05 Aug
That Budget
I’m a spender, not a saver. One summer I made $12,000 as a waitress in Central WA and had it all spent by the end of the year. I spent it all during a time when my parents were paying for my schooling and housing and giving me a stipend for food. Very embarrassing.
When That Husband and I started dating, he made it clear that debt wasn’t ever going to be a part of his life, and if I wanted to be with him I would have to make some major changes to my spending habits. I began paying off my credit card debt and continued to pay off my car loan. I know, and he will admit if it you asked him, that he would have ended the relationship if he had not seen the changes he believed necessary in my habits for us to have a successful relationship.
When we got married, TH implemented a new approach to budgeting that has completely changed the way I approach my spending. Most people approach budgeting like this: Each month, you start out with $300 for groceries, then you spend until you hit $300 and try to stop spending. If you have leftover money it carries over into next month, but if you’re a spender like me you never have anything left, and you usually end up spending even more than your allotted $300. You start rich and spend until you are poor.
TH’s approach turns things completely upside down, approaching budgeting in a way I’ve never heard of, and most definitely would never though of. It’s based on 4 essential strategies.
1. Calculate what your total annual spending should be. We came up with a number by taking annual income and calculating money needed for savings, travel, housing, etc, and all other spending that falls under the “invariable” budgeting area. After we had removed all of the invariables we focused on creating a budget for the variables, the places where we would need to track my our spending most carefully. These categories include Groceries, Household, Jenna Clothing, Jenna Personal, Eating Out, etc.
2. Here is the step where TH’s system is so genius. Our Eating Out budget allots for$1200 of spending/year. Instead of starting out with $100/month, we started out with nothing and the amount we have in the budget grows day by day. It’s fun to say it that way. Instead of diminishing, our budget grows! Each day the Excel spreadsheet we use adds about $3 to our Eating Out budget total. If we only have $75 in the Eating Out budget and we overspend we have to wait until the daily amount builds up enough so we can afford to eat once more.
3. Credit cards only, no cash. Cash can’t be tracked as well unless you are incredibly diligent about keeping all of your receipts. Most avoid credit cards because you can spend money you don’t have, but in avoiding them you are also avoiding the rewards and bonuses that come with using them. Obviously, they must be paid off in full each month for this to work.
4. Using mint.com we can track absolutely all of our credit card transactions. We categorize them on mint.com and make sure that they go into That Budget on Google Docs as well.
He created an Excel spreadsheet that we use to keep track of our spending. It’s online using Google Docs so we both can access it at any time from our respective laptops.
The images that used to be under the italicized sections have been lost. Skip to the bottom to take a look at the budget doc and see if you can follow along by looking at the original.
I took a few screenshots to help you understand how it works. I wiped most of the tabs clean because spending is so personal (I admit, I didn’t want a bunch of people judging me for how I spend my money), but I left a few of them intact so you can see how it works.
By selecting “Budget” from the tabs that run along the bottom I am able to see a summary of all of our spending for the different variable budgets. The amounts you see under the “Per year” column comprise our actual budget. TH said it would be okay for me to share it with all of you because we spend so little on our variables (well I think it’s a small amount) it wouldn’t be possible for you to determine what he actually makes each year. 
As I said, most of the tabs are wiped clean, but Clothing-J, Eating Out, and Entertainment have been left intact. As you can see, we have $82 in our Eating Budget to use this month, and $20 to go toward entertainment. Wondering why “Clothing-J” is jumping out at you in red parentheses? It’s because I’m actually almost $400 in the hole for clothing. $600/year might seem like a lot to spend on clothes for some, but I find it to be an almost impossible amount. I’m very, very, ready to pay off my photography debts so I can buy myself some pretty clothes with the money I make!
Here’s what the individual tabs look like. Enter Date, Amount, and Notes about what the money was spent on so it can better be justified to husband later on. Sometimes I manipulate the budget by adding things to the wrong category to better distribute my spending. I added “Movie and lunch with Bees” to the Clothing budget because I didn’t want to put it in the Eating Out category and take away from money that could be spend with That Husband instead.
