How I save big...Setting Up the Budget
>> 7.13.2009
I've been really careful (or "thrifty") with my money for the past few years as I've been saving up to buy the house. I came up with some pretty effective ways to budget my money and I thought I would share them with you. In this post, I'll give you a tour of my Excel budget sheet.
NOTE: This is not my actual budget... I'll share that with you later this week.
1) I like to break my budget into months- it's how I'm paid and how most bills are processed- so I begin each month with a blank sheet:
2) I fill in my monthly earnings and projected budgets in each category:
3) I update the budget a couple times each week so that I can keep an eye on where my money goes.
4) At the end of the month, I have more information about where I was under and over in my budget. This helps me refocus and plan for the next month.
How do you budget? Do you use Excel or other software to help you with your budget? Please comment the link if you have a post about it in your blog!
Posts
5 comments:
I like the look of your Excel spreadsheet... will this be available to download as a template at any point?
@oneadvice- I'm glad that you like it! I'll have a blank version up this afternoon.
I just found your blog, and I LOVE the budget form. I've worked forever trying to get one that worked for me, and I think this could be it. Thanks for posting it.
@Meredith~ I'm glad you like it. I'd be happy to email a blank form to you if you're interested :). kasey (at) thriftylittleblog.com
mint.com keeps my family crackin' on budget. We also set up separate savings accounts at an online bank....it's June and I know exactly how much we have saved this year (way more than we ever thought we could!). I wish I would have been as budget conscious as you are when I was your age......you amaze me.
Post a Comment