˚budgeting series-part 4˚ Income Guessing

So how did it go? Did you complete the list of categories where you spend all of your money each month here in part 3 of our budgeting series? If not, you can do it this week.  

If you are just joining in, click here for the first three parts of the series.


This week, we are going to figure out average income. For some of you, this will be cake. If you are like us, your income changes slightly each month and is a little more difficult to calculate. 


So...list all of your sources of income. 


Some of them might include:


Salary
Tips
Babysitting money
Teaching piano lessons
Tutoring
Home businesses
Monthly much appreciated gifts from friends and family (I wish!) 
Etc. 


Now, put a star by the ones that are fairly constant (within $50 or so each month) and list the income you receive by those ones. For the income sources that change drastically each month, take a good guess of the average income from those sources over the past three months and write down those amounts. 


Now add up all the categories to get your average total income each month (feel free to laugh or cry depending on the amount. I tend to do both when I complete this step). 


And that's it! Check back next week and you will really start to see your budget unfold. I told you we would take this nice and slow...
didn't I?

*Update: click here to see part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, part 6, part 7, and part 8.