# Build a budget that works with irregular income

A month-to-month budget for freelance, gig, or commission income, with a baseline, a buffer, and rules for good and lean months.

- Topic: Personal Life & Wellbeing
- Framework: RTF
- Level: Standard
- Tags: Finance, Fill-in Template
- Source: https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/prompts/build-a-budget-that-works-with-irregular-income

## Prompt

```text
Help me build a budget that works even though my income changes from month to month.

**How I earn:** [e.g. "freelance design", "rideshare plus a part-time job", "commission sales"]
**My income for the last 6-12 months:** [MONTH-BY-MONTH AMOUNTS, after tax if known]
**Fixed monthly costs:** [rent, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments, phone]
**Flexible costs:** [groceries, gas, eating out, fun - rough monthly amounts]
**Savings I already have:** [AMOUNT, or "none"]
**Taxes:** [taken out automatically / I pay them myself / not sure]

Work through it like this:
1. Find my baseline: the bare-minimum monthly amount I need to cover essentials.
2. Compare that to my lowest-earning months and tell me honestly whether there is a gap.
3. Set up a simple system: a holding account for income, a fixed "paycheck" I pay myself each month, and where extra money goes in good months (buffer, tax set-aside, goals, in that order).
4. Suggest a target buffer (in months of baseline costs) and a realistic path to reach it.
5. Give me a short lean-month plan: what to cut first, in order.

Return: a table with Category | Monthly amount | Essential (Y/N), my suggested monthly "paycheck", the good-month and lean-month rules as short bullets, and one thing to do this week.

Use only the numbers I give; mark anything missing as [ADD AMOUNT]. If I pay my own taxes, remind me to confirm the right set-aside percentage with a tax professional or official tax guidance for my country.
```

## What to fill in

- MONTH-BY-MONTH AMOUNTS, after tax if known
- rent, utilities, insurance, minimum debt payments, phone
- groceries, gas, eating out, fun - rough monthly amounts
- AMOUNT, or "none"
- taken out automatically / I pay them myself / not sure
- ADD AMOUNT

Free to copy and use. From ThinkWithPrompt (https://www.thinkwithprompt.com/), a library of 2,663 curated AI prompts.