Our Emergency Fund Saves the Day!

If you follow me on Twitter, you may have read that, yesterday, my car broke down.  I’m taking it to the shop today, but I’m not sure yet how much it will cost to repair.  It is less than a month until Christmas and suddenly, we have this unexpected expense!

I can’t say that I didn’t feel any worry.  I did (I needed to get to work!).  But, not because we didn’t have the money.  We do!  Thanks to Dave Ramsey and his Total Money Makeover baby steps, we have an emergency fund!

A Homemaker's (Not Handyman's ) Guide to Preparing for a Kitchen Floor Project

I can't believe it has been a whole week since I last posted!  Time sure flies when you are having fun!  Even though it is really hard work, I am having a blast working with my dad on my kitchen makeover.

I spent last week patching walls and getting things ready for the floor to go down.  My Hubby also put up my new light fixture (electrical work makes me a little nervous).  What a difference!  I'll actually be able to see my food when I cook, now.  With the old light, it is truly a miracle I've never given my family food poisoning! 

Before: An ugly, plastic, florescent light.

After:  A pretty light fixture with a brushed nickle finish

Then, on Saturday my dad and I started peeling off the sticky vinyl tiles only to discover what we thought were ceramic tiles underneath.  Turns out it was actually two layers of Formica tiles.  After talking to some people with more experience, we decided it would be best to pull them up and start with the sub-floor.

The blue layer is the peel-and-stick and the one with the design is the top layer of Formica.  You can kind of see the speckled, bottom layer of Formica peeking out.  The black is the adhesive on the sub-floor

My dad, hard at work.

Finally finished!

It wasn't easy, but I think we made a good choice.  The last thing we want is to do all the work of laying tile only to have problems with it in a couple of years because we were in a hurry.  Better to do it right the first time!

After getting down to the sub-floor, we needed to lay concrete backer board.  We started that step on Tuesday.  First we had to patch the hole where the vent was, then we had to move the water line for the refrigerator.  Next, we cut out the backer board and laid it down to make sure it fit before setting it with thin-set and screwing it down.

I only got to work for about 45 minutes on Tuesday, but my dad decided to plow ahead and work without me.  This is what I came home to when I had a hour between my kids' gym class and when I had to leave for work.  My dad is just awesome!

Spreading the thin-set.

Laying the backer-board

Yesterday we laid the tile and tomorrow we will grout it.  I am so happy with how it looks!  Here is the difference so far:

Before                                                                     After

All this waiting between steps means I will be without a kitchen for about a week!  No easy task, but well worth it.

My kitchen stuff is taking over my dining room!

I did lots of thinking about how to prepare for this kitchen-less week and here is my to do list to help it go as smoothly as possible:

A Homemaker's (Not Handyman's ) Guide to Preparing for a Kitchen Floor Project

1) Decide what can be moved.  If you are putting down a new floor, big items like your refrigerator may need to be moved anyway.  Can it be moved somewhere you can still access it (mine is in my dining room)?  Don't forget the small appliances!  If you have a toaster oven or crock-pot, they greatly increases your cooking options.

2) Plan your menu!  Now that you know what tools you will have access to, you can choose foods that can be prepared outside you kitchen.  Remember to plan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  Meals like sandwiches that don't require cooking are great.   But the crock-pot and toaster oven can really increase your choices.  You may also want to make a few things ahead of time that can just be heated up.

3) Make clean-up easier!  While you can do dishes in the bathroom sink or tub if needed, it isn't always the best plan.  Instead, buy some disposable dishes.  Make sure you get plates, bowls, utensils, cups, and napkins.  If you plan on using the crock-pot, invest in some crock-pot liners.  They really speed up the clean-up process!  For the toaster oven, make sure to line your cooking sheet with foil so you can just toss that in the garbage.

4) Don't forget the serving-ware.   Think about what types of big spoons, spatulas, and other serving utensils you will need out of the kitchen.  Trying to dish out servings of your yummy crock-pot stew with a disposable, plastic spoon won't be fun!

5) Grab the garbage bags.  If you keep your garbage bags in the kitchen, make sure to grab them before you begin your project.  You'll need a place for all those disposable dishes!

6) Remember your medication.  We keep a lot of our medication in a box in our kitchen.  This includes vitamins and supplements, but also things like ibuprofen that we may need after all the noise from the project!

7) Focus on the results!  With the kitchen taking over the rest of the house and your family eating off paper plates like every day is a picnic, it can be easy to become annoyed or overwhelmed.  But, keep reminding yourself of why you are doing this and how great the finished project is going to be!

Menu Plan Monday: The Ultimate Grocery Shopping List

I'm late getting this up today.  I normally write out Monday's post on Sunday.  But, we were busy finishing the kids' Halloween costumes and also went to my in-laws' for my father-in-law's birthday dinner.  No time for writing a blog post!

Today, I wanted to share a look at my "Ultimate Grocery Shopping List."

My shopping list has gone through a lot of changes over the years.  Everything from a simple scribble on scrap paper to the picture you see above.  It looks complicated, but after getting it set up, it make things so simple!

Independent Learning Days

I know many a homeschooling family who use a non-traditional school schedule.  One does school for three weeks and takes a week off, year-round.  Another doesn't do school on Mondays and uses that day for field trips (which really is school, just not classroom work).  And I know many who don't do school on Fridays.

The great part of these days off is that it gives you a chance to get things done that you have no time for otherwise, like grocery shopping and other errands, special projects around the house, and paying bills.

But, my state requires a specific number of school days each year and schooling year-round isn't something my Hubby and I want to do.  So, until this year, I thought the alternative schedules were out of the question for us.

That is, until I had the idea of "Independent Learning Days."

The Right Tool for the Job

I am going to publish this post after the sun comes up (whenever I wake up), but it is actually 1:45 am as I start to write this.  I am having trouble falling asleep.  Thankfully, I don't have to be awake early tomorrow since my dad took the kids camping tonight and they won't be home until tomorrow afternoon.  Since I was awake anyway, I thought I'd get a jump on tomorrow's today's post.

I've shared pictures of the disaster that is my desk in the past.  Sadly, it hasn't improved since then.  I clean it off and it stays that way for about a day.  But, slowly, items without a real home or stuff that I use so often I hate to put it away (only to get it right back out - ie. my camera and a couple school books) start to make it back to the top of my desk.  Before you know it, the desk is covered in junk.

Unfortunately, the area under my desk isn't much better.  I have a shredder and a pretty, wicker, waste basket that I keep under there to toss all the junk mail until I take it to the recycling.  But, as you can see from the picture below, it always seems to be overflowing.

The mess under the desk.

My Afternoon Experiment

It always sounds, even to my ears, like nothing but excuses when I say that I have trouble doing my daily Bible reading.   But, in the mornings, my brain isn't even working and I forget everything I've ready and studied by noon.   In the evenings, I'm often at work or spending rare time with my hubby.   Then, in the afternoons, when my brain is fully functional, I have kids that I need to concentrate on and a house I have to clean.  For years, I've tried various times and places for my daily time with God.  But, I just couldn't find something that worked.  This often left me spiritually dry and in need of Him.

How I am finding time to spend in God's Word in the midst of my busy life...

However, I think I may finally have found a solution.  I'm calling it my "Afternoon Experiment" because, I can't honestly call it a success after so short a time.  Hopefully, it will soon become routine and will allow me to spend more time reading the Word of God and learning about Him.

This new routine involves two things: A time of concentrated cleaning and an afternoon quiet time.

Taking the "Work" Out of Workboxes

Workboxes in a rolling cart between the kids' desks.

When I first came across the idea of Sue Patrick's Workbox System, I was immediately intrigued.  The more I researched, the more I liked the concept.  Anything that helps this very disorganized momma get her act together is much appreciated!  So, I decided to incorporate it into our schooling.

Workboxes are a system developed to organize a homeschooler's day by separating their work into different boxes.  The boxes are worked in order.  This encourages kids to work on the more difficult, less enjoyable stuff, in order to get to the fun stuff in other workboxes.  It also allows kids to see what they need to work on next, helping them become more independent workers (no more asking, "What do I do next?").

