Managing your money

Managing your money – prioritising your bills and budget planning

As a freelancer in the film and TV industry, it can be difficult managing your money and everyday finances. For most freelancers, income can vary from month to month and there may be times where work slows down a little. The months after Christmas and new year can be particularly hard, when you’re waiting for the next job to come in.

We’ve teamed up with MoneyHelper to provide you with some practical tools to help you manage your money and improve your financial wellbeing.

Prioritising your bills

Bills are a part of everyday life, but sometimes it can be difficult to manage all the payments coming out of our accounts. MoneyHelper have developed a bill prioritiser to help you prioritise your payments in the right order. The tool will also give you useful information about what you need to do if you’re struggling to pay before you miss a payment.

Help if you’re struggling with bills or payments

Budget planning

Budgeting is a key skill that will help you to manage your money more effectively and plan for inevitable ups and downs. MoneyHelper have developed a simple budget planner to help you track your spending and manage your money each month.  Just fill in your details below for a breakdown of where you’re spending, so you can feel in control of where your money is going each month.

If you’re a freelancer, you can use the planner by working out an average income. Take your earnings from the previous 12 months, divide by 12, and use that figure as your average monthly earnings. If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you can work out a longer-term average by doing this for several business years.

There are also other resources available to help you manage your money. The Money Course is a free, simple, and interactive online budgeting course to help you get to grips with your money in a way that’s right for you.