What Should My Budget Spreadsheet Contain? Samples & Template

Without a doubt, money is necessary for life. Basic living expenses need to be kept for a reasonable quality of life—which can be achieved by most people if they manage their finances correctly.

One of the best methods for managing personal finances is to create a budget spreadsheet or template.

Creating a budget can help keep your finances in order while controlling the amount of debt you might require to live the way you want.

Furthermore, budgets help you plan for your monthly expenses, activities, needs, and even your financial future. So, sit back and read through to know what a budget spreadsheet contains budget spreadsheet samples, and templates.

What Is A Budget Spreadsheet?

A personal budget spreadsheet offers a person a way to decide the state of his finances and help him or her plan spending over the course of a period of usually a month or a year.

It is the most helpful tool for organizing one’s finances in order to avoid falling into a debt hole. With a budget spreadsheet, you can manage your money, and you can allot enough amount to every expense without exhausting the cash box.

How Can I Create A Budget Spreadsheet

As earlier said, budget spreadsheets can help a person track his spending and plan his future expenditure. For this reason, creating one is very important. So, here is how you can make a really simple one that is good for beginners.

Firstly, to make one, you need a desktop or laptop computer with MS Excel already installed.
Run the Excel program on the computer and open a new file or spreadsheet.
Put in the necessary details on the spreadsheet in order for it to calculate the figures involved in the file. Basic budget spreadsheets are often labeled with Income and Expenditure, which will be totaled by the file itself.
Indicate the months that are included in the duration of the budget. If it applies for half a year, write January to June on every cell along one row.
Then, type Income on one cell a row below the different months of the year. Under the category should be the types of income that you expect to receive each month.
After the types of income, skip one cell and then write Expenditure, under which are the different types of expenses like shopping, groceries, bills, and others.
After they’ve been put on the spreadsheet, you can begin writing down the calculation or formula which Excel will use at a later date once you need to see the total.
Choose the part of the spreadsheet where you can write the total.
Click the Menu button and click Autosum. Highlight the cells that you need to include in the Autosum by clicking on them and dragging them.
Step 9 should be repeated with Expenditure.

Read this: 10 Simple Ways To Save Money On A Tight Budget This Year

How Can I Use A Budget Spreadsheet?

There are many ways people use budget spreadsheets. Some find it effective in that they can be able to track their expenditure, while some others don’t, which may be caused by several factors.

Here, let us learn how to use the budget spreadsheet in the simplest way.

#1. Put together all sources of income, as well as all expenses

It depends on the number of sources of your income and if there is anyone else in the house who will help with the expenditure.

Then a personal budget spreadsheet should be separate from the budget spreadsheet for the household. Couples can add up their individual sources of income to come up with the final income amount. You can follow the same process in computing for expenditure.

#2. Create Savings Goals

After you have deducted the total expenditure from the total income, check if there is any money left over. If there is, make a plan of what to do with the remainder instead of spending all of it on unexpected things.

For example, you may want to set a part of it aside for traveling or for an emergency fund. You can also specify how much of the money left over you will allocate to each of the spending categories.

#3. Come up with budget amounts

After going through the first two steps, it is important to also create a budget for other necessities such as groceries, shopping, or date night. For couples, it is important to include what hobbies or crafts you want to spend on.

What Should My Budget Spreadsheet Contain?

The ability to organize your finances enables you to live within your financial means at all times. However, you have to remember to include all your expenditures.

What should your budget spreadsheet contain? Here is what your budget spreadsheet should contain.

#1. Housing Payment

When making your budget, make sure you include your housing payment because having a roof over you is very important. Your rent or mortgage payment should not exceed 30 percent of your income.

#2. Housing Expenses

The rent or mortgage payment is not the only thing you need to consider when figuring out your housing costs. You should also add the cost of utilities, cable, and Internet.

While all of these costs can be combined into one category, make sure you itemize these costs individually on your computer.

#3. Emergency Fund

You never know when an emergency may strike. A job loss or disability can cause you to lose your ability to work. The medical bills associated with your illness or disability will pile up rather quickly. Building an emergency fund can help you weather the storm a little easier.

#4. Gifts

There is a good chance that you will give someone a gift throughout the year. Birthdays are a common time to buy gifts for others. Christmas is a time when you will certainly spend money on gifts. Failing to budget for these festive times can come back to disturb you.

#5. Debt Payments

If you owe, don’t let your credit card debt linger for any length of time. Plan to pay down your credit card debt in regular intervals each month.

Doing so will allow you to reduce the amount of interest you pay on that debt. Make sure you have a plan to pay back your student loans or home equity loans. Don’t risk losing everything due to failure to pay.

#6. General Savings Fund

You should also have money set aside for a general savings account. This money would be used to make a large purchase, plan a vacation, or start your retirement fund.

Having a general savings account you can access will allow you to spend lavishly so often without endangering your financial security.

#7. Clothes and Accessories

You know you will need to change your wardrobe at some point. You may need to buy some new shirts from time to time.

Your jeans could get a hole in them or wear out. Shoes, belts, and other accessories may be needed to keep yourself looking good. So, having a budget for this is essential.

#8. Food

Don’t forget to feed yourself on a regular basis. Food prices have risen steadily over the past few months. Having a budget and a shopping list each week is important. Try to a budget for this.

#9. Transportation Expenses

Don’t forget to account for your transportation expenses. This would include your car payment, insurance, and gas. The cost of a bus pass could be what you put in this spot if you don’t own or lease your own car.

Budget Spreadsheet Template

A budget spreadsheet template will help you monitor your expenses with accuracy.

There are budget templates available for a variety of uses, covering budgets for your household, wedding, business, events, and college.

A family budgeting template can track monthly income, expenses, and cash flow and present the information visually.

On the other hand, you can use a household budget template in Excel. This template for a budget shows estimated versus actual costs for individual items and automatically calculates the difference.

Event budgeting templates list out expenses, including costs for the venue, refreshments, entertainment, and more, so you know where each penny goes.

For general use, try a wheel budget template. One of the more visual budgeting templates, the budget wheel is a fun way to see where your money goes.

Every Excel budget template incorporates spreadsheet functionality, graphs, and customizable styles. Download a free budget template so you’ll always know your current financial position. Here is an example of some personal budget spreadsheet templates for google sheets.

Also, read this: Budget Categories In 2022: Easy Steps To Set Them Up Fast

#1. Aspire Budgeting Template

The popular Aspire budgeting template for Google Sheets allows you to track every category and every account at a glance to know where your money is and if you’re on track for the month. This Google budget template has a devoted Reddit community and ample help docs.

#2. Microsoft Office Budget Template

You can save yourself the hassle of setting up rows, columns, and formulas by using a pre-made Excel template from Office. Templates include a household expense budget, holiday budget planner, and event budget.

Budget Spreadsheet Samples

#2. Sample of a Personal Budget Spreadsheet

Conclusion

I hope this article gives you a guide on how to manage your monthly and yearly budget and how to create a simple budget spreadsheet.