I knew from the beginning that I was going to have to tweak it to fit our lives.  The most obvious way is that we just don't have room for one, much less two, shoe racks filled with plastic bins that Sue suggests using in our tiny school room.  I honestly don't know anyone who does!  But, there are plenty of examples of alternative workboxes online.  I finally decided on a rolling cart for us.  It didn't take up too much room, yet there was plenty of space for our books and supplies in the drawers.  I only got one since my kids are working at the same level.  I just put two of each worksheet/supply in the drawers
The other tweaks have been changes that I've made along the way as I've seen what works best for us.  If I've learned anything as a homeschooling mom, it's that it is important to be flexible!  Take what works and run with it.  But, if something doesn't work, don't be afraid to change it, try something different, or drop it completely.  Now, obviously I'm not talking about completely giving up on math.  But, rather the method or curriculum you are using.  Not all curricula and systems work for all kids and families.

Birthday Traditions

I feel like I haven't been posting at all lately.  Between my busy week last week and a stomach bug I had yesterday, I've missed a lot of days!  I'm hoping to get back on track and pasting on a regular basis.

Today, I wanted to share a little with you about the party this weekend.  My twins are turning seven in a about a week, but we held their party a little early with the hopes of it being warm enough to swim.  It ended up being 76 and sunny.  Not warm enough for me to brave the pool, but the kids had no problem jumping right in!

The kids' birthday is a pretty big deal around here.  Maybe because they are twins and share a birthday - making it twice as big.  Or maybe because of my own birthday issues (I'm a Christmas baby - Dec 21 - and my birthday tended to get lost in the shuffle).  Whatever the reason, we love to celebrate their birthday!

We have a few traditions that we always observe and a few new things we like to try each year.

Dancing Oobleck

We had a blast on our first day of school learning about sound waves with "Dancing Oobleck."

Our first attempts to make this experiment work didn't turn out too well.  But, Daddy was persistent and we eventually got the result we were looking for!    Plus, by having to be patient, keep trying, and be flexible enough to make adjustments, the kids got a bonus lesson that wasn't even planned.  How's that for keeping a positive outlook? ;)

Here is the video of our "Dancing Oobleck."



Much of this information is in the video, but just in case you didn't catch it, here is how it works.  First, you will need the following supplies:

• Cornstarch
• Water
• A metal cake pan or cookie sheet.  You want it to have a pretty smooth surface.
• A speaker that can be hooked to a computer
• A sound wave generator program for the computer (Type "sound wave generator" into a search engine to find one to download.  There are several free one's out there.)

The cornstarch and water will be used to make oobleck.  If you remember, we made oobleck for our science experiment last year.   This experiment uses it again.  Here is the recipe:

Oobleck Recipe

1. Mix 1 part water with 1 1/2 to 2 parts cornstarch. You might want to start with 1 cup of water and 1 1/2 of cornstarch.  You can then work in more cornstarch for a more "solid' oobleck. It will take a bit of mixing to get it to the right consistency
2. Mix in a few drops of food coloring if you want colored oobleck.  (I chose not to do this because I didn't want everyone to have colored hands.  It was just as much fun without it.)

Place the oobleck in the cake pan/cookie sheet.  You can actually mix it directly on the pan.  Place the pan on the speaker.  Turn on the sound wave generator.  You will want to try out different tones, but 120 hz is a good place to start.

If it doesn't work right away, don't give up!  It took a lot of trial and error before we made this video! The instructions I found online weren't very detailed, so hopefully this tutorial will save you from making some of the same mistakes we did!

Tips:

1. Lay the speaker so that it is facing up and is level.  If it is slanted at all, the oobleck will tend to slowly move in one direction.  We had to shove something under one end to get the speaker completely level.
2. Remove anything blocking the woofer (the actual speaker part).  We used my husbands PA speaker that has a grate on the front to protect it.   We eventually figured out that too much of the vibration was escaping in the space between the woofer and our pan.  We removed the grate and set the pan directly on the woofer and immediately got better results.  A smaller speaker might have worked better.  But, we used what we had.
3. You may need to hold the pan still while conducting the demonstration.  If you look closely at the video, you can see that I am holding the pan with one hand.  Otherwise, it just vibrated right off!
4. You may need to experiment with different consistencies for the oobleck.  If it doesn't work at first, you may need to add water so it will be thinner or add cornstarch to make it thicker.
5. If the oobleck starts to spread out, away from the center of the woofer, you may need to move it back.  You see me doing this several times in the video.  
6. I noticed that when I did move the oobleck, it helped start the movement, too.  So, if nothing seems to be happening, you might want to push the oobleck around a bit.

