The View From Here

Last updated 10-1-08

Over the last couple months I have realized that the budget sheet I have put up here might be a little difficult to use if you are not somewhat proficient in Excel.  Go ahead and download it if you want to play with it.  

Since it is not as user friendly as I would have hoped I decided to find out how to make it so.  I am redesigning it and learning some programming that will help me make it easier to use along the way.  I should have an updated product soon that everyone can use.

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8-25-08

As many of you know, I am an accountant.  I like dealing with numbers.  As a result I have always been interested in budgeting.  I started in college using a paper and pencil way of budgeting and eventually decided that I could do the exact same thing in Excel so I decided to give it a shot. That was about four years ago and my budgeting spreadsheet has come through many iterations.  Finally I developed it to the point where all I had to do was put in my budget and keep track of my checking account and it did the rest.  At this point I started thinking about developing it so that I could provide it to others and that is where I sit today.

Please keep in mind that I am no programmer.  I just like to play with Excel.  Because of this I can make no guarantees about how this will work for you.  Hopefully it will work great.  I designed it around my needs but it should work just fine for others.

I would suggest that you keep reading but you can download it now if you want.

If you are someone who loves to keep a budget then this spreadsheet is for you.  If you are someone who has never kept a budget and would like to start, this spreadsheet is for you too.  If you are someone who has no interest in keeping a budget, this is not for you.  You have to want to get control of your money for this to make any difference in your life.

Here are the features that this spreadsheet will offer:

• Setup - The setup sheet will do just what you think it will, setup your budget.  Just follow the instructions and put in the information that it asks for and you will be on your way.
• Cash Codes - This is what drives your entire budget.  Set up Cash Codes for your budget and to track individual expenses.
• Checking Register - Keep track of your checking account transactions and manage balances in your Cash Codes.
• Budget Tracking - So you set up a budget for yourself.  Now what?  This spreadsheet will keep track of your monthly budget as well as let you know where you are in the big picture.
• Expense Tracking - The detailed expense report will track up to fifty different expenses allowing you to know exactly where your money is going.  This will allow you to adjust your spending habits as you see fit.
• Accountability to yourself - Unlike some online budgeting websites and programs it does not go fetch your bank data for you.  This is partially because I don’t know how to make it do this yet but really I just think it is better for people to see where their money is going.  You think more about what you spend when you actually punch in the number.

Before you start on the set up sheet you should take time to write down all of your monthly expenses and then think about some of the ways you want to save.  These will become your Cash Codes.  Remember, this sheet will track fifty of these Codes. Here is an example of codes you might use.

Let me quickly define a few things so that there is no confusion.

• Expense - Very simply, an expense is something you know that you need money for every month.  You should usually know exactly how much these are.  (Ex. Car Payment, Mortgage Payment, Utilities, etc.)  There may be a few items that you don’t know exactly how much you will spend but you know you will spend something on it every month (Ex. Gas costs).  These are still expenses.
• Savings - Everything else that is not an expense.  These will be items that you don’t spend money on every month or specific things you want to save money towards every month. (Ex. Furniture, Gifts, Clothing, Entertainment, etc.)  The best way to think about savings categories is that they are items you could do without every month (Ex. Eating out, movies).

This sheet is set up so that your expenses will always be fully funded and your savings will based on a percentage.  In this way if your paycheck fluctuates you will always have enough for the expenses.  Your expenses take priority.

After you have written down your Cash Codes, just follow the instructions on the spreadsheet to finish.

If you need some help with your spreadsheet I do have a support forum set up here.  I would love to help you with any problems you might have.  You will need to register but it is simple to do.  Also, if you have any suggestions please shoot me an email or post it in the support forum.

Click here to download the Excel file.

Here are a few details that you might want to know in order to make the most of your budget:

1. If your paycheck falls below your amount of expenses the spreadsheet will start trying to deduct from your savings cash codes to make up the difference.  There are a couple ways to fix this.
2. If your income will be lower on a consistent basis consider changing the income portion of the setup sheet to more accurately reflect what you will be getting.  Then adjust your budget accordingly.
3. You can copy and paste special the amounts from the deposit section to somewhere else on the spreadsheet and manipulate them to be the way you want.
4. In the same way, if your paycheck exceeds what you budgeted it to be your spreadsheet will start allocating the extra to your savings categories by percentage.  If you don’t want this to happen use one of the two above fixes.
5. Precodes - Precodes are used to tell your spreadsheet how to deal with the items you put on your Checking Register.  They are listed at the top of the Checking Register so you can reference them easily.
6. Transferring money between Cash codes can be accomplished by using the precode associated with that.  Just put in the precode, the code you want to transfer from and the amount as a negative, then put in the precode again, the code you want to transfer to and the amount as a positive.
7. There should be no reason to mess with the Nuts and Bolts tab of the spreadsheet.

If you have any questions that were not addressed please visit the support forums.