Budgeting income
Income is where most first budgets wobble. The salary is easy; the freelance check, the bonus, the side gig are not. The fix is not more precision — it is treating reliable money and irregular money differently, starting in the draft.
Budget the reliable number
Plan with the amount you would trust in a bad month — the salary, the regular retainer, the income that has arrived every month for a while. That number is what you divide into jobs.
Irregular income gets a parking envelope
Money that does not arrive on schedule goes into its own envelope when it lands — irregular income — and stays there until you decide its job in a later month. You are not forced to plan a check you cannot predict, and you are not allowed to quietly spend it as if it were salary.
Bonuses and spikes, deliberately
A bonus is a decision, not a habit. While the month is open you can move a spike into savings, onto a big bill, or out of the budget entirely — the transfer record shows what you decided, and when.
Irregular income, worked
A 7,500.00 salary arrives on the 1st. The food envelope was planned at 1,500.00. On the 14th a 300.00 freelance payment lands, and the food envelope has already spent 83.00:
Where income lands
Salary, freelance, side income: one envelope rule that keeps them all honest.