If you try this out, I would love to hear how it goes!  Hopefully you find my tips helpful and you have as much fun as we did!

A Successful First Day!

Despite my procrastination over the summer and my lack of time the past few weeks, our first day of school was a success!  A lot of that success had to do with prayer and a wonderful husband who happily goes along with my silly plans and is willing to jump in when I need him.

We started out the day with our annual first-day pictures.  Unlike many first-day pictures, my kids don't have backpacks or notebooks.  Instead of heading to school, we are headed out for our "not-back-to-school" breakfast!

Smiling for the first day of school

Shyly grinning for the first day of the school.

This is the look you get when you ask Bub to hug his sister for the camera.  He can be a bit camera-shy.

"Decimal Street" from Math-u-See

After breakfast, we came back home and did some work.  We started with calendar time, followed by Bible.  Then,we broke out decimal street and our blocks for math using Math-u-See.  Sis was still in the playroom/schoolroom playing with the blocks even after we were done with school!

After math, they did a little copy work.  This is something we do every day to work on handwriting, grammar, spelling, and reading.  I started them out easy with three simple sentences.  By the end of the year, one of my goals is for them to be copying whole pages.

Bubby working on copy work

Sissy concentrating hard.  Poor Lefty has to work twice as hard!

The kids are hard at work while their nutty mom takes pictures

Our very last task for the day was our science lesson!  We always finish off our first day with a bang by doing a fun experiment, demonstration, or project.  This year, we did "Dancing Oobleck!"  This is a fun experiment with sound waves.  I promise I'll be back tonight or tomorrow to post all about it.  I even have a video that I'm very excited about!  I just have to finish editing it.  Be sure to check back!

I'd love to hear more about your kids' first day of school.  Whether they are homeschooled or attend a public or private school, the first day of school is always exciting!  I'd also love to know how I can pray for you and your kids this school year and I would love your prayers, too.

As promised, here is the link to our "Dancing Oobleck" experiment!

I Love Aldi!

In my quest to lower my grocery bills, I visited Aldi today.  Aldi is a discount grocery chain.  If you don't have an Aldi near you, I would like to express my deepest sympathy.  If you do and you've never been, I highly recommend you schedule an afternoon to go visit!  No, I'm not getting paid to say any of this (who would pay a blogger that hardly anyone reads?).  I just really love Aldi!

I try to make a trip to our nearest Aldi every couple of months at least.  I stock up on canned goods and boxed items.  I also get some snacks and cereal.  I save a ton of money when I do that.  But, today I actually bought some produce and some bread.  Everything I bought was cheaper than at Kroger's.  I know this thanks to my handy price book that I've been working on.  As a part of my effort to save money, I'm going to start going to Aldi more often.  At least every month.  Hopefully every two weeks.  It is a longer drive and time isn't always available.

If you do decide to visit your Aldi, there are a few things you will need to know.

1) Take a quarter.  Yep, a quarter.  One of the ways Aldi keeps their prices so low is they are a bit protective of their carts.  You will need a quarter to get one.  Unless a very nice person who just finished shopping offers you theirs for free.  This happens to me pretty often.  I believe it has something to do with feeling so great about all the money you've saved causing you to want to give to others.  Of course, I always pass along my free cart when I am done.  If you aren't a link in the "pay-it-forward" cart blessing, don't worry.  You'll get your quarter back when you return your cart.  This saves them from having to pay someone to gather up all the carts from the lot. 

A really bad pic of sis helping bag groceries

2) Speaking of carts, the people who generally wrangle the carts at your average grocery store are the baggers.  Aldi doesn't have baggers.  Once again this saves them money and they pass the savings along to you.  After the cashier rings your items up, they get put straight into another cart.  Then, after you pay, you take your cart over to the long counter they have available and bag your own groceries.  I actually like this because things never get bagged the way I want at Kroger.  Some bags will be practically empty while others are almost impossible for me to lift and I always end up with cleaning supplies in with my raw meat if I'm not careful to watch the bagger.

