Balanced Budgets Keep Me Balanced
When a sudden change in my work schedule caused a mini-panic, one thing brought me back to reality — my budget
I’m still new to the life of an entrepreneur and the inconsistent income that comes with it.
For many years, anytime I played with the idea of working for myself, my self-employed friends always asked the same question: can you live with an unpredictable income?
The closest I came to answer was, and still is: yes, but only if I have some guarantees.
One of my self-employed friends suggested I get a part-time job for the sake of having some regular income. Then adjust living expenses to live on that salary while the business grows — because it will take time.
So I did and prided myself for striking such a balance so early on.
I took the job with the understanding that I would be backfilling vacations over the summer. In July the part-time job brought full-time hours. By August, it was part-time plus.
I agreed to all of the shifts and long hours that came my way because I knew there was a shelf-life. I assumed most people were taking their vacations before Labour Day, then after that the remaining federal election would require backfill. I figured I could count on full-time hours until September 20th.
I wasn’t surprised by the drop-off in shifts. I was, however, surprised by the budgetary panic that came over me.
The business is still growing. It’s not sustainable. How am I going to pay my bills?
First, I e-mailed two friends who are up-to-speed on my current work situation. I’ve confided to both separately how I’m feeling burnout take over and haven’t been able to tend to creative projects at all this summer.
Their responses were immediate and comforting. They reminded me I had been given the gift of time and could now focus on my own work again. The job that was supposed to be part-time was all-consuming. The job I want to eventually live on was languishing.
In truth I was thinking of asking for this shift reduction for weeks. I just never had the courage to do so. My friends also gently reminded me of this. The new perspective was starting to come into focus. I just needed to check one more thing.
I quickly checked my budget.
I have been keeping regular updates (read: daily) to my budget ever since my first bout with burnout. During my mental health leave I worked up to various projects: from sampling the full menu of Starbucks holiday drinks, to paying off $20,000 of consumer debt.
Developing a budget system gives the full picture of the very grownup life I’ve built in almost 20 years. Once I conducted the forensics of my consumer debt, I realized it was just an accumulation of decision fatigue: late files on tax returns, a stockpile of benefits claims, even an insurance claim that took up half the debt.
After the dust cleared and those costly items were checked off my to-do list I realized I was a lot closer to my goals then I realized. The effort was worth it and the stress-loop slowed down.
I continue to check my budget in uncertain times. At the beginning of the pandemic I quickly realized how much I saved in not buying things out of boredom. Months of overall uncertainty was manageable because I knew I was building up emergency savings.
Now, as a newly minted entrepreneur, my budget came to the rescue and put a stop to my catastrophic thinking.
I estimated what my regular pay would be only getting two to three shifts a week. I opened my Google docs, looked at my monthly expenses and figured out the average costs for the necessities.
Within minutes I calculated I can, in fact, cover my basic expenses. This means no clothing or furniture splurges and still no trips. Doggie day care is now reduced to the three-day minimum. But that’s it. Not at all drastic and essentially how I lived during the first part of the pandemic.
It took me longer to panic about this change than it did to come up with a game plan. Once I felt assured that my basic expenses would be covered, my mind was reopened to the projects left to languish all summer.
Which means the worst case scenario is still liveable. I now have time to develop my creative projects and future income. Those projects may be inconsistent, but that money is the bonus income. It’s what I’ll use to build savings for the clothing splurges, home renos and trips.
And more time with the dog? Well, that’s priceless.
This article is for entertainment purposes only and should not be taken as financial advice or guidance.
