Your monthly budget in Las Vegas.

Most budgeting advice assumes the same paycheck arrives twice a month. In Las Vegas that assumption fails for a large share of the workforce. The city’s economy runs on visitors: Wikipedia puts annual arrivals at more than 40.8 million as of 2023, and the city ranks third among U.S. destinations for business conventions. Tourism, gaming and conventions feed the restaurants and retail around them, so many local incomes rise and fall with the calendar. Monthly is a free manual app that lets you enter that uneven income and see what is left after the fixed bills.

A paycheck that follows the crowds

A convention week, a big fight weekend, a holiday: demand moves quickly, and so does a server’s, dealer’s, housekeeper’s or rideshare driver’s pay. Nevada’s constitution sets a $12.00 minimum wage with no tip credit, so employers cannot count tips toward it, according to compliance guides summarizing the rule. In practice that means tips arrive on top of the base wage. It also means the tip portion of an income can be the part that disappears when visitors thin out.

That is the central budgeting question for a Las Vegas reader: which part of the paycheck can I count on? The fixed list is the answer. Rent, car, insurance, phone and power add up to a number. If the base wage plus the lowest tips you can remember cover it, the month is safe. Anything above is a cushion, not a raise.

The heat is a fixed expense

Las Vegas has one cost that most cities do not budget for in the same way. July’s average daytime high is 104.5°F, about 137 days a year reach 90°F or more, and the record is 120°F, set on July 7, 2024. Air conditioning is not a luxury in that climate, so the electric bill follows the thermometer.

A good habit is to keep two figures: a summer power bill and a winter one. Enter the higher figure in your fixed list from June through September and the lower figure the rest of the year. Water is its own story: Wikipedia notes that per-resident water use fell from 314 gallons a day in 2003 to about 205 in 2015, while the Southern Nevada Water Authority builds a $1.4 billion tunnel and pumping station to draw from Lake Mead. Households feel water infrastructure as a rate, so a water line deserves its own place in the list.

Worked example: a server across a strong and a slow month

Hypothetical amounts. A restaurant server takes home $4,300 in a strong month and $3,100 in a slow one. Fixed expenses in summer are rent at $1,350, car payment and insurance at $410, electric at $230, phone at $65 and internet at $60, for a total of $2,115. The weekend reserve is $250.

Strong month: $4,300 minus $2,115 minus $250 equals $1,935.

Slow summer month: $3,100 minus $2,115 minus $250 equals $735.

In winter, the electric bill falls to $130, so fixed expenses drop to $2,015. The same slow month then leaves $835.

The point is not the sum. It is that the $1,935 month and the $735 month are the same person, with the same rent. Spending as if the strong month were normal turns the slow month into a loan.

Put your own lowest month into the screen. Enter your lowest-earning month of the year and see what the summer AC bill does to it →

Worked example: hours cut from 38 to 26

Hypothetical. A line cook earns a take-home of $2,850 a month at full hours and $1,950 when the schedule is cut. Fixed expenses are $1,780: a shared apartment at $1,150, car costs of $380, phone at $60 and utilities of $190. The reserve is $150.

Normal month: $2,850 minus $1,780 minus $150 equals $920.

Short-hours month: $1,950 minus $1,780 minus $150 equals $20.

That $20 is the lesson. At reduced hours, the plan nearly breaks even with the weekend reserve in place. Drop the reserve to zero for that month and the same month leaves $170. The reserve is the lever you control, which is why it sits ahead of free spending in the formula.

Weekends in a city built for them

Las Vegas treats the weekend as a product. Shows, pool days, dinners and nights out are priced for visitors, and locals live in the same market. The weekend reserve is a fixed amount you set before Friday, so a night out becomes something you chose rather than something your card chose for you. Residents who work nights often have their weekend on a Tuesday. The reserve does not care what day you use it.

Living in the valley

The Las Vegas metro has an estimated 2.4 million residents, spread across the city itself (641,903 at the 2020 census), plus nearby Henderson and North Las Vegas. Commutes, rent and car costs shift depending on where in the valley you land, and a job on the Strip may be a long drive from a cheaper neighborhood. Enter your actual commute cost, fuel and parking included, rather than a general transportation guess.

Money owed and your savings notes

Service jobs are full of small favors: a coworker trades a shift, a friend fronts the deposit on a place, someone splits a rideshare home at 4 a.m. and says they will pay you Friday. The money owed list is where those promises go, with the person, the amount and the date you expect the money. For anything you are saving, a note in the investments list with the balance and the day you checked it is enough, and it stays a note: the app never reaches into an account or tells you what to buy. Writing the number down on payday, before the weekend, is what makes a savings goal feel real in a city that is designed to part you from your cash.

The one habit that matters

Count tips and cash once a week, enter them as income, and look at the real free money line before you spend the weekend’s share. A weekly five-minute check does more than a perfect system you abandon in March.

Before the slow season starts

Enter your lowest recent month, add the summer electric figure and set a reserve you can live with. Build a July cooling line into your fixed list before the heat sets in →