<prompt> Human: My husband is a mechanic and works flat rate, meaning he only gets paid for the jobs that he does, no matter how many hours hes actually at work. This time of year is tough. No one is getting repairs done because theyre saving for presents and travel and whatnot. Meaning in an 80hr pay period, he wont have earned that much. Last pay period he only got paid 45 hours for the two weeks. When things pick up again, sure hell be able to pull his 80 to break even, and probably even more. But how do you budget for anything when the income can vary so greatly? When he was hourly it was easy. Hes only been flat rate three or four weeks and were already feeling it  <response>: You build up savings when they have 80, 90, 100 hours per check, so you have a safety net for the checks when they only have 40, 50 hours. As in, big checks arent a reason to go buy something new. Big checks are a reason to save extra. 