In the preceding chapters, we’ve covered quite a few strategies for successfully creating a budget that will work for you. Now enough talk! Let’s put the pen to paper and get down to business!
As promised, here is the last post in the series containing my free Excel budget template. If you’ve got Microsoft Excel installed on your computer, then you should be in good shape. The file was created in an older version of Excel so it should open with no trouble.
Download My Free Excel Budget Template:
The link below contains my free Excel budget template. If you know your way around Excel, then please feel free to customize it to suite your individual needs. Not everyone has the same type of budget, so I would fully expect that you add some customization.
My Money Design_Free_Excel Budget_Template
Closing Thoughts:
In summary, I’d like to close this series with a few final thoughts:
• Don’t guess! Use your budget to know how you’re going to do th
roughout the whole year, not just in a single month. And watch that bottom line if you want to stay out of trouble!
• Make the necessary sacrifices to achieve your long-term financial goals. In the long-run, you’ll be glad you saved more for your 401k or child’s 529 plan versus spending the money on idle purchases.
• Don’t obsess! Work on your reducing your bills and expenses one by one; not all at once. Use some other automated system to alert you and keep track of your credit card spending. Use your time to enjoy the things that actually matter in life!
I hope you enjoyed this series and found it useful! Thanks for reading!
Table of Contents:
How to Budget – Step 1 – Where Does All My Money Go?
How to Budget – Step 2 – Income Vs Expense
How to Budget – Step 3 – Take It All The Way to 12 Months
How to Budget – Step 4 – Add In Those Special Times
How to Budget – Step 5 – Apply the Formula for Success
How to Budget – Step 6 – Adding In Your Investment Goals
How to Budget – Step 7 – Sticking to the Plan!
How to Budget – Making It Easy with Mint
How to Budget – Download My Excel Budget Template
Photo Credit: Microsoft Clip Art
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Very good compilation of how to get a handle on finances and setting up a budget. It can be a frustrating task to try and grasp, but can be rewarding once you do start to understand. Thanks for many great tips and things to keep in mind. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the compliment! I agree. Once you get things under control, your finances become just like everything else in your life that you manage. The hard part is always getting there.
Nice template! It has aggregate view. I also like to see day by day view, so I can project it int he begining of months and then track actual spending. But overall the approach shows the balcony view and helps spost undesired trends. Good stuff
I’m glad to hear you enjoyed it! I can see how the day by day view would also be good. I wish I could find a way to incorporate both into the same Excel sheet!