3) Along with bagging your own groceries, you will also need to bring your own bags.  Once again, this is a money saver for you.  All those bags cost a pretty penny!  They do have bags you can buy if you need to, though.   They have paper bags and canvas ones.  I have a slew of canvas bags that I use when I go to Kroger, too.  They are easier for me to carry since I can sling them on my shoulder, and they don't tear from box corners.  They cost me about $1 each, but they have lasted me several years.

4)  They don't accept credit cards.  I know this is a hard one for some people.  But, every time a store accepts a credit card, they are charged a fee.  That fee is then passed on to the customers through higher prices.  Aldi's goal is to keep things as affordable as possible while still offering quality.  So, you can use a debit card, EBT card, or cash.

5) Aldi's isn't very pretty.  No, it isn't dirty.  I'd never send you to a dirty grocery store!  But, the one by me is pretty outdated, the shelves are piled high with groceries and there aren't any flashy displays.  This saves money on floor space and costly store makeovers.

6) You won't find many name-brands.  Other than a handful of weekly specials, Aldi only carries their brand.  So, you will be buying generics.  But, I promise, I have never been unhappy with anything I bought at Aldi!  In fact, many of the things we buy there we prefer over Kroger's brand or even the name-brand.  Plus, Aldi has a double satisfaction guarantee.  If you aren't happy with an item, they will replace the item and refund your money.  Seems to me it is worth a try!

Now that you know what to expect, let me show you why I love Aldi so much:

Cart full of groceries at Aldi

Bub (who refused to be in the picture) holding up our Aldi receipt

See that cart filled to overflowing with groceries?  That whole cart cost me $150. Here is what I got for my money:

• 2 boxes of ice cream treats
• 3 loaves of white bread
• 5 boxes of Jambalaya mix (we love Jambalaya, but I just don't have time to make it from scratch!)
• 1 bag of jumbo marshmallows
• 1 bag of baby carrots (the kids eat these like candy!)
• 3 tubes of Crest toothpaste
• 3 cans of tuna
• 1 pack of American cheese slices (we aren't picky about our cheese on grilled cheese)
• 2 boxes of stuffing mix
• 2 lbs of bacon
• 1 pack of English muffins
• 2 packs of hot dog buns
• 24 cans of green beans
• 12 cans of peas
• 12 cans of mixed veggies
• 12 boxes of shells & cheese
• 1 multi-pack of Ramen noodles
• 2 packs of fruit cups
• 4 boxes of hamburger skillet meals (aka. generic Hamburger Helper)
• 3 jars of spaghetti sauce
• 2 jars of alfredo sauce
• 2 rolls of paper towels
• 1 jar of garlic powder
• 1 bottle of olive oil
• 12 boxes of breakfast fiber bars
• 1 box of brownie mix
• 2 boxes of cereal
• 1 jar of cinnamon
• 1 head of lettuce
• 1 bag of dishwashing tablets
• 3 bunches of broccoli
• 4 cans of pasta (ravioli and spaghetti o's)
• 1 tub of cat litter
• 6 cans of cream of chicken

You can see from my list that a lot of these things are convenience foods.  I mentioned that I am slowly trying to cut these out and make more from scratch.  Convenience foods are generally more expensive.   But, their staples, produce, dairy, and meat prices are also really great!  A cart full of groceries at Kroger generally costs me about $250.

Now, I know that someone out there must be wondering why I would buy 24 cans of green beans.  Well, like I said, I'm used to only going every couple of months.  I would go and stock up on non-perishables like canned and boxed goods.  They would last a long time and I wouldn't have to risk buying them at a higher price when I couldn't make it to Aldi for a while.  I keep it on shelves in my garage and won't have to buy more for a few months at least. 

I wanted to go ahead and stock up now while I am still working on my price book and menu plans.  Sort of a back up just in case.  But, I definitely plan to visit Aldi more often so I can also buy perishable items there.

If you visit your local Aldi, I'd love to hear about it!

Menu Plan Monday: Rotating Plans and a Price Book

I'm so thankful for everyone who stopped by last week for my first Menu Plan Monday!  It was so much fun!  I'm linking up again over at I'm an Organizing Junkie for this week's Menu Plan Monday.

