I made a spreadsheet for people who dont know how to budget! Ver. 2.0

by Celesmeh

Hey guys! I’m back six months later with a new version of the budgeting spreadsheet I made. Earlier this year I posted the spreadsheet I made for myself and it really resonated with people. As I got more and more feedback I found places where I could improve and develop the sheet into something easier to use but still useful.

You can find pictures of it HERE

A bit of background on me and why I made this- and also why it’s made the way it is. I grew up poor and was never taught about HOW to handle money. If we had money it was already needed for other things. Food, Bills, all of the money we had already had a place. This made me get a mentality that if I had money I needed to spend it before something came up and the money would go. It’s unhealthy, but it was the only thing I knew until I moved out. I was taught that money would disappear if I didn’t use it, so I just USED it. Even now I still feel anxiety about money and can spend recklessly if I’m not careful.

Another problem I faced is that I have ADHD, so impulse control can be hard, and it can also be hard to keep track of every purchase and focus on a bunch of aspects of a budget. This spreadsheet is made so you only focus on ONE number.

I have made this sheet- and previous versions of it- with three goals in mind:

  • That it be easy to use
  • that I can focus on one daily number while supporting my long term goals
  • that it be a good starting place for people who have never had another budget

The sheet is divided into a few different tools.

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Budget:

  • Select your pay schedule, add any extra income/tips that you get monthly and select the percentage of that income that you want to save.
  • the credit card section allows you to input up to five cards and adds your monthly car payments to your expenses
  • The expenses area is where you’ll add all of your itemized expenses. You can also select when your bill is due during the month- allowing you to see if early on in the month your spendable is different from later on in the month.

Your budget summary at the top is the breakdown of all the information below. YES I know pie charts aren’t useful for everything- but that is useful to visually digest information. Look and see where your money is going, see if you spend more than you earn, and finally- see how much money you can spend.

This sheet focuses on giving you ONE number to remember. Daily Spendable. If you want to spend money throughout the day you just have to make sure you DONT go over that number and you will always have enough to cover any other expenses.

I don’t work well with a lot of budgets because I have issues imagining the big picture. By giving myself a daily/weekly/monthly budget I can make sure that on any given day I haven’t spent more than I’m allowed to- and if I do i can see where I’m borrowing from or where that money is supposed to come from.

There are a few extra features too- a large purchase calculator that lets you figure how long youd have to save to buy a larger purchase. It includes a monthly tracker that lets you see what youre spending realistically vs what you’ve budgeted for and finally a daily tracker for further breakdown.

Finally )

LINK TWO

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