The Eating Out budget. Every single time we spend money on food prepared outside of the house it goes into the Eating Out budget. Food bought at a grocery store, obviously, gets recorded under Groceries.
And the Entertainment budget, which proves why we never do anything. This is absolutely everything we have done since the beginning of the year, and we still only have $20 to spend right now!
If you would like to try this budget out for yourself you can access it here. Please don’t make changes to the original. Go to File->Create a copy and make a new version for your own personal use.
To customize it for your own personal use you need to go to the Clothing, Entertainment, and Eating Out tabs and delete all of the entries you find there. Then, go to the Budget tab and change the values under “Per Month” to match your approriate spending habits. The values under the “Left” column will not change until you take the value under “Per Month” for each row, multipy it by 12, and then change the value under “Per Year” to match.
If you end up using this new budgeting system, I would love to hear back regarding it’s success (or why you think it failed, if it did). I’m sure That Husband would love to hear about it as well!
I'm a farm-raised almost-crunchy stroller-pushing picture-taking lifestyle-blog-writing gastronomy-obsessed divine-seeking thrift-store-combing cheese-inhaling pavement-pounding laughter-sprinkling lover of individuality and taking chances.
I love the idea of an ‘increasing’ budget! That’s just so positive
Thanks for the template Jenna!
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1I’m definitely a “spender” myself. When I started living in an apartment, I started noticing how bad I am with money (especially when I looked at my credit card bill !) But recently i’ve been starting doing my own excel spreadsheets, and Mint.com looks like something I should try! Thank you for this post
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2I love that TH acknowledges that credit cards are a benefit — SO many personal finance individuals drone on and on and on about how you should only use cash, cancel all your credit cards, etc. I hate using cash because like you said, it’s a pain to track — I put everything in Microsoft Money, and I can just download all my credit card and bank statements. I’d never want to manually enter each and every receipt found crumbled in the bottom of my bag. Plus, like you pointed out, there are the rewards for credit cards — we usually get back $700 or so cash back every January, which we are thrilled about.
I understand that credit cards can be problematic, but I have always, ALWAYS paid off my balance in full each month and really detest when people tell me I should cut it up and only use cash!
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3Both the hubby and I are accounting finance geeks and every single penny gets tracked. Both of us detest debt but since we paid for our educations ourselves (undergraduates and masters) we had to take out student loans to do it. We’ve been living like paupers until the wedding to get them paid off and our plan is to pay them off by next year! Both hubby and I share TH’s opinion on credit cards, we rarely ever even have cash on us!
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4Very cool. Right now we’re using a budget via Gail van Oxlade (I don’t know if you have the show Til Debt Do Us Part in the states - if you do, watch it, it’s a good one!) I’m going to try to see if I can make this one work - I’ll letcha know how it goes! Thanks!
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5Although I don’t “budget”, I do however do the following which works for me:
I get paid every other week. Every other week I:
* pay my month’s contribution to our mortgage account (so in July 1 got paid 3 times, so I contributed my 3 months worth of the mortgage). This way, when I go on mat leave, I won’t have to worry about making my mortgage payment if I can’t
* $200 into my emergency fund
* 13% into my RRSP
* once a month, $500 into our break/fix house fund
My credit card is paid off monthy, and I eliminated any overdraft on my accounts. Basically, after I put away all our savings, and pay off our bills, the rest is my money to spend how I see fit.
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6i totally agree that using only a credit card and paying it off every month is the way to go.
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7I love talking about personal finance. It’s so neat to bounce ideas of other people. I’m more of a saver than a spender. My husband and I use a combination of credit cards and cash for our spending. Cash is usually reserved for our personal spending budgets. Or if we know of a specific purchase, we will take out cash for that. For me a credit/debit card is too easy to pull out. We alot ourselves $50/week. When it’s gone it’s gone. Everything else goes on the credit card.
