Conquering Finances Part 2: Creating a Budget Worksheet

So last week's goal was to figure out what our income is and what our expenses are. Now we need to get that information into a format that helps us to look more closely at what we are doing and keep track of everything.

Here is an example of a spreadsheet that I've set up and how it would look at the beginning of the month before any money has come in or gone out. I tried to use some standard figures for incomes and expenses in the United States.

 As you may notice this budget isn't balanced yet. The important thing is that now we can look at it and recognize that it isn't balanced and know how much we need to cut. We also now have the areas of expenses listed so we can see which ones we might be able to cut some from in order to make it balanced or how much more we need to make in income.

The categories I have listed are ones that I've found useful. Your family may want to divide things differently. Another thing that we've done in our family is to divide up which expenses will be paid by whom. For example EC takes care of most of our fixed expenses that don't change much like our Mortgage, Insurance, etc. I take care of some of those flexible ones like food and clothes. Doing so has helped us not worry that the bills haven't been paid or that we're going to double up on something and overspend.

Another thing about the way that I've set my budget up that I've found to be useful is the "Carryover" category. It's basically my cheat version of a savings account. If I get to the end of the month and have extra in a category I can save it to help with the following month's expenses. This has been really helpful in planning ahead for bigger purchases and expenses so I know the money is already there instead of trying to squeeze the whole cost into one month's budget.

If anyone is interested in using the spreadsheet that I've made or having me modify it for them for free please e-mail me at deliberatelydeborah@gmail.com. There are also tons of free budget worksheets and templates online that you can find with a Google search!