If you look to commission sales or a form of self-employment as your sole source of income, you may know what it's like to live on a roller coaster. Some months can produce absolutely no income. Then a deal closes or you have a pretty good month, and it takes nearly all of that income to get caught up. Feast or famine pretty much sums it up.

People who have this kind of "mystery means," typically believe it is impossible to live within a budget because they never know how much money they will receive from one month to the next.

The thing about being self-employed (which includes commissioned salespersons, freelancers and any other kind of work that produces irregular income) is that you have to change the way you think about your income. You have to take on the role of being both an employee and an employer, and you have to be able to move easily between those two roles.

First, as the employee you need to honestly determine the lowest reasonable amount you can accept from yourself as monthly compensation. Let's say, for example, that figure is $3,000 a month.

Next, you need to open a separate checking account into which all of your income is deposited. This is your "business account," not an account from which you write checks for groceries or household utilities. As the business brings in that irregular revenue the money goes into the "business account" from which you pay the bills of the business. You pay yourself out of this account. No matter how terrific an employee you are, you cannot be allowed to put the business revenue directly into your own personal account. You are operating a business and it must be treated on a professional level.

Now, switch to the role of employer. You have to be stern and immovable when it comes to paying your one employee. You, the employee, cannot expect a raise every month. Your salary is $3,000 (or whatever the amount you have previously negotiated) on payday and that's it.

Consider this your "steady income." Sure, you might try and persuade your "boss" to part with a bonus now and then, but you will live to regret it. You must find a way to live within the amount of salary that you, the employer, have agreed to pay you, the employee.

If you are careful, your business bank account will begin to show a healthy balance, which is going to have to pay you that $3,000 a month even during months when business is very slow. You are always building up a reserve to carry the business through lean times.

If things begin to go well, you might consider sitting down with yourself to negotiate a raise, but weigh the pros and cons. Move back and forth between being a prudent business person and a needy employee.

As one who has been self-employed for many years, I can tell there is little in life that is more self-fulfilling, personally satisfying, and at the same time challenging. The secret is learning to live below your means, no matter how erratic those means might be!