Creating a Budget with a Part-Time Job

Struggling to balance your finances on a part-time income? Creating a realistic budget can be a game-changer. Here’s how you can take control of your money, even with fluctuating earnings.

This guide explains tips for budgeting with part-time income. Learn how to handle fluctuating earnings to ensure you always have enough money for your expenses. We also review how you can cover emergency costs you can't afford with our emergency loans, including title loans and signature installment loans.

Creating A Budget Part-Time: 5 Financial Planning Tips

As of January 2024, 22 million Americans worked a part-time job, which accounts for over 13% of the workforce. This is a record high and reflects the increasingly bleak financial state for most Americans. There are fewer full-time jobs available without a high level of schooling, so many have to piece their income together with part-time jobs and side gigs.

If you work a part-time job, you may worry about your ability to make ends meet. However, you can budget with a part-time job to afford your monthly expenses. While you will have to live frugally, it is possible.

Here are five part-time budgeting tips:

1. Create A Detailed Budget

The first step in managing your part-time income is to create a budget. This means writing down your take-home pay, which is the amount of money you earn from your job. Do not include the money taken out for taxes, as it won’t count toward your budget.

Next, you can write down your expenses. This is everything you need to pay for each month, which can include:

• Rent, mortgage payments, or utility bills
• Gas
• Groceries
• Debt payments (credit cards, auto loans, student loans, etc.)
• Insurance costs
• Subscription costs (Amazon Prime, Netflix, Spotify, etc.)

Once you calculate your income and expenses, you can start making decisions on how to prioritize your spending to ensure you can afford your lifestyle.

2. Prioritize Your Spending

After you first create your budget, you’ll learn a lot about your spending. You’ll be able to see clearly what you spend every month and start deciding what costs to cut. Before cutting costs, it’s essential to understand what your wants and needs are.

Your needs are your essential costs, like rent or gas costs, that you need to pay for. Your wants are luxuries, such as eating out or subscriptions, that you don’t need to live. You must prioritize your wants over your needs to ensure you can afford all of your essentials.

A good way to prioritize your spending is to follow the 50/30/20 rule. This budgeting method involves dividing 50% of your income for needs, 30% for wants, and 20% for savings. You can modify these percentages to fit your situation, but this is a general guideline to help you afford everything. If you cannot afford this because you have too many expenses, you can start cutting costs.

3. Cut Expenses

Does your budget not work? If you’re spending more than you can afford, it’s time to start cutting expenses. For most people creating a budget for part-time income, the main issue is how much they spend on wants.

When considering cutting expenses, think about eliminating these expenses:

• Subscription services you don’t need
• Luxury entertainment purchases (movie and concert tickets, expensive bar tabs, video games, etc.)
• Take out meals
• Monthly clothes purchases
• Gym membership
• Daily coffee

If cutting luxuries isn’t enough to make your budget work, you could also try to cut back on your essential expenses. Unplug electronics when you're not using them to save on your electricity bill, take shorter showers to reduce your water bill, or bundle services to save on phone, internet, and other bills.

4. Automate Your Savings

Although it may be difficult to prioritize savings with a part-time income, setting aside money for the future is important. Saving can help you reach financial goals and build an emergency fund. If you find it hard to save and tend to spend instead, consider automating your savings.

On your bank app, you can set a date for them to withdraw a specific amount from your account and transfer it to a savings account. You can also arrange this with your paycheck to ensure money is invested into your savings each time you get paid. Just $20 every paycheck can make a big difference and gradually grow your savings.

5. Manage Your Debt

Another tip for financial planning for part-time workers is to manage their debt wisely. If you find it hard to cover your expenses each month, it could be due to a large debt payment for your auto loans, credit cards, or student loans.

By focusing on paying off your high-interest debt, you can make debt repayment easier to manage. Putting more of your paycheck toward debt can increase your financial flexibility later on. If your monthly payments are too high, you might also consider refinancing your loan or consolidating debt for better rates.

Affording Unexpected Expenses: How Title Loans And Installment Loans Can Help

These part-time job budgeting tips can help in the long run, but will take a bit of time to work. If you face an unexpected financial emergency, you will likely need emergency financing. Wisconsin Auto Title Loans, Inc. can help with our emergency cash loans. You can get approved the same day you apply and receive your cash within one business day.

Here are the two emergency cash loans we offer:

• Title loans: This secured loan lets you use your lien-free vehicle title to borrow up to $15,000. You can get approved as long as you own your car, truck, or van outright. You will need the following required items: your driver’s license, a lien-free car title in your name, and your vehicle for an inspection.
• Signature installment loans: This loan lets you borrow up to $1,500. You can get approved for a signature installment loan as long as you agree to repay the loan in fixed installment payments. You will need a state-issued photo ID, proof of income, and a checking account statement in your name to get approved.

The approval process for both is easy when you need cash fast. You can apply online with our loan from, speak with a loan associate over the phone, and get approved at one of our Wisconsin stores in less than 30 minutes!

Borrow Title Loans And Installment Loans In Wisconsin – Receive Same-Day Emergency Cash!

It can be difficult to manage fluctuating income, especially when emergency expenses arise when you least expect them. Get the quick financial relief you need from Wisconsin Auto Title Loans, Inc. with our title loans and signature installment loans. Get started online now – submit your information through our loan form, and we will call you to describe the next steps.

Apply online and get approved in person in less than 30 minutes!

Note: The content provided in this article is only for informational purposes, and you should contact your financial advisor about your specific financial situation.