Challenge to be debt free - anybody self employed and have variable pay.

Liveitup

Hi all,

I would love to be debt free by August 2017. The problem is my husband is self employed so every week gets paid a different wage. How do others cope with this?

My wages dont even cover the direct debit I use £35 a week of my husbands wages to cover these. The rest of my husbands wages is spent on food, petrol, daughters activities, hair cuts, clothes and everyday spending.

Any help is much appreciated.

Sanctioned_Parts_List

Two ways of doing it:

i) either budget based on husband's lowest weekly rate. Use any surplus to overpay/save
ii) take your husband's 3 month average and base your budgeting on that. Make sure he's paid into an account that's not used for daily spending, and transfer a standard sum each month for your needs, a standard sum to another account for his discretionary spending, and let the law of averages balance the books.

Of the two, (i) is the safest. Don't forget not to spend the VAT, as a friend of mine did. That turned out... badly. _pale_

WantToBeSE

When i was self-employed i did exactly what SPL suggests above.
I looked at my accounts for the past 3 months, worked out that the absolute minimum i ever spent was £X. So i budgeted with that.

Anything over and above that was put towards debt.

National_Debtline

Hi

It’s worth your husband contacting Business Debtline. They specialise in advising self-employed people and the associated issues, such as dealing with fluctuating incomes.

www.businessdebtline.org

James
@natdebtline

zenshi

I'm self employed and when things hit rock bottom, I took a second weekend job that fits around my business....was tricky.

My second job is only 10 hours a week but that wage is allocated to my small monthly debt payments and food and petrol

I knew how much my monthly utilities were. Next was to add up all my annual bills is car insurance, oil etc etc divide that by 12

Self employed earnings are allocated as follows.....money in bank for monthly Direct debits, then money in pot to cover annual bills . Any surplus then goes into my 'debt pot' So far, my 'debt pot' money has cleared my family debt

I currently don't have an emergency fund so the 'debt pot' is being put to that. Once I have that in place, the money will then be used hopefully to achieve some F & F on my credit cards

I am fortunate I guess in that I live alone, so if work was very slack for a week or so, I'm quite happy to live on beans on toast or jacket spuds. Not so easy when you have children though

zenshi

I'm self employed and when things hit rock bottom, I took a second weekend job that fits around my business....was tricky.

My second job is only 10 hours a week but that wage is allocated to my small monthly debt payments and food and petrol

I knew how much my monthly utilities were. Next was to add up all my annual bills is car insurance, oil etc etc divide that by 12

Self employed earnings are allocated as follows.....money in bank for monthly Direct debits, then money in pot to cover annual bills . Any surplus then goes into my 'debt pot' So far, my 'debt pot' money has cleared my family debt

I currently don't have an emergency fund so the 'debt pot' is being put to that. Once I have that in place, the money will then be used hopefully to achieve some F & F on my credit cards

I am fortunate I guess in that I live alone, so if work was very slack for a week or so, I'm quite happy to live on beans on toast or jacket spuds. Not so easy when you have children though
.

Liveitup

Thank you for all your replies.
We have not got an emergency fund at the moment but I always try to and then we have to dip into it

I suppose it hit home when the last 2 weeks he earnt no money as he was down for jury service but never got called to go to court so couldnt claim anything.

I will try to work out a minimum spend and try and save that just incase he gets no work again.

EssexHebridean

He presumably had to attend the court, but just didn't get onto a case? In any event there should be scope for him to claim the basic loss of earnings back.

See This Link

Houseplant26

Hello!

I just wanted to say thank you for the kind post on my thread.
Also I don't know f you're still sticking with this thread, but I wish you and your partner all the best. My father was self employed for years in retail, and I know it is hard work and stressful! I don't know how they managed finances but the suggestions from above sound really good. I do know he kept receipts and paperwork for everything!!! He seemed good at his book keeping, if old fashioned (think notebooks and boxes of receipts).

Even now my parents keep their receipts and track their spending I think in part because my dad is retired (a bit earlier due to him needing to close his business in recession) and my mother being part time. I'm proud of them.