Budgeting is kind of a necessary evil. I started budgeting in high school as a project with one of my friends. Our goal was to keep each other accountable for our spending which didn't really happen, but I've been using the same budgeting format since. It works for me and is really easy, so I thought I would share.
I keep up with my budget in an Excel document. It adds the numbers for me and everything is neat and in it's own little box. Each month, I create a new file. This allows me to save the previous months and look back at them to compare how my spending has changed or stayed the same. In the picture you'll see how I set it up:
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| Example of a monthly budget |
I break it into weeks (Sunday to Saturday). The top part is for money we're bringing in (work, monetary gifts, etc). The bottom is for what we spend. I have broken the spending into various categories like savings, entertainment, gas, groceries. etc. But feel free to divide it in any way you want. The last two lines allow me to see at a glance how I'm doing. Over/Under means how much over or under I spent compared to how much we brought in. Cumulative shows how much over or under I am across the whole month. These two lines are not necessary, but I would highly encourage to at least include the Over/Under row. I have it set up so that if I overspent, the number in the over/under box is red and if I underspent then it's green.
If you are interested in starting your own budget and need some pointers, just comment and I will gladly help you out!
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