I make a spreadsheet called 'Budget YYYY', typically some time between October and December I make the next year's version, and then these for each month.
The control panel tracks income, where it goes, what was budgeted and what was actually spent.
The Credit Card Balance sheets I use twice a month to get all balances, prompt me to review all statements, and mark all of that off. It’s self-contained and doesn’t impact the rest of the budget.
Income this period gets money added in when I get it.
For spending, I track a couple of categories:
- Yearly / Bi-Annual Bills: Anything that happens not monthly. Domain registrations, car insurance, etc.
- Variable recurring bills: things that I have to pay, but don’t know how much they will be. Electric bill, water bill, etc. I rough-estimate these, and the longer I’ve lived at a place the more accurate I get.
- Static Recurring Bills: Things that are the same every month. Rent, subscription services,
- Grocery Expenses: Anything related to grocery shopping for food / household supplies.
- Restaurants: I explicitly break restaurants out into its own category to better let me see how much money I spend eating out, this is new this year.
- Travel Expenses: When I travel for work, I track things here, and then track the reimbursement.
- Other: Random spending money.
Then for savings I have boxes for:
Savings Account Deposits: I keep a number of savings account set aside for specific purposes, I record deposits into them here.
Savings Account Withdrawls: If I’m using extra money this month for something, I add it as income, and then debt it as a savings account withdrawl. For example, Christmas I made a withdrawal for money from savings, then added it as income, then recording the items bought under “Other”.
Comments
I use Google Sheets to manage my budget: https://i.imgur.com/e02ibvY.png
I make a spreadsheet called 'Budget YYYY', typically some time between October and December I make the next year's version, and then these for each month.
The control panel tracks income, where it goes, what was budgeted and what was actually spent.
The Credit Card Balance sheets I use twice a month to get all balances, prompt me to review all statements, and mark all of that off. It’s self-contained and doesn’t impact the rest of the budget.
Income this period gets money added in when I get it.
For spending, I track a couple of categories:
- Yearly / Bi-Annual Bills: Anything that happens not monthly. Domain registrations, car insurance, etc.
- Variable recurring bills: things that I have to pay, but don’t know how much they will be. Electric bill, water bill, etc. I rough-estimate these, and the longer I’ve lived at a place the more accurate I get.
- Static Recurring Bills: Things that are the same every month. Rent, subscription services,
- Grocery Expenses: Anything related to grocery shopping for food / household supplies.
- Restaurants: I explicitly break restaurants out into its own category to better let me see how much money I spend eating out, this is new this year.
- Travel Expenses: When I travel for work, I track things here, and then track the reimbursement.
- Other: Random spending money.
Then for savings I have boxes for:
Savings Account Deposits: I keep a number of savings account set aside for specific purposes, I record deposits into them here.
Savings Account Withdrawls: If I’m using extra money this month for something, I add it as income, and then debt it as a savings account withdrawl. For example, Christmas I made a withdrawal for money from savings, then added it as income, then recording the items bought under “Other”.