Using Budget Planner with Variable Income

canspendnomore

I'm trying to sort out an accurate budget with the planner, but DH's income is variable, as he has expenses in his payslip.

I know that he's already paid outnsome of the money, but his mileage and petrol varies.

It might be obvious, but how can I do the budget, without changing it every month, so I can get a realistic idea of what we spend, need to spend etc.

TIA

amiehall

My income is quite variable, however, when I budget, I would use the same income on the budget each month. I've always tried to use the lowest possible income I think I might get on the budget. Then I'd aim to save anything I do earn over this amount.

jennifernil

Are his expenses paid with wages as one amount, or as a separate amount?

My OH had his paid separately, so he got a credit card to use only for expenses, set up a second current account to receive only the expenses, and paid the expenses CC out of that.

That left our main account with only the regular income and bills.

If a surplus built up in the expenses account, I then moved it to savings.

Same with any suplus in our main account. Once I had worked out what was needed for the regular bills and compared this to his regular income, I set up a SO to transfer the regular surplus to savings. Then, if he had any overtime, I would transfer that manually.

If he gets one combined amount, you could always transfer the expenses part to the second account manually.

If 2 accounts don't work for you, then you need to budget for only regular bills out of basic income then save the rest till it is needed to pay the extra amounts he needs to spend. Even just getting a separate CC for him to use on business fuel will make things easier, as it will keep business and personal spending separate.

r1chscott

[EDIT: Whoops - just like Jennifer says above! That's the problem with leaving a reply open for ages before clicking post!}

Expenses shouldn't come in to your budget because they are simply replacing money that you have already outlaid.

The way I work is to stick all of the expenses on a credit card, then when I get paid I transfer the expenses money into a different account and then pay the CC in full via DD from that account. No nasty surprises that way!

If you have to charge mileage and petrol back to the company then still do it the same way and you should be able to pay for (a reasonable percentage) of petrol and servicing out of the secondary account without touching your primary income (at least that's the way it should work if the amount being paid for mileage is fair!)

canspendnomore

We're planning to have 2 accounts, one for just our 'spending' money in, so that would work in theory If I ignore the variable amount and he uses a card for his petrol.

Thanks for that, I shall have a bit of a look and come back if I need some inspiration again.