Budgeting when on weekly (variable) pay

[Lovetosinglalala123]

I'm self-employed as a private tutor and clients pay me for lessons in blocks of 5. Everyone is on a different block of 5 - i.e. maybe 5 or 6 will be paying me this week, 10 next week, 2 the following week etc. DH is also paid weekly. Last year we had a number of things go wrong which wiped out our savings and we've never caught up. Fast forward to the last few months and, again, we've had some unexpected bills. We know how much we have to budget each week for everything but we seem to be stuck in a robbing Peter to pay Paul situation permanently and we just can't seem to get ahead of ourselves.

Anyone else in/been in this situation?

TIA

We have a variable income and the only way I have ever been successful in budgeting is by using YNAB (an app/website) where you budget money as it comes in, rather than predicting income and budgeting ahead. I've been doing it since November and it has made a massive difference.
Basically, as money comes in allocate it to where it is needed most, the next expense you have coming out. Gradually you can budget further ahead (hopefully) and the idea is to have a buffer so that current income is paying for next month's expenses. I'm not quite there yet.

We have a bills account and several savings accounts which I use to keep the money we need for each week in. All of our big direct debits are set for different times of the month and so I know each week/payment into the account x amount has to go to bills and x amount to spending. We never use the money from that week as our spending money, we spend a week in arrears and that helps us.

If you are already looking to change bank accounts we have a basic bank account with the nation wide, we are not charged at all if a direct debit or standing order bounces. I also have text alerts set up so if I don’t have enough money in the bills account for whatever reason i receive a text and then I have until 2.30pm to pay it in and the direct debit is paid.