Many people know they need a budget but struggle to stick to one. The key is regularly comparing actual expenses to your budget to see how you’re doing. Did you spend more than you earned?

Start by calculating your net income—combine yours and your partner’s income. Using a tool like Excel can simplify tracking and calculations. Total your incomes to establish your net income, the amount you will subtract your expenses from.

Then you start with your expenses, namely, your fixed expenses. What are the expenses that never change month to month? Write each expense down with its name and amount. Add up all of your fixed expenses to see what you have left to work with. This amount will be what you budget your variable expenses with.

Now take some time to think about what kind of variable expenses you have each month. There are the important ones, like groceries and gas. We can start with these and budget out an amount you would like to spend on these for the month. If you have an excel sheet calculating, the amount remaining will go down with each variable expense you allocate money to. You can use this remaining amount to decide what you would like to spend on for the month. Do you want to allocate $200 to entertainment? Or $100 to pet? Perhaps you have a monthly medication that you need to allocate funds to.

With all funds assigned, your budget should balance to zero.

Now comes the fun part, tracking your expenses! How will you know if you were under budget if you don’t track your expenses?

I have created a handy dandy Excel sheet that you can use to build your budget and track your expenses.

Budgeting isn’t just about planning—it’s about accountability and making your money work for you!

Contact me for templates and follow for more accountability tips!