Okay, What Now
You are going to have to create a budget now
Hopefully you already have a budget. If not, you are going to have to create one now. For most people, while this is a tedious chore at best, it is not as difficult as some people would have you believe. Unfortunately, for many of the people who fall into credit traps and lose their credit specifically because of a varied income, coming up with a viable budget is still going to be very difficult.
There is an old adage about not shooting the messenger; well, the message is clear; no matter whom you are or what your financial standing is, you are going to have to create a budget. For those individuals who do not have a fixed income amount, it is going to be necessary to create an initial budget based on assumed income and adjust it accordingly each and every time that you get paid.
For those people with a set income, it is still going to require some guesswork. These cannot be random numbers however. The numbers which are figured into the budget should reflect all of your income and expenses as accurately as possible. The more they vary from the actual amounts, the more revisions will have to be made during the course of the month. Over the course of a year, the poor guesses will add up to many hours wasted working on revisions which could have been avoided altogether with a little bit of caution.
Add up the number of bills you have and the total amount which is due. Do not worry about the interest rates just yet. This number will probably be anywhere from intimidating to just plain scary. Still, there is no need to panic. However, now things do start to get a little more complex so you may want to keep some reference handy or take notes.
It will be necessary to make payments on each and every bill at the very least once a month. By doing this, you can keep most collection agencies at bay and you will not be so prone to being dragged into costly lawsuits or having your paycheck attached. That means, you will not have someone trying to deduct more out of your paycheck, before you even see it, than what you can afford at this point in time.
Go through all of your bills yet again and figure out what the minimum amount due is on each and every bill that you owe. Right down these figures somewhere so that they are handy and easy to find. Once you have figured this out, sum them up and figure out what the payment would be for the minimal amount due on each and every bill for the month.