I really thank my father for teaching me so much about personal finance and budgeting. I’m blessed that he talked to me about the importance of saving (short and long term), so that when I left home, I was prepared and confident. Too many people don’t understand these things. I wish more classes were offered in high schools and colleges. Even posts like this a wonderful b/c it gets people talking and sharing.
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8We don’t do credit cards yet, although we do talk all the time about getting one a piece and paying it off every month. Right now we generally use our bank-issued checking card Visas for everything, except the water bill, which must be paid by check, and church tithe, which is by check or cash.
Not trying to be judgy — but HOLY COW, girl, how many clothes do you have? Or do you buy quality over quantity? Again, not judging, I’m just a thrift store queen and can’t wrap my mind around finding $600 too little for clothing.
I also work in an office where nice jeans and any sort of non-logo shirt is appropriate, so I’m not spending a bunch on professional clothes.
I do like your growing budget concept, and maybe we will be able to implement it someday — right now we just live by having as little expensive fun as possible. We try to have fun groceries and eat in 99% of the time, and do movie or game nights with friends in our home or theirs rather than seeing what’s in theaters
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Sophia Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
At first glance, I thought the same thing, because I’m really frugal with clothes as well- but then when you divide $600 up over 12 months, that’s only $50 a month. And if the clothes category included *everything* from socks to bras to having to buy new jeans when a hole blows out, or purchase an outfit for an event- oh, and probably all accessories, from hair to jewelry- that made the number make more sense.
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Turtle Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
I think it’s a very conservative number, especially if you have to buy work clothes. I don’t consider myself a clothes horse at all-I own 2 wearable (no holes) pairs of jeans right now and I have worn the same pair of winter boots everyday for the past 3 winters. But even one new winter coat would be a serious blow to this budget. (You can tell I’m from Chicago- even in August I’m thinking of winter).
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Sophia Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 1:19 pm
^Exactly. Coats and professional clothes would blow $600 a year out of the water.
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MrsW Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
That’s true. I’ve probably spent that much in the past and now I’m trying to live more frugally and wearing my clothes into the ground. I suppose it’s not that much. And now that I think about it, TH’s clothes budget seems REALLY small in comparison — it seems like he is in a real suit-and-tie kind of industry and men’s clothes add up FAST.
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Jenna Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
One thing to keep in mind as well is that I have to be very selective about what I buy. Necklines can’t be too wide or too low, cap sleeves don’t usually work, hemlines have to reach down to the knee. It makes shopping a lot harder when you are wearing an undergarment that determines what your clothes look like.
The dress I shoot weddings in was $100, the shoes I shoot in were $100, the spandex underneath were $20, the bolero for my sister’s wedding was $60, the shoes I had to buy as a bridesmaid were $30… all of those are things I bought within the last few months because I needed them, not because I wanted them. That put me halfway through my budget and all I got was one dress, one bolero, and 2 pairs of shoes!
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Jenna,
As usual, you rock. I’ve shared this with the hubs and hopefully we’ll get OUR spending under control! (Unfortunately we’re BOTH spenders…)
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10Just wanted to congratulate you on the great budget. Budgeting is hard work- sticking to it even harder. I wanted to say one more thing in favor of credit cards- if someone steals your number (as recently happened to us) you can (fairly) easily dispute the charges before paying the bill. If someone steals your debit card, the money has already left your account- and it is much harder to get it back from the card company. Anyway- keep up the good work.
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11Well, do I ever need to do this. So much. But did I understand it one bit? Not at all. I am HORRIBLE with a budget when it comes to sharing it. I will show this to the FH and see if he can get us started!
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12I’m super impressed with TH for declaring that this relationship would go nowhere if you didn’t get your spending under control. I think too many people ignore important things like that because they figure it will work itself out or isn’t important compared to the fact that they are so in love.