Last week, I mentioned Kate Megill from Teaching What is Good and her new e-book, Cut it Out!  How I Feed my Family of 10 for $500 a Month Without Coupons. To get started with her suggestions, I made up the first of my rotating menus.  Before reading this book, I always just made a new dinner menu from scratch every couple of weeks.  But, with Kate's advice, I'm switching to a rotation of menus that include all our meals.  For us, this means breakfast, lunch, DH's lunch (he packs for work), and dinner.  I'm also including some desserts.  It is a little more prep time up front.  But, it is going to save me tons of time in the long run.  Instead of thinking up a new menu every couple of weeks, I will just have to pull up the next menu in the rotation!

Kate also recommends having a set shopping list with each menu so that you don't have to figure out everything you will need each time.  Instead, it will be right there waiting.  If you already having something in your pantry (or in my case, a shelf in my garage), you just cross it off the list.  Another thing that takes a little more time in the beginning, but will save tons of time in the long run!  Kate even has some downloadable spreadsheets (have I mentioned I LOVE spreadsheets) that come with the purchase of her e-book to help you get started.  No doubt, I will eventually manage to make them more complicated, but they really are a great tool!

Kate also teaches how to set up a price-book.  I had heard the concept before and had started one a month or so back.  But, with her help, I was able to really get it up and going this week.  A price-book is a list of items you regularly buy (I can just use my shopping list from my menus), and how much they cost at the stores you generally shop at.  This way, you can find the best price and really learn to recognize a good sale.  This is another downloadable spreadsheet she offers when you buy the e-book!

On my first grocery shopping trip I didn't really spend a whole lot less than I would a normal grocery trip.  But, I was also completely out of a lot of staples, not to mention other foods.  So, I pretty much had to buy every single ingredient on my list!  Yikes!  This does leave me with plenty of food, though.  I know for certain that I have enough food for every single meal for two weeks (with plenty left over!).  Before, I would often run out of things and have to make quick trips (where I inevitable end up buying stuff we don't need) throughout the week.  Not this time!  So, even though I didn't spend less on my actual grocery trip (This time.  I'm pretty certain there is going to be a significant difference next time just by looking at my full fridge and shelves), I think I probably saved over $100 just avoiding those "quick trips."

Kate warns that this isn't a miracle, over-night solution.  It is a process that is going to take time to implement.  Just setting up the price-book alone can't be done in a day (at least you'd have to have a LOT more energy than me to get that done!).  So, I'm being patient and working toward progress.

In the meantime, here is this week's menu:

Monday - Stir-fry chicken, veggies
Tuesday - Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread
Wednesday - Veggie soup, bread
Thursday - Parsley Parmesan Chicken, potato wedges, green beans, bread
Friday - Homemade 3-Ways (Just in case you don't know what this is, it is a Cincinnati favorite.  Spaghetti, with Cincinnati chili, and cheese.  Yum!  If you are ever in Cincinnati, be sure to try some!), crackers
Saturday - Hamburger Macaroni bake, salad, bread
Sunday - Fish sticks, Shells & Cheese, tater tots

Budget Planning With an Irregular Income

I promised to come back at talk more about my budgeting process when I explained a zero-based budget a couple of weeks ago.  So, here it goes!  I'll start with how I plan our budget.  I'll post something in the next week or so about how I maintain our budget.

Our income each month is irregular.  My husband works in retail, so he gets a base salary, plus a monthly commission.  We never know exactly how much that commission is going to be.  My income is also ever-changing because I work part-time and my hours are never the same. 

If your income is unpredictable, you can still plan a budget!

But, we do know that there is an amount that both my husband's commission and my income* have never gone below.  This is our minimum and, combined with my husband's predictable base-salary, this is where we start our budget. 

I shared the chart below on the last post about budgeting.  This would be an example of a predictable-income budget.   

