You may learn how to use Excel better in the process. If you use and customize any template for your personal budget, make sure you understand how it works and always double-check the formulas. With these free printable expense trackers, you’ll be that much closer to reaching your financial goals. 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. Instructions: Enter your monthly income in cell B1 Enter your expense types in column A, starting at row 5 (Cells A5, A6, A7, etc. 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. This first expense tracker is the most simple of all of them It allows you to track your expenses for a single month. 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. That spreadsheet is a great first step to managing your spending habits because it allows you to track your expenses plus gives you some great tools to analyze them. If you don't own Excel, then Google Sheets and OpenOffice are free options to consider. In a previous article (Daily Expense Sheet), I covered another expense tracking spreadsheet. Microsoft Excel isn't free, but if you already own Excel, then you can create a budget without purchasing other budgeting software. 42 Effective Ways to Save Money Budgeting Tips for the New Year Why Use Excel for your Personal Budget?įirst reason: it's free.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |