no idea how to budget my gf took a steno pad and made one page for every month. Then she set some boundaries for the categories based on the past 3 months bills. Where we could we put the bills on income averaging, like the electric bill which varies a lot, we could ask the company to average and so get the same bill each month and then once a year they made an adjustment based on the previous year. The periodic bills like insurance twice a year and taxes a couple times a year she totalled the yearly cost and then divided by twelve. That was the amount I had to be sure to NOT spend in the months with a surplus but instead be sure to put that much aside plus 10% for surprise changes. It helped me because at that time our income was varying from month to month.

The hardest part still are the surprise expenses. Our communications/electronics bills for long distance, local and regional landline, cell phone, computer, television cable, etc comes to almost $300 a month!!!!!

[Bunny]

I do the same as you we are on the Budget for both the electric and the Gas so that helps and when in summer we dont use that much gas we put it away as if we still pay that much so that in the winter we will have the xtra to pay for it.

[RobertaD]

You will want to know what your bills average to know what you will need each month.

List your bills and when they are due monthly, quarterly, semi annual, annual so you know which amounts you will need to put in savings until that bill is due and how much you will need to pay monthly. Rent/mtg, cable/satelite tv, electric/water/gas utilites will average, phone, gasoline, health/life/car insurance, doctor/dentist, RX bills, clothing, gifts, food, entertainment, car payment, car repair, etc.

Now you will know how much of your commission you will need to set aside to cover future bills. For catagories like car repair you would add up prior years bill's so you have an average on things you know will need done like oil changes, tune ups, wiper blades. For doctors/dentist you know what you co-pay is and how many times you went in the year before to set a budget say you went 4 times to the doctor and 2 times to the dentist you would want to budget for those 6 payments.

You might want to pro-rate for larger bills that aren't yearly so you have the money when you need tires, furnace serviced, etc. setting aside $10-15 a month for those bills will keep you from having to charge those bills.

Roberta

[janet]

Budgeting money is hard to do. If you can get by with your salary base..put all your extra commissions in a savings acct..for future needs... saving for a rainy day.

I find with our budget the only place I can slash costs is the food budget, and utilities by using frugal steps.
This chore does get harder as costs rise, and incomes do not rise to meet the increase.

Watch your daily spending, lunches, coffee out, parking fees, donations at work, etc.

Limit any unnecessary spending and pay your bills as they come in, and in order of importance.
House or rent payments,(gotta pay..need that shelter) Utilities(need water & lights) car payments& insurance(need that to get you back & forth to work) Food(need nourishment), medicines(need to stay healthy).

You will figure out a plan, that fits your need, and strive to stay on track. Also, if you find yourself running behind..I found it was always better to call the gas company or creditor and tell them before you are late..they are more understanding that way.





janet