This post could also be subtitled, why to bank the heck out of any windfalls, especially if you’re a contract worker.

I remember a few summers ago, after this blog started making a fairly reliable $500/month the majority of the time, I had a bunch of stage management work fall through and the show I was working on cut back shows and none of the side work I planned panned out.

I figured I’d at least have blog income to rely on, but I literally made $0 that month from blogging.

Overall, I made about $300 for the entire month.

Usually when we talk about when it rains, it pours, we’re talking about the negatives. Like how many different things had to fall apart for me for that level of income to happen?

And yet they all did.

I’ve been thinking about that a lot this month.

July is on track to be brokeGIRLrich’s best month. But a lot of the income here is unpredictable. How many advertisement and sponsored post offers will I get? How many products will any of you want to click through and buy after I talk about them?

I can’t control those numbers, they just happen. And I don’t put much effort into trying to make them happen beyond just putting the opportunity out there. If I talk about a product and link to it, it’s pretty natural. I don’t really create content with the idea of advertising something.

I don’t go out looking for sponsored posts either. I just take what’s offered that isn’t total crap content.

And for some reason this month, post offers and clicks are way up.

So that’s cool.

Additionally, after the last six months of some wishy-washy little project work, I made some decent money stage managing.

And in addition to that, we had so many issues on this tour that we had to work through our days off, which put us at a double rate for a while there. Magic extra money.

So sometimes when it rains, it pours in a positive way!

Here are a few things I do to try to make good choices with those pouring months.

If I’m going to splurge, I try to keep the splurge to less than 10% of the “extra” amount.

I check out my savings goal buckets and see if I can max out an immediate one sooner.

For instance, when I’m paying rent somewhere, I try to stay one month ahead, so if I haven’t done that yet, I’ll do that to give myself a one month buffer on a pretty large expense.

I try to pay my car insurance in one lump sum every year since it gives me a small discount. It also means I have time to come up with the money for the payment with my variable incomes. $1200 once a year is actually easier for me to figure out how to manage than $100 a month. Because of that I have a savings account labeled “car insurance” and each year I have until June to fill it up to about $1200. If that account isn’t at that amount yet, some the “extra” will go in there.

If my emergency savings amount isn’t at the minimum number I’m comfortable with, I’ll put at least 10% of the “extra” into there.

If I haven’t maxed out my Roth IRA yet for the year, I’ll add some extra money to there as well.

If I’ve managed to do all of these things for the year, then I look at adding extra money to some of my long term savings goals like my new car fund and my down payment fund.

I’ve started a very rough rule that I’m still fine tuning where I balance anything that’s just going to sit in savings with an equal investment contribution amount.

So if I come out $2,000 ahead this month, $1,000 can sit in a savings account for a house, but the other $1,000 has to go into an index fund.

If I’m having a stellar year and still find I have extra money on a pouring month, I may purchase a well-researched individual stock.

And if I’ve been having a good run of things and everything on that list above is looking healthy, I may wiggle on the only spending 10% of the extra rule and plan a trip somewhere fun with some friends, even if it’s last minute.

What do you do with your money on the months when you earn more than expected?