If your budget spreadsheet tracks your goals clearly, you are constantly reminded of why you are budgeting in the first place.Įven if your goal is just to get better control of your finances and save a little extra each week or month, any sort of budgeting goal will keep you on track. Financial goals may not seem like a vital part of the budgeting process, but listing your budgeting goals will keep you motivated. This is what you want to achieve and when. You should now have a complete list of your income and expenses, which we’ll use to fill in the spreadsheet in the creating your budget section. These spending patterns and behaviours can be called ‘spending leaks’ - we’re going to change your mindset to look at these instead as ‘opportunities to save’. It will also help you identify spending patterns and behaviours that could be better managed to save money. Look to have all fixed expenses debited out of a single account for better tracking.įollowing these tips will help you document all of your expenses for your budget spreadsheet.Analyse how much physical cash you withdraw and spend – try to not use cash ongoing.Analyse your credit card statement for spending patterns by categories.Here are some tips to accurately gather your existing expenses to document in your budget: Instead of trying to track these mini variable expenses, you might be better off stating ‘I have $50 per week for variable expenses’ and work towards sticking to this number. For instance, some days you may buy a coffee – other days you may not. Variable expenses are slightly harder to track and may require you to set yourself a daily or weekly budget limit to help cover these.Fixed (or recurring) expenses are easily tracked, as they are often a set amount on a regular date.There are also two types of expenses: Fixed and Variable. Listing your expenses quickly helps you establish whether you have enough money coming in to cover these. Your new expenses total $1,725 per month.You add a buffer of 15% which is calculated at $225.You estimate you spend $1,500 per month.When calculating your expenses, also factor in unexpected bills, such as unplanned car repairs.Ī good rule of thumb is to add an extra 10 per cent to 15 per cent. A forgotten bill really throws a wrench into your savings plan. Remember that being thorough when you add up expenses is important in creating a realistic budget. Some expenses are intermittent, such as insurance payments, so to get the most accurate financial picture you can calculate an average for six months to a year. Assess your expenses by consulting your bank statements, receipts, and financial files. Either way, finding a budgeting template or spreadsheet that works best for your finances will help you create a budget and stick to it.This is how much money you spend. If you just want a basic budgeting tool that you can print out and fill in, choose a printable worksheet. If you’re interested in a budgeting solution that will allow you to customize things according to your lifestyle, you’ll want to opt for a template or spreadsheet that you can download and edit. Make Budgeting Easier With a Template or Spreadsheet That Works for You And if aesthetics matter to you, this worksheet has a fun, somewhat whimsical feel due to the bright colors and scripted font. Also unlike the former, it includes a column for writing the difference after you subtract your actual expenses from your expected ones. In comparison to A Cultivated Nest’s printable budget sheet, this one is more detailed because the subcategories are already filled in for you. This free budget worksheet from A Mom’s Take is printable, which is perfect if you’re not committed to the idea of doing your number crunching online. As an added bonus, the bottom of the template includes a colorful doughnut chart that details a percentage breakdown of your monthly expenses. In the middle of the doc, you can plug in your actual and budgeted expenses. This simple monthly budget template found on TheGoodocs is designed to open in Google Docs and features a budget summary up top that includes total income and expenses, the amount saved, the amount overspent and the percentage of your budget that you utilized for the month. Free Easy Monthly Budget Template From TheGoodocs There’s also a separate sheet that details a year’s view of credit card payments, which can help give you insight into that specific area of spending. While you can choose to viewyour income and expenses by month, you can also use the yearly sheet to get a comprehensive month-to-month overview of your income and fixed expenses. This Google Sheets budget planner from 20somethingfinance stands out because it allows you to track a year’s worth of budgeting at a time.
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