Income up 10%, Expenses Down 10%, and Repeat

[shedinator]

I'm finally starting to get some traction with my side hustle, to the point that I'm seeing a bit of regularity in getting paid. Starting in April, I want to increase my monthly income by 10%, and decrease monthly expenses by the same amount.

Over the last 3 months, we've spent over 100% of our income thanks to an emergency room visit which had us meeting our whole deductible in a single month, 2 blown tires, and some annual/semi-annual expenses (costco membership, car insurance, Amazon Prime, etc). But prior to that we'd been at about 90% expense rate (80% real expenses, 10% tithe), so we're going to shoot for 81%. If all goes well in that transition, I'll re-up for another 10 up 10 down challenge in July.

Anybody want in on this?

[directionseeker]

I will join in the Income up 10% target, my expense is already as frugal as I can be.

[MountainMan]

Anybody want in on this?

I don't understand what you mean.

Are you saying that you're offering us an opportunity of some kind?

[AJ]

Anybody want in on this?

I don't understand what you mean.

Are you saying that you're offering us an opportunity of some kind?

Given the category this post is in, I assume the OP is asking if anyone wants to join in the challenge of increasing their income and decreasing their expenses by 10%.

We have a weird couple of months coming up financially, but I'm interested in watching this thread. The idea of incremental change is a great one :)

After a few months of this, though, I think 10% is going to be a stretch. For us, that would mean cutting $240 out of an already lean budget, and increasing our income by about $1k a month. Not really sustainable growth. How about 1-2%?

[murphyrulez]

How do you increase your income by 10%?

[shedinator]

Anybody want in on this?

I don't understand what you mean.

Are you saying that you're offering us an opportunity of some kind?

Given the category this post is in, I assume the OP is asking if anyone wants to join in the challenge of increasing their income and decreasing their expenses by 10%.

We have a weird couple of months coming up financially, but I'm interested in watching this thread. The idea of incremental change is a great one :)

After a few months of this, though, I think 10% is going to be a stretch. For us, that would mean cutting $240 out of an already lean budget, and increasing our income by about $1k a month. Not really sustainable growth. How about 1-2%?

Yes. the opportunity is to join in the challenge...

10% is ultimately unsustainable. I have no designs on keeping up that pace. I would love to, as 10%/2 month period comes darn close to doubling annually, but I doubt it will happen. I do, however, think I can do it in April, and I might be able to do it again this summer.

[shedinator]

How do you increase your income by 10%?

Me personally? By landing more freelancing gigs. For people in general, I imagine it would generally involve increasing the profitability of their side hustle, unless of course they work on commission at their main jobs.

[MountainMan]

The lower your income is, the easier it is to increase it by mad percentages.  The higher it is, it will be harder to push it up by 10%.  (Basically, the Pareto principle.)

Unless you're an experienced entrepreneur or celebrity author or movie star.  Then you're in a different category. :)

It is totally worth trying though, just for the increased income, regardless of actual percentage achieved. 

I'm working on a website that will hopefully produce income after a while.  It is no where close to ready to produce a 10% increase in my income anytime soon. 

Good luck to everyone else!

[happy]

No, not entirely - if you work part-time you can increase by increasing your hours of work.

[shedinator]

No, not entirely - if you work part-time you can increase by increasing your hours of work.

That's more or less what the 'landing more freelancing gigs' I mentioned would do. But we all have a limited number of hours. If you're working 20/week now, you could go up ten percent on a monthly basis for a while, but after 10 months you'll be at 50/week, and probably have trouble getting your employer to give you the extra hours, let alone work them.