#Personal budget sample guide how to
#Personal budget sample guide download

You may learn how to use Excel better in the process.

If you use and customize any template for your personal budget, make sure you understand how it works and always double-check the formulas. The flexibility comes at the price of possibly deleting or messing up an important formula, or making bad assumptions. In my opinion, the #1 problem associated with using a spreadsheet for your personal budget is the chance that you'll make errors. it's just a disclosure to say that I don't ONLY use Excel any more.Ī spreadsheet may not be the best budgeting solution for everybody. Use our budget calculator to estimate how you might divide your monthly income into needs, wants and savings.

#Personal budget sample guide download

I started out using Excel to do everything, but I began using Quicken after a friend showed me how easy it was to keep track of checks and credit card charges and download transactions directly from my bank. The 50/30/20 budget is a good tool to do just that. A budget is almost useless without tracking what you are spending. For expense tracking, you could use my Income and Expense Worksheet, Checkbook Register, or the newer Money Manager. Budgets are not sexy but most people admit it’s essential to have a personal budget if you want to manage your money better. Creating an effective and simple budget plan worksheet allows you to take control of your finances today.

Tracking your income and spending comes both before and after making a budget. Learn how to better manage your money with this simple guide on how to make a monthly budget. For example, I like to use cell comments to explain certain budgeted items in more detail (such as the fact that in May, there is Mother's Day and a couple of birthdays to remember).Ĭreating a simple personal budget (even if it is only on paper) is one of the first steps to gaining control of your spending habits. The reason I use Excel when working with my home and business budgets is that it gives me complete flexibility to keep track of the information the way I want to. If you don't own Excel, then Google Sheets and OpenOffice are free options to consider. Microsoft Excel isn't free, but if you already own Excel, then you can create a budget without purchasing other budgeting software. This guideline can serve as a general framework, but keep in mind that few people follow these proportions exactly, especially during college years. 42 Effective Ways to Save Money Budgeting Tips for the New Year Why Use Excel for your Personal Budget?įirst reason: it's free. Financial planners frequently recommend a 50/20/30 rule for budgeting, meaning that ideally you should allocate 50 of your income to essentials, 20 to savings, and 30 to nonessentials.