Personal Budget Worksheet – A budget worksheet for tracking your net income and expenses on a monthly basis. It is meant to be filled out by hand each month with your actual numbers, and then you can track your progress on net worth. There are several other resources I recommend for increasing your financial intelligence including a free budget template in Excel , a free budget template in PDF , and a wealth of investing topics (stocks, bonds, asset allocation, etc).
A simple personal budget worksheet can help you get your finances in order and stay on track. That’s why we’ve put together a template that you can use to make the process easier. This worksheet is designed to help you quickly create a budget. It’s provided as a PDF file, so it can be printed out and filled in by hand. The worksheet has 2 pages: one for the first set of numbers and the other for the second set of numbers.
The worksheet has 3 main sections: income, expenses, and savings/investments. Each section has its own column or row that allows you to list each item separately so you can easily see what your income and expenses are broken down into categories like rent, utilities, food (groceries), entertainment (movies), etc., which makes it easier for you to see where all your money goes after tracking it for a month or two. There are also columns at the bottom where totals from each category can be added together so we get an idea how much money we made last month/year as well as how much went toward savings versus paying off debt/expenses.”
Simple personal budget worksheet is handy to help you organize your finances. Knowing how much makes sense, as well as how much you spend, can make all the difference in your financial life. Simple personal budget worksheet has been proven to be effective. Here you have some examples to get started.
View the Financial Goals Worksheet
The Financial Goals Worksheet is a simple tool that helps you visualize how your expenses relate to your financial goals. It will show you which expenses contribute little or nothing toward reaching those goals. You can use it to decide whether to cut those expenses, or if they’re worth keeping around anyway.
The worksheet also shows how much money you need per month in order to achieve specific savings and investment targets, so that you can determine how much income (if any) needs to come into your household in order for these savings and investments to be possible at all.
Additional Information
- Make sure you’re listing your income and expenses separately, as well as separately for each spouse if you are married.
- If you have children, list their income and expenses separately.
Simple Budget Worksheet Instructions
- Enter your income
- Enter your expenses
- Compare your actual income and expenses to your budget
- Revise your budget if necessary
- Adjust your expenses
Other Related Worksheets and Resources
In this section, we’ll provide a list of other related worksheets and resources. These include:
- A simple budget worksheet that allows you to track your income and expenses in a spreadsheet format
- A sample budget template in Word format
- A free personal finance software application called Moneydance (for Mac or Windows)
A simple budget worksheet like this one can help you update your plan.
A simple budget worksheet like this one can help you update your plan. The best way to understand how it works is to use the personal budget template excel, the simple budget worksheet pdf and checklist, or the financial goals worksheet.
What Is Household Income?
You might be wondering, “what is household income?” It’s a good question.
There are several types of income you can earn:
- Wages or salaries from your job
- Interest from savings accounts, investments and bonds (stocks)
- Business income from self-employed activities like freelancing or running an Etsy shop
List all of your monthly income, including base salary, tips and commissions or bonuses that are regular, predictable amounts.
List all of your monthly income, including base salary, tips and commissions or bonuses that are regular, predictable amounts. Be sure to include only the amount you will receive during the month; do not include payments in arrears such as insurance reimbursements and tax refunds. Any irregular or unpredictable amounts should be listed as “Other Income” on your worksheet (see below).
Allowance – If you receive regular financial support from a parent or spouse.
Allowance: If you receive regular financial support from a parent or spouse, indicate the amount in this category.
Tips and Commissions: Record tips and commissions paid to you each month.
Bonuses: List any bonuses that are not included in your regular paychecks, such as tax refunds. This includes anything that is considered extra money by your company (for example, when they give an employee an additional paycheck at the end of their fiscal year).
Side Jobs: This category is for any income earned from side jobs, including babysitting and yard work or whatever else you do on the side for extra cash.
Alimony/Child Support: Enter the amount of alimony or child support if relevant here
Side jobs – Part-time income (including freelance work, babysitting, selling and tutoring).
Your side jobs are an important part of your budget. They provide you with extra income, which can be used for more than just paying bills. For example, side job money can help you reach your financial goals faster or make purchases that might not otherwise be possible.
In addition to providing additional income, tracking your side jobs will allow you to see how much money you’re making and when you earn it on a regular basis. This will give you a better idea of how much money is coming in during the year and how many expenses related to each side job (such as gas or equipment) should be included in the budget’s monthly income section.
When entering information about a new side job into the spreadsheet:
- Enter the amount of money earned from each source into its own cell under “Side Job Income.” This can include babysitting wages, tutoring fees and freelance work payouts—any type of non-salary income that needs special attention while creating your personal budget worksheet.
