I've been asked a lot about how to handle money differently when your income is irregular. Here's what works for me as a freelancer.

I calculate my 'base expenses' — the monthly minimum I need to cover rent, food, insurance, and debt minimums — and keep 3 months of that in a buffer account that I treat as emergency fund.

Every payment I receive goes into that buffer first, not directly into checking. At the start of each month I transfer a fixed 'salary' from buffer to checking — the amount I've decided is my monthly budget. This creates artificial salary regularity.

The buffer refills during good months and draws down during slow months. During any month the buffer drops below 2 months of base expenses, I cut all discretionary spending until it recovers.

This system eliminated the feast-or-famine money anxiety that ruined my budgeting in the early freelance years.