We receive a (very) partial reimbursement for his pre-school fees twice a month from our FSA.
We also set money aside in a Flexible Spending Account to help pay for our four-year-old son’s preschool care. When his paycheck clears, I type in the amount in the corresponding week. My husband (Income 1) gets paid on the 1st and 15th of the month. This is the simplest part of filling out our spreadsheet. Now let’s take a look at each individual component of my tracking: Income After a few months of this habit, we had to decide whether to scale back our dining out spending, or increase that budget–or both. Between getting lunches at work, going out to dinner together for dates or as a family, or getting pizza or takeout on evenings when neither of us feel like cooking, we have a tendency to blow through our dining out budget every month. We use this monthly check-in to make sure we are on the same page and to increase or decrease any spending categories that might need it.įor instance, we tend to overspend in the dining out category every month.
#FAMILY EXPENSES FREE EXCEL DOWNLOAD DOWNLOAD#
Right click here to download this family budget Excel template.ĭuring the first week of each month, I print off the previous month’s page so that my husband and I can look over and discuss our finances. With the help of my husband, who uses Excel a great deal for work, I have set up the following spreadsheet to track our family’s income, savings, investments, and expenses: So without further ado, here is a breakdown of the system I use.Įditor’s note: even with all of the cool budgeting tools available today, the vast majority of my Masters of Money guests use(d) some type of modified Excel spreadsheet to track expenses or budget ( just like I did). I mentioned to PT on our podcast conversation that I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use to keep tabs on every penny that passes through our family’s coffers, and he suggested I explain my system. So, it should come as no surprise that the detail-oriented piggy-bank counter has grown up to use a pretty complex system for keeping track of my family budget. As a small child, I used to empty my piggy bank, count everything that was inside, and put it all back in, feeling pretty good about my net worth as an 8-year-old.
#FAMILY EXPENSES FREE EXCEL DOWNLOAD HOW TO#
You may learn how to use Excel better in the process.I have long been a money nerd. 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.
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