J and I have never bothered with a household budget before. It was something we didn't want to tackle and it seemed like a royal pain in the you-know-what to save every receipt and track it into a budget.
Well, we decided we want a bigger place. And to get that bigger place, we need to have an extra $100 a month. To do that, we need to know where our money is going. So, that's where a budget comes in.
I went onto Google Documents and found a budget spreadsheet that would work well for our family and started inputting numbers. Since this month has already started, obviously our budget will be a little off, but it will definitely help.
The spreadsheet has a projected column and an actual column. At the beginning of the month, I plan on entering in all the numbers for the projected column so I know what we can expect to spend during that month. Then, as we spend money, I'll have us save our receipts for every little thing we purchase. Then, at the end of the day, I'll insert those items into the actual column. Then, we can compare the numbers at the end of the month and see how we came out.
I think this will be a great way to see where our money is going and how we can cut back.
How do you budget for your household? Do you use a spreadsheet or some other format?
Same -- I use Google Docs for what I spend and google calendar and share it with my guy so he can see when things are due! : )
ReplyDeleteMy Dh came up with an Excel spreadsheet with all our monthly expenses on it, plus areas for us to input our incomes and any extra money. (my income varies every 2 weeks, and he sometimes makes more with extra military duties)
ReplyDeleteI love love LOVE the budget he created. In fact I use it and follow it to the letter more than he does!
I think you'll find that once your current goal is fulfilled, you'll be in the habit/routine of using the budget and find it so satisfying you'll continue to use it...just to be able to see what else you can do!
Good luck with it!
Any chance you want to share the spreadsheet you found? I'm thinking we should start doing this for both of us (previously I've just done it for myself), and I'd rather use a template than have to make one myself. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteEmily,
ReplyDeleteIf you go to google documents and click on their templates, they have plenty on there. That's where I got mine. Hopefully one will work for your family!
Xoxo,
Ashley
this sounds like a really good idea, my husband is obsessed with google docs so i'm sure this would be perfect for us!!
ReplyDelete