Total Income:                 $3000.00

Total Planned Budget:     - $3000.00

                               ___________

                                    $0

Budgeted Item	Amount Planned	Amount Actually Spent	Running Total
Giving	$100.00	$100.00	$100.00
Emergency Fund	$50.00	$50.00	$150.00
Mortgage	$700.00	$700.00	$850.00
Real Estate Taxes	$200.00	$200.00	$1,050.00
Homeowner’s Insurance	$100.00	$100.00	$1,150.00
Home Repairs			$1,150.00
Electricity	$200.00	$200.00	$1,350.00
Water	$30.00	$30.00	$1,380.00
Gas			$1,380.00
Phone	$20.00	$20.00	$1,400.00
Cable	$50.00	$50.00	$1,450.00
Internet	$50.00	$50.00	$1,500.00
Food	$600.00	$547.23	$2,100.00
Car Payment	$300.00	$300.00	$2,400.00
Gasoline & Oil	$200.00	$197.49	$2,600.00
Car Repairs			$2,600.00
Car Insurance	$150.00	$150.00	$2,750.00
Debt Snowball	$250.00	$250.00	$3,000.00
Total			$3000.00

If our predictable income for the month (base salary, plus minimum commission, plus my minimum income*) were $3000, our budget might look like this.  If your income is predictable, you could stop here with your budget planning.  You would know exactly how much money you were going to have coming in and you could plan exactly how much money went back out!

But, if your income isn't completely predictable, you need to take one more step.  The irregular-income budget.

Notice, that the budget above is a pretty bare-bones budget.  There is no money being saved for possible car repairs or home repairs.  There is no money for clothing (there would be if there were an immediate need), or entertainment.  And, I definitely want to put more toward our debt snowball!

I know that we will likely have more money coming in each month from my husband's commission and my income*.  So, after I plan a predictable-income budget, I then need to figure out how we are going to use that "extra" income.  This is where our irregular-income budget comes in!

To make an irregular-income budget, I first have to make sure the basics are taken care of with the money I know will be coming in.  We have to have money for food, for our lights and water, for our car payment, insurance, and at least enough gas to get to and from work, our mortgage and insurance, and other important payments.  It is really about setting priorities.  Dave Ramsey calls this the "four walls."  You have to make sure your walls are up before you can put the roof on!

Next, make a list of everything else you would need or want money for this month.  This list might include things that you know you will eventually need money for even if you don't need it right now (like clothes) or a little bit of money for things you don't need, but would like (Like entertainment.  When you are in this for the long-haul you still need to have a little bit of fun.  Just keep it reasonable!).  But, if you are on baby-steps 1 or 2, make sure to make your emergency fund and/or debt snowball your top priorities for any "extra" income!

Once you have a list of expenses to include, you will need to figure out which are your priories.  List them from most important to least important and assign them dollar amounts.  You should also make the list longer than you think your income could possibly be.  It might look like this:

Budget Item	Amount Planned	Running Total
Debt Snowball	$100.00	$100.00
Clothes	$100.00	$200.00
Car Repairs	$50.00	$250.00
Entertainment	$50.00	$300.00
Debt Snowball	$200.00	$500.00
School supplies	$50.00	$550.00
Gifts	$50.00	$600.00
Debt Snowball	$400.00	$1,000.00
Total		$1,000.00

 Now, if we were to make an extra $1000 this month, we would know exactly where every penny was going!

Notice that "Debt Snowball" is on the list more than once.  I often split up our debt-snowball money into smaller chunks.  This way, I know that some money will be going toward it no matter how much extra we make.  But, if I were to put the entire $700 together into one lump-sum, we might not make enough extra to go toward anything else.  I definitely want to have some money put aside for clothes the next time my kids hit a growth spurt!  So, I split it up unto smaller amounts so that I can really prioritize things.

Now, as "extra" money comes it, I simply go down the list.  If we were to make $500 more this month, I would put:

1. $100 toward our debt snowball
2. $100 toward clothes
3. $50 toward car repairs
4. $50 toward gas, and 
5. Come back to put $200 more toward our snowball. 

If I made $501, that one extra dollar would go toward school supplies.  Anything that we don't get to this month might make it back on the list next month.  

So, there you have it, an irregular-income budget! 

Is your income unpredictable?  How do you plan for your "extra" money each month?

*Note: I've recently started counting all of my income from my part-time job as part of our irregular-income budget rather than our predictable-income budget.  There are two reasons for this: 1) We eventually want me to be able to be a stay-at-home mom again and not have an income.  So, we are trying to adjust our budget so that we aren't counting on that money each month for our basic expenses.  2) By putting my income into our irregular income budget, we find that we seem to have more money for "extra" expenses like clothes and our debt snowball.  It somehow tricks our mind when planning the budget because it looks like we have less money to work with than we actually do.