How to Create a Personal Budget Spreadsheet

No matter how much money you earn, if you spend more than you make you will always be living paycheck to paycheck. Earning more money is not necessarily the answer, but creating a realistic personal budget just might be. Until you take the time to create a budget, you will have a hard time telling definitively where your money is going and why you always seem to be short of cash by the end of the month.

• 1

  Gather all of your monthly bills and sort them into categories. Place all your utility bills in one pile, your monthly rent or mortgage in another and discretionary spending like cable in a third.

• 2

  Download a budget template for your software package. Microsoft provides a number of personal budget templates for its popular Excel program, and other spreadsheet programs provide similar templates.

• 3

  Review the categories built into the budget spreadsheet and add lines for any that are not listed. Plug your own numbers into each spending category listed in the budget spreadsheet. Try to break out your spending categories as much as possible, since this will give you better information and help you identify places where you can save money. For instance, instead of using a single category for food, break spending out into separate categories for restaurant meals, takeout and groceries.

• 4

  Add up all your ATM withdrawals and place them in the other spending category. If you can identify the reason for the cash withdrawal, you can place those withdrawals in that category instead.

• 5

  Sort your debit card receipts according to the spending category and plug those numbers in as well. Go through your checkbook and make sure you have not missed any additional spending.

• 6

  Add up all your spending across all the categories shown in the budget spreadsheet. If you used a pre-made template to create your budget, the calculations will already be in place. Double check your math to make sure the numbers are correct.

• 7

  Review your pay stubs and plug in your monthly take-home pay into the budget spreadsheet. Compare your total income to the total spending across all categories. Examine each category of spending and look for places where you can cut back. For instance, if you find that you are spending $100 a month on takeout food, you could save some cash by purchasing less expensive ready-to-eat meals at your local supermarket, or by making more meals at home.