If you’re self-employed, working on a zero hours contract or claiming Universal Credit, you might be dealing with a variable or irregular monthly income. This could make budgeting accurately seem impossible. After all, how can you budget when your monthly payments could vary? This page tells you more about how you can effectively budget when you have different amounts coming in each month.
- Budget for your outgoings
- Make sure you can cover regular bills
- Budget for your lowest monthly income
- Think ahead
- Build up an emergency fund
- How fluctuating income affects Universal Credit payments
Budget for your outgoings
Top tip
Try our free Budget Planner tool to start getting in control of your finances.
You might not know how much you have coming in every month, but you should have a good idea about how much is going out and this is a good place to start.
Make a list of all your important regular outgoings. This includes:
- rent or mortgage
- travel costs
- mobile phone
- electricity and gas
- insurance
- council tax
- food.
This might not be perfect, but if you know how much is going out each month, you can budget based on how much is coming in. This is also a good way to identify ways you can cut back.
Make sure you can cover regular bills
Once you’ve figured out how much you have going out, you need to be sure you can cover these costs every month. If not, you can easily be hit with charges for going into your overdraft, or face getting into debt.
If you’re worried about dipping into money earmarked for these bills, you might want to set up a separate account for your regular outgoings you can use to top up in a higher-income month. This way, you’ll always know the money is there to cover essential expenses.
Budget for your lowest monthly income
Top tip
If you’re claiming Universal Credit, try out our Money Manager tool to help you make the most of your money.
If you have a varying income, it can be tempting to budget as if every month will be a good month, but this can leave you short if you have a bad month.
A good tip is to budget for your lowest monthly income. This way, at least you’ll always have the major costs covered. Then, if you have a good month, you can revise your monthly budget up.
Alternatively, total up everything you had coming in over the last year and divide it by 12 to get an average monthly income and use this as a base mark for your income.
Think ahead
It’s important to factor in seasonal changes in income, particularly if you’re self-employed. In some industries, Christmas is a good period, while in others the holidays are a slow time, with little income coming in.
You also need to be aware of times when your outgoings will be higher, for example around Christmas, or in months when there are birthdays or annual bills, like car insurance, due.
Build up an emergency fund
If you have a good month, or a month when your outgoings are less than expected, don’t just splurge the extra cash.
Build up an emergency fund to cover unexpected costs and get you through times when your income might be lower.
A good rule of thumb is to have three months’ essential outgoings available, but even having a month’s income saved will give you a cushion to protect you against immediate income shocks.
How fluctuating income affects Universal Credit payments
Did you know?
You will need to report any earnings from self-employment every month. This needs to be done between seven days before and 14 days after your assessment date.
If you’re claiming Universal Credit you will be paid a month in arrears and the amount you get will vary depending on how much you earned during your assessment period.
The date you submit your claim is the date of the month your Universal Credit payment will be paid. This is called your assessment date.
Universal Credit is paid monthly in arrears, so you’ll have to wait one calendar month from the date you submitted your application before your Universal Credit payment is made. This is called your assessment period.
Does my pay date affect my Universal Credit payment?
Different earnings patterns can have an impact on your Universal Credit payments, particularly if you get paid more frequently because of the way the pay dates fall within certain months.
For example, if you get paid every four weeks, in some months you might receive two pay cheques.
If you get paid every two weeks, there are some months when you’ll get paid three times.
If you get paid every week, sometimes you’ll be paid five times in a month.
This can also happen if you get paid monthly when you may end up being paid earlier because your payday lands on a weekend or public holiday.
If your pay date and assessment date are close together, this could mean you earn two full pay cheques in one assessment period.
When this happens, you could be pushed over the earnings threshold and receive no Universal Credit payment for the following month, or a reduced payment.
If you live in Scotland or Northern Ireland and are getting fortnightly payments, then both payments will be reduced equally if you are still entitled to Universal Credit.
You will then need to reapply for Universal Credit but you won’t need to make a new claim.
You will need to log in to your online account and confirm your details to start the claim again.
Make sure you look at a calendar and check for months when this might happen so you can plan ahead.
This article is provided by the Money Advice Service.
