Suggestions for Frequency of Friendly Matches in Off-season?

So when running a lower league team what do you do for friendlies. It is currently February and I have been setting up friendlies every couple weeks to get to know my team and keep the players in shape, but my team does not play regular season until the end of August.

I notice that my franchise is losing money since I took over, but I think this is because I need to setup more friendlies to try to make some money...if we are not playing then there is no money coming in and I see no solution other than friendlies. I am under budget on my wages, so that is not the problem.

I'm trying to run my game as close to what real life teams do, but I can't find much around the average number of friendlies that teams setup when not playing in their regular season.

If you're a lower league team, set up friendlies with big teams, hold them at whoever has the larger stadium/fanbase, and, when setting up the friendly, set the ticket revenue in your favour. In this way you'll be getting plenty of ticket sales as one of you will have a large stadium and fanbase, and you'll be getting the larger part of the revenue.

Cancel friendlies and re-request at a frequency you like ?