- If there’s no set time frame for when payments come through (such as monthly rent payments), set up separate rows within this section for each month’s earnings so they’re easier to track over time.* If there are multiple sources of earnings per month (such as two tutoring sessions), list them all separately with their respective amounts listed underneath each source name.* If some months have no payouts from any source (for example: July won’t have any student loan repayment due until August), put “#N/A” in those cells instead of leaving them blank so they’ll show up correctly when using formulas later on down below where we’ll calculate next month’s total net worth figure by subtracting previous months’ total debts).
Investments – Stocks, bonds and dividends.
Investments are a popular way of earning money on your savings. You can invest in stocks, bonds and other financial instruments. Investments can be a great way to earn more interest on your money, but there is also a risk that you could lose all of your investment if the value of the asset goes down.
Investing has become easier with the rise of online brokers such as E*TRADE and Ameritrade who will manage your investments for you or allow you to do it yourself online. Many people choose to manage their own investments because they want control over which stocks or funds they invest in and when they sell them off again – however this requires some research into these assets first so make sure you know what each one does before purchasing anything!
Other income – Alimony or child support payments or any other regular monthly income.
- Other income – Alimony or child support payments or any other regular monthly income.
- Gifts and inheritances – Any money you receive as a gift, inheritance, or bonus payment.
- Other income streams – Income from book royalties or social security, for example.
What Are Your Monthly Expenses?
When you’re creating a monthly budget, it’s important to include all of your regular expenses. These are the bills and other payments that come out of your account every month, including rent or mortgage payments, utilities, groceries and gas. If you have children living with you who are still in school (or if they are in college), make sure to include those expenses as well. In addition to these more obvious monthly bills, there may be other recurring costs that aren’t immediately obvious: taxes; retirement savings; insurance premiums (homeowner’s insurance and health insurance); medical care costs (prescriptions etc.).
If possible it’s also a good idea to review your budget at least once each month – ideally on payday – so that any unexpected expenses can be accounted for before the end of each pay period. If necessary adjust the amount due next month accordingly but try not to change things too drastically from month-to-month or else keeping track of what’s coming in versus what’s going out will become unmanageable!
Food
- Be fair to yourself and don’t cheat.
- Don’t forget to include the cost of eating out, which can add up quickly if you’re not careful.
- You might like to include snacks, too!
Now that we’ve looked at your income and expenses, let’s discuss how much you should strive to spend on food in order to live comfortably within your budget. Depending on where you are in life and what kind of lifestyle you want, this number may vary greatly.
Yes, keep track of every cereal bar you nibble on! Include groceries for the pantry and fridge, dining out and takeout coffee breaks. As we mentioned earlier, one way to save money is to have a personal grocery budget. This helps you cut down on food waste and forces you to look at how much money you’re spending on food.
If you think keeping track of every cereal bar you nibble on is going to be impossible, think again. We all eat, and the numbers add up quickly. If this seems too daunting, start with a smaller category like “groceries” or “dining out” and work your way up.
Once you get in the habit of tracking every penny that leaves your wallet, it will be easier to get a handle on what’s important—and what isn’t as important—in terms of personal spending.
Transportation Costs
When it comes to transportation costs, there are many variables that can affect your budget. Gasoline, public transportation and any other forms of transportation you use should be accounted for. If you own a car or lease one, don’t forget to include loan payments, insurance and other costs associated with vehicle ownership.
If you’re using Uber or Lyft instead of owning a car (which is becoming more common) then make sure those rides are accounted for in this section as well!
Benefits of Free Excel Templates for Personal Finance and Budget
The advantages of tracking your personal budget on an Excel sheet are as follows:
Data Privacy: Excel templates are reliable and safe since you don’t need to enter your personal finances on a third-party website or app. You retain your data to yourself, so no worrying about data theft.
Anytime Access: You can keep a copy of the file on your desktop computer and upload the same to OneDrive. Excel will automatically update the online file whenever you make any changes on your desktop computer. Moreover, you can access the workbook on your Android or iOS devices since you can get an Excel mobile app for free.
Conclusion
Do you know how much your income is? And how much money you spend? And how much money you save in a month? In order to make good financial plans, you need to ask yourself these questions. Personal budget worksheet is a great tool that can help you organize your finances. But this small document has other pros as well. It allows you to control your spending and pay more attention to your financial problems.
Yes, simple personal budgets are a great idea that should help you to manage your finances more effectively and make sure that you are always in the black. Why? Because a budget helps you to plan for expected costs and eliminates any room for financial surprises. Yes, I have included an Excel budget template and yes, you can adapt it to work best for your needs. By all means, customize the budget worksheet so that it serves your objectives. Make it yours!