Budgeting for Boss Bitches

Terms to know:

• Gross income - All the money you take home from your shifts before setting aside anything for taxes.
  So if you made $600 in a night, that's your gross for the shift — even if you're planning to put 20–30% away.
• Net Income - The amount of that gross you actually get to use/spend — after setting aside money for taxes.
  Using the $600 example and saving 20% for taxes:

20% of $600 = $120 (set aside) Net income = $600 - $120 = $480

Alright, now that we've got some terms out of the way, let's get into how you can go about creating a budget! First, gather a list of every recurring charge you currently have. For me, I have my recurring charges placed on my different credit cards so each card is used for something each month and I can continue making payments that will positively impact my credit. Whatever you use to pay these recurring charges, list them out and where they’re being pulled from. For example:

Recurring Monthly Charges:

Discover Credit Card:

• Xfinity bill = $59.16
• IPSY subscription = $16.89

TOTAL: $76.05

Wells Fargo Credit Card:

• Auto insurance = $222.22
• Spotify = 21.78
• Phone Bill = $111.62

TOTAL: $355.62

US Bank Business Credit Card:

• Health insurance = $376.21
• Dental insurance = $18.00
• Vision insurance = $4.80
• Burner phone service = $17.54

TOTAL: $416.55

OVERALL TOTAL Credit Cards: $848.22

Other Recurring Charges:

• Rent: $1700.00 – Pulled manually and paid by me, not through autopay.

Now, add up each category of recurring charges, my examples being your credit card totals plus your other recurring charges. Added together, all recurring bills make up a total of $2,548.22.

This $2,548.22 is your minimum net total, not your gross total. To figure out your gross total (the total before any tax deductions are taken out), there’s some basic math involved which I will explain next! The reason we want to find a gross total is so we can allow for the extra money we will need to save for our tax payment(s). Below I will break down how to find your gross income needed. If you're just shooting for your net total as your goal, you will end up having nothing left over to save for taxes and we all know that not paying your taxes can be problematic.

If you're saving, say, 20% for taxes:

1. Convert the percentage to a decimal:
   → 20% = 0.20
2. Subtract that from 1:
   → 1 - 0.20 = 0.80
3. Take your net income goal and divide it by that number:
   → Net ÷ 0.80 = Gross income needed

Next, you will need to divide $2,548.22 by 0.80. The total of this division will tell you what your minimum GROSS TOTAL needs to be. So, in the case of saving 20% for taxes and still covering all your recurring bills you’d need to be making $3,185.28.

This section was just to outline some basic math for you and hopefully break it down into something that is easy enough to understand and use for budgeting in your life as a stripper. There are, of course, a multitude of other things you will likely need to be accounting for as you set your minimum goal for each month.

As you prepare to create your own personalized budget, there are many things to consider. Some examples you may want to run the numbers on are things like food, gas, pet food/vet care, hair/nails/skin, cosmetics/makeup, clothing (work and personal), car payments, toiletries and hygiene items, car maintenance, house fees for the club, etc. You get the idea. Basically any and all costs that you know or think you're going to owe need to be accounted for here. If you're using credit/debit cards, a great way to nail down some expenses you may not remember is to check your bank statements or spending analyzer if your bank offers one. This will help you determine exactly what you're spending on and how much, making your budget even more refined and spot on.

The list of expenses goes on, and it is unique to each of us. I know we often experience unexpected bills and don’t always know what we will need at the beginning of each month, but the goal here is to get your expenses figured out and nailed down to the best of your ability.

When you have a rough estimate of what your other bills will look like, you essentially do the same thing over that we did the recurring charges earlier. You will add everything up for your grand total and then add that total to the net total for your recurring payments.

Let’s say your additional bills are another $2,500. You’d add that to the net total of $2,548.22 for a grand NET TOTAL of $5,048.22. Then, you will once again divide the net total by the tax percentage left over from subtracting 1 from 0.20 (if you’re saving 20% for taxes) which will be 0.80. That would mean your GROSS TOTAL would end up being $6,310.28. Now, you’ve got the final total number you have to make before any deductions for taxes.

