Most budgeting advice assumes you bring home the same number every month. For freelancers, contractors, gig workers, and tipped employees, that advice is mostly useless. Here is the system that actually works for variable income.
I went through twelve months of bank statements and categorized every dollar I spent. Some of it was exactly what I expected. Some of it was deeply embarrassing. Here are the real numbers.
I tried four no-spend months in two years. Three of them collapsed by week three. The fourth changed my finances permanently — and the difference between the four had nothing to do with discipline.
The most popular budgeting framework in personal finance assumes you live somewhere affordable, earn the median, and have no debt. None of those were true for me.
For three years I logged every transaction in a color-coded spreadsheet. Then I stopped — and my savings rate doubled. Here's what I didn't expect to learn.
I tried YNAB, Mint, a fancy notion template, and three different spreadsheets. They all failed within six weeks. Then I went analog and something cracked.
Dave Ramsey didn't invent it. Your grandma used it. And it's still one of the most effective budgeting systems ever devised. Here's the modern version for people who don't carry cash.
