Budgeting

Setting up a budget is one of the most important parts of managing your finances. A budget allows you to see how much you make each month, where you spend money each month, and how much you have left over each month. A budget can help you to set limits on your spending. The hard part is having the discipline to follow through with it.

A lot of people do not set up a budget because they simply do not know how to set one up. Because of this, I have created an Excel budget spreadsheet for you. Let me just say that I am very proud of this spreadsheet. If you use it correctly, you will know how much you spent in each category per month and how much money you have left in each category before you reach your spending limits. I personally use this spreadsheet and I LOVE it!

To use this spreadsheet, you first have to decide which categories to use. I have set the spreadsheet up with a list of default categories, but you can change these to whichever ones you like. Make sure your categories are in the same order in the bottom portion as they are in the top portion of the screen. Then, you decide how much you expect to make or spend in each category and put the amounts in the “Budgeted” column. At this point your budget is ready to go. The bottom portion of the screen has a calender for every day of the month. At the end of every day, you put the amount you made or spent in each category. For example, if I spent $20 in the food category on the 2nd day of the month, I would go down to the category “food/groceries”, go over the the “2″ column, and put the amount in that box. If you do this every day, the spreadsheet will automatically keep track of how much you have spent in each category so far for that month. The total amounts will show up in the “Actual” column of the budget. The spreadsheet will also show you how much you have left in each category before you reach your spending limit in the “Difference” column. The “Total Savings” row will show you how much more money you brought in than you spent. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I can also help you personalize your spreadsheet with your own categories if you are having trouble. Let me know if you have any suggestions to improve this spreadsheet. You can download the template by clicking the link below. Enjoy!

Monthly Budget Template

Excel Monthly Budget Spreadsheet by Olivia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.