If you wonder what happened to the money you received from your last paycheck at the end of every month, it is time to sit down and reassess how you utilize your finances. After all, stashing away some money for retirement has to start early lest you spend your sunset years heavily in debt.
People have suggested various ways of managing finances; for instance, there is the 50-30-20 budget rule by Senator Elizabeth Warren that encourages earners to spend 50% on their needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings. However, we all have different priorities; hence the best thing you can come up with before creating a budget for better financial management is your budget template.
A budget template is a summary of how much income you are expecting in a certain period and how you are planning on spending it during that period. It could, therefore, be a monthly budget template, yearly, or biweekly. It makes it easier to track all the expenditure and facilitate making informed personal budgeting decisions. Let’s take a look at everything you need to know about budget templates.
Bi-Weekly Budget Template
- MS Excel
Budget Template (Excel)
- MS Excel
Budget Worksheet
- MS Excel
Daily Budget Template
- MS Excel
Basic Printable Budget Template
- MS Excel
Family Budget Template
- MS Excel
Family Monthly Budget Template
- MS Excel
Household Budget Template
- MS Excel
Household Monthly Budget Template
- MS Excel
Simple Budget Template
- MS Excel
Individual Monthly Budget Worksheet
- MS Excel
Personal Budget Worksheet (Excel)
- MS Excel
Personal Budget Sheet
- MS Excel
Personal Monthly budget Template
- MS Excel
Monthly Budget Template
- MS Excel
Monthly Household Budget Template
- MS Excel
Simple Budget Worksheet
- MS Excel
Budget Template with Fixed and variable Costs
- MS Excel
Elements of a Good Budget Template
Home expenses
You can also refer to them as household expenses because they are the cost of ensuring your house runs smoothly. Such expenses comprise rent, utility bills, maintenance costs that include landscaping and gardening, and repair expenses such as fixing the plumbing system.
Transportation and health expenses
You might have noticed that most people when searching for a house, look for one that is close to their place of work because they know that transportation costs can dent their pockets. Therefore concerning transportation expenses, if you own a car, then you should list any fuel costs, vehicle maintenance and repair expenses, and insurance premiums. When not using your vehicle, then remember to put down the ridesharing costs, cab fare, and other public transportation expenses.
As for health expenses, take into account the regular out-of-pocket costs such as prescription drugs or over-the-counter medicine, payroll deductions for dental, health and vision coverage, as well as dentist and doctor bills.
Daily Living and Entertainment Expenses
Anything you spend money on for your personal care falls under daily living expenses. Consequently, list the amount you use on groceries, salon, toiletries, laundry, and cosmetics in this section. Just because you are trying to save money does not mean you have to forego all the fun hence the entertainment expenses. For as long it is not a necessity, it is entertainment, so the dollars you spend on a date night, movies, vacations, or a visit to Disneyland should go there.
Subscriptions and dues
Those magazines you have been enjoying for several months still cost you some money, and it should be factored in your budget. The same goes for membership fees to a gym or any professional organization. Moreover, monthly rent for equipment should fall under the due section in your template.
Obligations
While some can put the monthly payments they are making in the section they relate to, such as mortgage under home expenses, you can choose to include all your obligations under this section. Such commitments include car payments, mortgages, credit card fees, child support, alimony, and student loan payments. Also, take note of any monthly payments you are making towards a Health Savings Account.
Pet care expenses
You can easily overlook the amount of money you spend on buying food and toys for your pets or taking them to the groomers. Record every dollar you also use in the routine veterinary visits, and in paying someone else to care for them when you are away.
Child care expenses
If you have little children, then you know how expensive daycare can be; in America, it has been said that child care takes up more of family income than housing, food, or healthcare. Therefore remember to list the amount you spend on your child’s daycare. Also, if they are engaged in a sport, record the money you pay to facilitate their involvement.
Miscellaneous expenses
You can put here money that does not fit into any of the mentioned categories. Such expenses may include money spent on gifts and donations.
Savings
The essence of making a budget is to ensure you set aside some money; therefore, no matter how little it is, put down the figure and work towards increasing it by saving more or investing it. Most of all, have a specific target you want to achieve every month to enable limiting your expenses.
Analyzing the budget template
While using a pen and paper to note down your income and expenditure will suffice, it will not give you a glance at how much money deviates from the estimate unless you manually calculate it. For this reason, excel budget templates are ideal since they analyze the information and do the calculations for you.
Frequently asked Questions
Yes, it is. With Excel, you have more than enough rows and columns to arrange different subheadings and categories for a more detailed and organized budget. Besides, adjusting any figures is easy, and when you need a quick look at how the expenditure has been changing over a certain period, you can easily make a graph and any other visual representation.
The list of different expenses above should go into your budget spreadsheet. Therefore make a column for savings, household expenses, transportation, daily living, entertainment expenses, and all the others mentioned above.
All your expenses can be categorized into fixed, variable, and non-essential. Fixed costs do not fluctuate with time, and they comprise rent, mortgage, insurance premiums, car payments, or real estate taxes. On the other hand, variable expenses change with time, making it hard to estimate them; they include groceries and utility bills. Finally, non-essential expenses are those we spend money on but can do without them, such as luxurious vacations.