Next, I will be breaking down how to figure out what goal you’d need to set for each shift that you work. This will also highlight the importance of utilizing a schedule to the best of your ability as a stripper. When you're following a budget, it is my recommendation to stick to a set schedule as closely as you can. This will help you in a variety of ways, but first and foremost, it is much less likely that you'll be scrambling at the end of the month to attain a large sum of money for rent/bills due on the first. If you're working on a consistent schedule, you'll be able to mitigate the damage of slow nights because you're working multiple days per week and not having to try and hit $1,000.00 for the last few days of the month. 

Since we know our necessary gross total, we can plan how many shifts we want to work, what we need to make, and even how to break those goals down into hourly earnings. Here are a few examples:

Working 25 shifts a month, you’d need to make $252.41 per shift.

Working 20 shifts a month, you'd need to make $315.51 per shift.

Working 15 shifts a month, you'd need to make $420.69 per shift.

Working 10 shifts a month, you'd need to make $631.03 per shift.

Working 5 shifts a month, you’d need to make $1262.06 per shift.

You can further break this down by taking the per shift total and dividing it by the number of hours you’d be working and find out how much your hourly goal would need to be. For example:

You’re planning to work 20 shifts a month, and work for a minimum of 8 hours per shift. So, you’d take the total of $315.51 and divide it by the number 8. The math will shake out to you needing to make appx. $40/hr to hit the total of $315.51 by the end of your shift.

I know this may seem like a lot of annoying math, but it can help the earnings feel somewhat less intimidating when you can break them into smaller, more easily achievable goals like shift or hourly vs. that one stout monthly bill of over $6,000.00. It’s not necessary to break things down as far as I did here with going into your hourly goal, but if you enjoy being very detailed and precise, it’s a great way to do so. Your budget will still function just fine though, as long as you know the total gross income you need for all your bills/expenses/savings and what to aim for each shift.

Something I do that I highly recommend, is to have a designated savings account that you use for your rent and recurring bills as well as a separate account for things like food/gas/etc. This way, your recurring payments are separate from the things you need on a day-to-day basis, and you're less likely to dip into the autopay/recurring bill money.

When I am saving for my daily expenses, I find it helpful to put away a chunk of each shifts earnings before I put the rest into an emergency savings account. For instance, if I make $1,000.00, I will take maybe somewhere between $300-$500 out for the upcoming week, depending on what I need to do and or buy that week. The less you can take out for spending and put in toward emergency savings/recurring bills, the better.

When I have a night where I hit my “superstar” goal of $850+, I try to take more from that money to put toward daily expenses, so I don’t have to use as much for spending toward my other earnings during the week. If I can take $500 out of $1,000.00 on a Wednesday and that will last me the entire week of necessary spending, I am able to then place all my other earnings into savings accounts/investments.

Example:

Wednesday: Earned $1,000.00 – Placed $500.00 into spending money for the next week and $500 into recurring bill savings

Thursday: Earned $300 – Placed total amount into recurring bill savings.

Friday: Earned $750 – Placed $150 into spending money and $600 into investments.

Saturday: Earned $400 – Placed total amount into emergency savings.

Sunday: Earned $250 - Placed $125 into emergency savings and $125 into recurring bill savings.

In just one week, you’d have contributed a grand total of $2,050.00 to your savings and investments while still having over $600 to put toward weekly needs like food, gas and pet expenses, etc.

If you prefer to work in percentages, that’s of course also fine, too. I just prefer to do it on a shift-by-shift basis and not a set low or high percentage so that if I’m making a lot, I’m not just putting away 10% and blowing the other 90% on things that aren’t super necessary in the long run. Additionally, if I have a tougher night and only make $200.00, I don’t have to take a large % of that number for bills because I settled on a high % amount to take out from each shift’s earnings.

You don’t have to earn like a boss bitch and live like you're broke just because the work can be inconsistent. Smart budgeting is part of what makes you powerful. It’s something that can help with not only longevity in the industry, but a better financial foundation for your future self.

