Your Gig $ - Who Gets It?

By which I mean...

I know one guy who is married, who every dollar he makes on gigs he keeps 100% of it for himself. It's his gear money, his beer money, etc.

Another guy, also married, dutifully turns over all of his gig money to his wife (who manages the household finances), maybe taking out a token amount for himself but at least 80% of his gig money he never even sees.

Then there's me, also married, and it kind of goes month by month. I always put a certain amount of my gig pay away into a savings account that is reserved for my musical expenses -- gear repairs/replacement, strings, and of course taxes. After that, I'll TRY to deposit a significant amount of what's left over into our household checking account since my wife stays at home and gig money is our only income over and above my day job. OTOH this isn't really a hard and fast rule so sometimes I'll put less into the family account and keep more for myself as "fun money" (said "fun" of which may or may not include my wife... for example, my gig money basically paid for our anniversary "date night" a couple weekends ago). It just really depends on how much gig money there is to divvy up and how our household finances are looking at the time. If the lawnmower blows up (as happened a few weeks ago) or the car needs a new set of tires then I pretty much know what I'll be playing my next 2-3 gigs for.

Some weeks a lot of gig money winds up in my pocket for me to spend as I choose... other weeks, not so much.

How does it work for you all?

 

Solid investments.

 

I have found that it definitely keeps things better on the homefront if I "spread the wealth" of my band income to my wife every now and then. For example, tell her we're going out to dinner and "the band is buying", or on an off weekend, take her for a night away at a nice hotel or something. Things that she can enjoy "guilt free" knowing that it's not going to take a bite out of the family budget (which is her job to keep in line).

She's always very supportive of my musical activities but especially in the summer (our busy season when I'm leaving her at home at least one night of every weekend), I find that reciprocating her support in some sort of material way every now and then is always very well received.

 

I hear that, brutha. We (I) got ourselves into a real rough patch a few years ago cause I couldn't stop tapping the ATM. $20 here, $40 there, all the sudden you're into real money. How we solved that is, we closed that account, opened a new one and I told my wife DO NOT give me the PIN number. She never has, and we're a lot better off for it.

I find that when I keep a certain amount of cash from gigs on hand, I budget it a lot better knowing that when it's gone, it's gone until the next gig and mama ain't gonna give me any more. And I detest using our debit/credit card for anything other than gas so being on a pretty much 100% cash basis actually makes me more fiscally responsible... as weird as that may sound.

I also try to set back enough money from my last gig to cover my anticipated expenses on the next one. Gas is usually never an issue because we all ride in a band vehicle that the BL keeps filled, but there's usually at least one meal to be bought and more than that if it's a full-weekend trip. Plus batteries for the wireless pack and IEMs, a brew or two at the gig (since hardly anyone comps those anymore), a PowerAde for the ride home, etc. Basically I just try to make sure that my hobby/"2nd job" of music is at least self-sustaining and ideally, adding a little extra into the family funds here and there.