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My Precious Pennies

I will be AWAY until late February as we do this moving thing...again.

Ginger from Attention Target Shoppers & Tricia from 1stopmom
will be holding down the fort in the meantime - thank you so much, ladies!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

New month = new budget time!

This is a template budget, that I made to keep track of our monthly spending. It calculates -everything- for me, down to the percentages. At a single glance, I can see which category is taking up a large percentage of our income, and can adjust that accordingly.

The first sheet is a daily spending log. It is a hassle to keep up with, but it is a good hassle. I've found myself skipping non-essential purchases simply because I didn't want to record it. The middle sheet is our family budget - projected versus actual income and expenses. And the last sheet is my "budget bank". Basically, whatever we didn't use up a certain category gets carried over to the next month. For example - we buy a 40lb bag of food for our two dogs every 3 months or so. Obviously it doesn't cost a mere $10, but we didn't spend anything towards their food the past 3 months, and therefore we would have enough "saved" in the budget to buy the $30 bag of food.

I've found that keeping track of my budget in this manner has helped us with large infrequent purchases (like dog food). Before we had the budget bank, we used these infrequent purchases as an excuse whenever our one credit card bill was extraordinarily high. But in reality, that large infrequent purchase had little to do with it and was just an excuse.

If anyone would like me to email the excel template file, please leave a comment with how to get in touch with you and I would love to do so. How do you keep a track of your budget? In a spreadsheet, or just in your mind? How do you adjust your budget for life's surprises?

8 comments:

~Stephanie~ said...

I would love to try your budget. Please email to stephanieasher@hotmail.com. Thank you so much and I'm enjoying your blog!

Jeanette said...

I struggle with creating & maintaining a workable budget. I would love to see if this could help me stay on track!
bazingo99@gmail.com

Ida said...

What a FABULOUS spreadsheet. I'd love to have a copy if you're still sharing. momma@3princessesmomma.com

The Jacobson Family said...

I just found your blog and would love to try your budget, thanks!
laura_surveys@hotmail.com

Stephanie said...

I have an excel spreadsheet that I use but I would love to try yours in excel format if you are still willing to share. sjnorton@mail.com

Unknown said...

Hi, thanks for the offer, would you please email me a copy: nepecoraro@gmail.com.

Thanks so much!

Marie said...

Hello,
Please send a copy of your template. I would love to try it out. lmcrml @ att.net

Unknown said...

Hi,

I am a newly wed and a baby is on the way whilst I am still working full-time. I have been desperately looking for ways of making our budget work, but where I live (Germany) and where I am from (Portugal) there seems to be no help. For the last two days I have been reading your complete blog with all its postings, since I found it and it is already helping me understand where I am going wrong... in many many aspects...

I would very much appreciate a copy of your spreadsheet as a new start for my mess of a budget.

My email: daniela.pereira@portugalmail.com

Thank you in advance!

 
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