Now that we've got the examples, math and my personal budget outline done, let's talk more about taxes and saving for slow seasons.

So, if you're anything like I was, taxes intimidate and confuse you. That's okay! We're not taught much about them in school typically, and many of us never learn about them at all - even as adults. I'm here to tell you though, taxes aren't as scary as they seem. If you've read my other post that talks about tax time as a stripper, you already know that I highly recommend using a sex work affirming accountant. Katherine Studley at The Only Consultant is always going to be my No. 1 recommendation. She and her accounting team are fantastic and are a great tool for any small business owner/sex worker. I've linked her site directly on this post if you click on "The Only Consultant" above.

I am going to simply break down what quarterly taxes are and who owes them so you all can have an idea of what you'll be doing with your saved tax time money and when.

When you're self-employed, like most strippers are, you're responsible for paying self-employment taxes, including both the employer and employee sides of Social Security and Medicare, as well as income tax. The IRS expects you to pay these quarterly, not just once a year during tax season.

If you don’t pay quarterly, you risk getting hit with penalties — even if you pay everything at once when filing. So, I highly recommend setting aside a set percentage (like the 20% mentioned earlier) from every shift and transferring it into a dedicated tax savings account. Then, when quarterly tax deadlines hit (typically April 15, June 15, September 15, and January 15), you’ve got the money already waiting.

💡Strip Tip: Some dancers prefer to over-save (e.g., 25–30%) just to be safe — especially if they’re hitting superstar goals consistently. Worst case, you get a refund or just have more cushion. Best case, you're never scrambling to pull thousands together at the last minute. Personally, I do my absolute best to put away that 30% whenever possible. Last tax season it left me with just shy of $6,000.00 as a lump sum that I was able to use when I was moving into my new apartment. 

As always, the information provided here is not the entirety of information that you will want to have when preparing taxes. So, I highly suggest getting in touch with an accountant to make sure you're doing your taxes correctly, legally and thoroughly through out the entire fiscal year so there aren't any penalties or mistakes.

Moving right along, I want to get into why it's important to save and some things you can do to bulk up your emergency fund while you're working.

During the slow seasons, random bad weeks/months, or times when you're unable to work for whatever reason, you don't want to be adding the stress of financial woes to your plate. This income is never guaranteed and is almost always fairly unpredictable. That's why it's important to budget for the rough times, before they happen. So, what can you do?

No 1. I recommend creating that emergency savings account and filling it with what I like to call "buffer money". Basically it's money to buffer any financial stress at times when you're experiencing a slow season or unexpected time off of work. Ideally, this account will be able to cover at least one month of recurring and necessary expenses. I am currently a month ahead on all bills, and working toward building this buffer money account to 3 months and then 6 months worth of expenses saved up.

No 2. Use those nights where you hit your "superstar goal" wisely. Let's say you made that $1,000.00 and you know you only need $300.00 for the upcoming week. You can still put $500.00 toward your recurring bills and toss the remaining $200.00 into the buffer money account. Just because you're earning high today doesn't mean you will tomorrow, so you need to be realistic and intentional about how you're spending/using those great nights. Making it doesn't mean it all needs to or should be spent immediately.

No 3. Try budgeting conservatively. Even when you're having good weeks, do your best to budget as if you were only hitting your bare minimum each shift. Remember to place the excess earnings that fall outside of the bare minimum you need into savings accounts. This will make it easier to have a sustainable budget even when you're suffering through slow seasons or tough shifts.

No 4. Check in weekly with yourself about your budget. It's important to know where you are financially so that you'll be aware of what goals you need to hit next week. If you need to push harder, or can afford to take an extra day off, staying informed about your budget and current saved money will allow you to do so with peace of mind. 

I know as a stripper, it can be tempting to spend the money as fast as you make it, but I hope that after reading this, you're considering making a budget to help you financially in the present and future. Even if you've not been the best with your money in the past, there is absolutely no reason that you can't start making improvements now! Budgeting isn't about restriction, it's about protection of yourself and your future - even when the slow seasons or bad nights hit. 

Good luck on your budgeting journey!