Video Tutorial (Customizing Budget Categories) Essentially, you just need to make sure that the categories are exactly the same in all worksheets. Luckily, you only need to do this once with maybe a bit of tweaking each year. The most complicated part of using the old version is customizing the budget categories. The new version of the money manager is easier to customize, but many people still prefer the original version because it groups the expenses into separate categories. Update (XLSX version only): Added a new Goals worksheet that you can use for tracking the balance of various savings and expense funds. For example, tags would allow you to filter or search for specific expenses that might cross over multiple categories, such as a #CAR1 or #CAR2 tag for tracking expenses associated with a specific vehicle. A new "Tags" column was added to the Transactions worksheet to let you add your own unique tags as needed. Update (XLSX version only): A separate "Accounts" worksheet was added for editing the list of accounts and summarizing the balances in each account. It includes the transactions and the weekly report all on one worksheet. We've created a Weekly Budget template that is based on the money manager. This may be helpful for creating the following year's budget. Track Your Yearly Spending - Due to frequent requests for a yearly report, I have added a new worksheet that calculates an Income & Expense Report for an entire year grouped by month. Just change the Year and Month to view the report for a different month. actual amounts, and is updated automatically as you enter transactions. You may learn how to use Excel better in the process.- Track Your Monthly Spending using the monthly budget report which includes graphs, compares budget vs. If you use and customize any template for your personal budget, make sure you understand how it works and always double-check the formulas. The flexibility comes at the price of possibly deleting or messing up an important formula, or making bad assumptions. In my opinion, the #1 problem associated with using a spreadsheet for your personal budget is the chance that you'll make errors. it's just a disclosure to say that I don't ONLY use Excel any more.Ī spreadsheet may not be the best budgeting solution for everybody. I started out using Excel to do everything, but I began using Quicken after a friend showed me how easy it was to keep track of checks and credit card charges and download transactions directly from my bank. A budget is almost useless without tracking what you are spending. For expense tracking, you could use my Income and Expense Worksheet, Checkbook Register, or the newer Money Manager. Tracking your income and spending comes both before and after making a budget. For example, I like to use cell comments to explain certain budgeted items in more detail (such as the fact that in May, there is Mother's Day and a couple of birthdays to remember).Ĭreating a simple personal budget (even if it is only on paper) is one of the first steps to gaining control of your spending habits. The reason I use Excel when working with my home and business budgets is that it gives me complete flexibility to keep track of the information the way I want to. If you don't own Excel, then Google Sheets and OpenOffice are free options to consider. Microsoft Excel isn't free, but if you already own Excel, then you can create a budget without purchasing other budgeting software. 42 Effective Ways to Save Money Budgeting Tips for the New Year Why Use Excel for your Personal Budget?įirst reason: it's free.
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