My new years resolution was to budget myself and save money/pay off my credit cards. I started off strong BUT I hated every budget spreadsheet I came across.
Turns out, I'm not a huge fan of planning out how much I should spend on clothes, food, coffee, etc each month. However, I do realize that that method is extremely useful for saving money and recognizing how much you spend per month on a category.
I came up with my own spreadsheet that takes elements of what works and mixed it with things that I know will work for me. I still budget in all of my fixed expenses (bills, savings, etc.). For things such as eating out or shopping, I look at how much I have after my fixed budget and what I've spent so far, and determine whether I can afford to grab that coffee on my way to work or buy that camera that I've been wanting for a while (spoiler: no, I didn't get it.). After I buy something or do something that counts as "non-fixed", I input it into my spreadsheet to see how much I've spent thus far and how much I will have left over at the end of the month.
I also added in a "credit card running total", so that I can pay off my credit cards and SEE my progress month by month. I had/have a lot of credit card debt that I'm paying off, and being able to see how much I need to pay in order to be debt free by the end of the year is super helpful. So far, I'll be able to pay off three cards by the end of the summer, and the last one by the end of the year. This running total sheet is running under the assumption that I'm not adding any more debt to my credit cards (in my case, I had to shred my credit cards except one in case of emergencies; you may have more self control than I do).
I've decided to share this with you guys, because it really has worked for me and I've been saving a lot more than I used to in the past.
To be able to edit the sheet, don't request access but instead just go to file and make a copy. It should save onto your google docs account so that you can use it. Any suggestions to improve my spreadsheet are welcome! Here's the budget template!
Submitted March 19, 2017 at 03:04PM by thinking-too-much http://ift.tt/2n4z70Q
