Managing Money When You Are Self-Employed

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When I made the decision to go self-employed and quit my job in a supermarket, I knew that things wouldn’t always be easy. Before, I had the security of a regular, although not huge, income and I knew that we would never have to worry about how much money we had at certain times during the month. Being self-employed can be really tough sometimes and we need a bit of help with paying bills. Managing money when you are self-employed can be tough so here’s how we try to deal with it as a family.

As a blogger, I can never tell how much work I will get on a monthly basis. I can never tell from one month to the next if I will earn a set amount or if I will have a really good month. It’s all just a big game of luck and hoping for the best sometimes. I wish I could say that some months I can afford to put some aside just in case the next month doesn’t go as well but that’s not really the case. When you have a family there’s always something that money needs to go on and at the moment, saving isn’t much of an option for us.

For us, having a steady flow of money coming in in key. When I take on work I try to make it as spaced out as possible. There’s no point in taking on so much work at the beginning of the month that you don’t have the time to do or the days to post it. If I took on all of my work in the first week of the month I’d be crying in a corner. I also don’t want my readers to have post after post that I am being paid to write. My blog is about my family, how we feel and the things we do and I want to make sure that is always the main focus.

Luckily, I do a few other things on the side like selling thing on my local Facebook sites and being a member of a few different survey sites. These obviously don’t make me loads of money but sometimes they keep us ticking by or they make it so we can have a nice day out somewhere.

We’re really lucky that John’s wages pays things like our mortgage and the majority of our bills. If this wasn’t the case I’m not sure I would have been able to take the risk. I do always have to keep track of what work I’m waiting to be paid for and what bills we have coming out when. For me, being self-employed means always having to watch what we spend most of the time.

Now, this certainly isn’t the case for all self-employed bloggers. I know plenty of bloggers who earn a really nice living from being self-employed and that’s great. I also know others who make less than I do right now. Everyone is different and we all do different things. Of course, I would love for life to be a bit easier and to earn a bit more money but being self-employed means being home for my family and doing something that I love.

Taking care of your money no matter your circumstances is so important. I’d love to hear any tips you have for managing money. Let me know in the comments!