5 Ways I Combat Fluctuating Pay as an Independent Contractor

The husband and I have worked it out so that we take rent, savings, and debt out of my paycheck, and we live off of his. It works out because insurance, food, gas, and entertainment generally come in at fixed costs (except for May, see my latest budget report for that snafu). And then my fluctuating income takes care of the rest. I pay rent, the minimums on my student loans, and then split the rest between savings and debt repayment. We haven’t quite built our emergency fund up to what I want it to be.

It’s currently around $6,000 and I’d like it at $7,500 just to be safe. This is in part because the cost of living is so high in California and because the hubby’s car is getting old and I don’t want to be broke when we buy his like we were after we bought mine. After we get the last $1,500, everything in my paycheck will go towards student loans. Except, we might still save 100 for little things like I have a wedding I’m going to in September, and we want to fly home for the holidays in November. Everything else goes towards debt repayment.

We’re trying to get my 32k loan under 20k this year, although, that’s looking like a tall order. Especially since April we only put $400 towards it, May $100, and June isn’t looking so bright. I’m an independent contractor at a tutoring company, which for the most part, is great. However, switching over from the school year to summer clients is stressful. In the month of June, I’m scheduled to make just over $300. This will most certainly not cover rent and our loan repayment. Thankfully, I’m relying on more than one stream of income. For instance, I drive my friend around because he can’t, and I tutor on the side, but even with that money coming in, I’m only going to be making around $400 extra.

It comes in handy that June is our no spend month after May turned out to be a fiscal disaster, but we’re still stressed about it. Me more so than he is. Since I made $1200 last pay period, we’re covered with rent from June to July and won’t really be on the wire until July to August. That’s why he’s so chill. God bless my husband. He’s got this amazing cool when it comes to finances. And he says we’ll work it out, and that I’m amazing and will figure it out.

So things I’m trying this month:

1. Freelance writing. With a degree in English, it kinda makes sense that I’ve always wanted to write. The spare time I have this month (if I’m diligent) will give me the time to work on articles, and who knows, maybe I’ll get published and start building my portfolio.
2. Freelance editing. In a similar vein, I want to start editing projects. As a career idea, I’d love to work for one of the Big Five publishing houses, and this month would be a great place to start working on my portfolio.
3. Babysitting. Not a huge fan of this idea, but whatever pays the bills. Am I right?  In fact, I wrote this article at a family’s house after I put their kids down for the night. The cash I earned from that goes into the “rent” jar that we keep at home. So does the cash I get from driving my friend around. That way it’s automatically allocated and can’t be touched.
4. Yardwork/house cleaning. In college, I worked for several different cleaning companies, and I enjoyed it. While I don’t like it enough to start my own company or to do it as a regular side gig, it was fairly decent money, and I’ll be advertising and see if I get any clients.
5. Selling things. I have several suits that have just been lying around my house waiting to be sold. They retail for about $100 apiece, and they’re in good condition, they just don’t fit me well anymore. I’m hoping to sell them at half off, and get $200 for the lot. That should help even a little bit.

While that’s not a huge list of ideas, I’m trying not to overstress myself. Rent is only $1100 a month (a steal in our area), and I only need to make about $600 more to make ends meet. Otherwise, we have to dip into our emergency fund, which I guess is what it’s there for, but I was hoping we wouldn’t have to touch it these first few years of marriage.

What about you guys? How do you handle it when your cash flow is low? Any ideas or suggestions? Wanna hire me, haha? I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below. And don’t worry, I’ll be writing a follow-up post sometime next month to tell you how my side hustle adventures went down.