Have you been meaning to create a budget and begin to keep track of all your expenses? Confused about how to start? Well let me share with you the system that I’ve been using for the past two years. Some people use Microsoft Money or Intuit Quicken, but I currently use an Excel approach. I might try out Quicken one day, but for now the worksheets I’ve created gives me enough control to painlessly keep track of all my expenses. It should take no more than 15-20 minutes a week to maintain this Excel file. Here is a sample of the Excel spreadsheet. I will explain the features of my spreadsheet below.
It varies how often I input my spendings, but I open up this Excel file at least once a week. Sometimes more often if I’m playing around with my budget. The usual time of day that works for me is in the morning when I first come into work. Do your updates whenever its convenient, but just make sure you can keep it consistent. I log into my Bank and Credit card accounts and input any new spendings I’ve had since the last time I’ve updated. I also keep a little notepad at my desk that I write down cash spendings throughout the week. The majority of my cash spendings is on meals when I don’t use my credit card. I write down the amount on my notepad and cross it off when I’ve input the amount into my spreadsheet.
Daily Records Sheet
This is where the expenses are all input. All you have to do is input the date, amount, a description or comment, and finally choose the expense category. The reason the expense category has a “pull-down” menu is so that the totals of each category can be calculated and displayed on the ‘Table of Totals’ page. The Excel commands I am using are fairly straight-forward. Nothing fancy here. You can add additional categories into the expense category in column F if you want. As you begin to populate this page, you can use the Sort commands and sort the page based on Category, Amount, etc. Select columns A through D and go to Data -> Sort. Just make sure you don’t select column F. I’ve input a number of expenses as an example, and you can see the totals on the first worksheet.
Table of Totals
This page is somewhat of a hybrid of a budget as well as an expense statement. The Running Total of column F are all the totals in every category from the “Daily Records” worksheet. The Projection of column H gives a projected annual total based of current spending trends. The reason I have this column is so that I can constantly keep an eye on whether I am above or below my budget for any given category. (For example, if my Projection for “Car - Gas” is higher than my Annual Total budget, I know that I need to reduce my spending in that area.) Everything in the Monthly and One Time columns can be modified and changed to reflect your personal budget and spending habits. The worksheet is divided into two basic categories, Set Expenses and Variable Expenses. The Set Expenses category is for recurring expenses that remain the same each month. The Variable Expenses are any other expenses you have that fluctuates from month to month. At first it might a little difficult to estimate how much you should budget for each category, but as you begin to keep track of you daily expenses, the annual Projection can give you a better picture of how much annual spending you might have in any given category.
This sample worksheet is a starting point for you to begin taking control of your spendings. You can set certain goals of paying off your student debt or setting aside a chunk of money each month into savings. By using the “Table of Totals”, you can begin to plan how much spendings you need to reduce to achieve your goals.
Digg! 
Furl 
Del.icio.us 
Reddit
[…] Posts · Carnival Of Personal Finance 79 Up · Free Christmas Carol Guitar Chords and Tabs · Book Review – God And Your Stuff – Part 2 ·Book Review – God And Your Stuff – Part 1 · Internet Archive With Free Music Downloads · Profit At Starbucks is Ridiculous And Genius · Money Saving Tips And Ideas For Christmas · Laying Up Treasures In Heaven · Great Blog - The Simple Dollar · How To Keep Track Of Your Spending […]
Pingback by Savvy Steward » Carnival Of Personal Finance 79 Up — December 18, 2006 @ 8:13 am
[…] Savvy Steward of Savvy Steward: How to keep track of your spending […]
Pingback by Personal finance and wealth at A Penny Saved… : Carnival of Personal Finance #79 — December 21, 2006 @ 7:51 pm
Hey, I really like the layout of your tables. I just had one question. In column I “Projection” the numbers don’t seem to be the annual projection. I’m not sure what it’s calculating since I’m not too familiar with the Excel language. Is there something wrong there?
Comment by Stingy Student — December 29, 2006 @ 7:36 pm
Hi Stingy Student,
Let me try to explain the “Projections” column in the table of totals a little more. What I’m doing here is calculating a running annual average based on current spendings. For example, if the date is 2/12 and you’ve spent $22 so far on coffee, then based on your spending of $22 since 1/1 it calculates that you will spend $186.74 for the rest of the year. ($22 * 365 days / 43 days = $186.74) The reason I have this feature is so that I can compare it with the annual total budget I’ve set for each category and instantly see if I’m going over my budget based on my current spending habits. I need to update this to reflect 2007.
Hope that helps,
-Savvy Steward
Comment by Savvy Steward — January 2, 2007 @ 1:07 pm
[…] How do married couples keep track of their spendings? How do they track their net worth each month? Although I’m not getting married until May 2007, I decided to tackle this question during my winter break. My fiancée and I have talked about finances and budgeting and we agreed that I’d handle all financial matters once we got married. I have a personal budget but my goal was to create a combined budget for the two of us for 2007. To do this I first needed to have a good idea of both of our spending habits. I already keep track of my own spendings, but I needed to know the spending habits of my fiancée. Our combined spending habits of 2006 would become the basis for our combined budget for 2007. So during my winter break I went through all her 2006 bank statements and credit card statements and logged her spendings (this took me about 5 hours, yikes!). I came up with totals using an Excel spreadsheet and got a good idea of how much she spends in various categories. I wasn’t surprised to find out her spendings on coffee and clothes were higher than mine. I was surprised to find out that her spendings on eating out equaled mine. I always thought she ate out less then I did, but I guess she tends to spend more each time she eats out. Both of us need to learn to cut-down on this once we get married by cooking and packing lunch for work. […]
Pingback by Savvy Steward » Creating A Budget For Newly Married Couples — January 3, 2007 @ 8:09 am
Hello,
I’ve downloaded your spreadsheet…Thank you. I’ve changed some drop-down categories on the Daily Records sheet…is there a way I can have the new categories and their amounts updated/reflected on the Table of Totals page?
thanks
Comment by kevin — February 26, 2007 @ 12:38 am
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for checking out my spreadsheet. I hope you find it useful. The way that you change the running total in column E is by changing the SUM IF statement. For example if you changed the drop-down menu to have “Hobbies” instead of “Photography”, then you would change cell E49 as such:
=SUMIF(’Daily Record’!D:D,”Photography”,’Daily Record’!B:B)
change to
=SUMIF(’Daily Record’!D:D,”Hobbies”,’Daily Record’!B:B)
Make sure you have no spaces or other characters in the drop-down menu name. The label needs to match exactly.
Hope that helps,
-Savvy Steward
Comment by Savvy Steward — February 26, 2007 @ 7:58 am
Could you email me a copy of your spreadsheet to use?
Comment by LivingAlmostLarge — February 28, 2007 @ 7:08 am
Sure,
Here you go.
The download is also available at:
http://www.harvestsb.org/savvysteward/wp-content/uploads/2006/Sample_Budget.xls
-Savvy Steward
Comment by Savvy Steward — February 28, 2007 @ 7:24 am
GasDandy is an easy-to-use tool that tracks a vehicle’s mileage, fuel costs and maintenance information, providing data that can be used for both business and personal purposes. By making these figures readily available, the program also gives the consumer the opportunity to save money and to proactively identify problems that can shorten the life of their vehicle(s). Download a free trial version of GasDandy today at http://www.gasdandy.com
Its more than just a gas mileage calculator!
Comment by Dandy — April 15, 2007 @ 4:47 pm
[…] Savvy Steward of Savvy Steward: How to keep track of your spending […]
Pingback by Carnival of Personal Finance #79 — November 9, 2007 @ 6:58 am