We only use our credit cards too (hello, plane tickets!) and for me I find it far harder to spend on a credit card then with cash because I have to see it twice (once when I buy it and once when the bill comes). My husband wasn’t necessarily a spender when we got married, but he for sure wasn’t a saver. Fortunately, he’s totally drunk of the cool clean waters of saving, so we’re on the same page now.
And I LOVE Mint.com. Best thing ever.
(P.S. Your four steps for budgeting are numbered 1,2,2,3. Thought you might want to know).
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13It’s probably very telling that I need some sort of budget as I flipped from THIS post to a RUELALA Cole Haan boutique — what is wrong with me?
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14Cool idea! You guys are doing great for thinking of these things so thoughtfully and early in your marriage (and before you got married)! Many divorces result from finances and the inevitable arguements that result when people aren’t on the same page for too long.
And yes, credit cards are not evil - - not paying them off in full is evil! I actually am more thoughtful of my purchases when I use a card. When I have cash, I tend to think of it as ‘free’ money, like play money - stuff that is “out of the system” because it’s out of the account, so I spend it a little more liberally. Whereas with our cards, I think “this will go on the card - it will be recorded - interest will acrue if I spend too much and we can’t pay it off”. Anyway, I’m a little different like that:)
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15Ugh, Jenna, i totally relate to you on the clothing budget. I’ve been trying not to hardly any clothes for the last year and save the money, but with the engagement I’ve gotten a little excited about outfits for parties, pictures, etc!
I might try this budget, we need to start thinking about budgets for when our incomes combine, but I’m so easily confused by spreadsheets! Thanks for explaining, and including it for us!
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16Congrats on changing your spending habits and sticking to a budget! I was the financial instigator in our relationship, and while it took a bit to track down our spending, we’ve got things really under control now.
We don’t set limits on categories, as I’ve found that our spending rarely fits into any sort of perfect amount. Instead, we pre-budget for all of our set expenses & savings, and the rest of our money is spent as we want/need. We watch our habits in mint.com just to keep tabs on eating out or overspending in categories, but have yet to get anywhere near running out of funds each month. Plus, I can never calculate when a good clothing sale will hit that I need to spend money on… or when we really deserve a splurge weekend away.
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17Perfect timing! We are purchasing a new car and I had just come to the realization that I need to start budgeting myself better. I came up with the whole “budget increases every month” thing already, but had no idea how to keep track!!!! Thank you for providing me with formulas and a spreadsheet to do so. Wow!
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18So many things to say… where to start… Paciugo must be delicious! If that were mine it would say Jamba Juice just as (or more) frequently. This post epitomizes why I read your blog (despite some frustrating differences of opinions you and I have on some social issues) - you are insightful, honest, and non-defensive (putting the Bee lunch under clothing!). You are so aware of your imperfections - it makes for a good read. Now onto saying something about budget. My hubby used to make lots and lots of money and be single. He made a career change (delayed compensation now - hard to explain) and he’s got a wife (me!) in grad school, a house, etc. He hates the word “budget.” The connotation makes him cringe. But we need one! So we have 2 different budgets. You know how you have all those tabs (clothing-hubby, clothing-Jenna, etc.) - well I have all of those “tabs” for me, but my husband just has one “tab” called “Husband.” He doesn’t like breaking down all of the discretionary funds into different categories and trying to stick with it - so every month we pay all of our bills, pay into a future savings (for gifts, travel, repairs, all the future surprises) and then he asks - how much is left for me to spend however I want? And he just stays under that! We have to discuss purchases over 100, but this works well for him as he’ll go 12+ months without buying any new clothes - and yet he loves to travel to visit his friends (we live away from fam/friends too). Thanks for a great post!
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Jenna Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks so much for the compliments Erin. As much as I like hearing compliments from people who are the same as I am, they mean so much more coming from someone who is so different, you know? I love being reminded that you don’t always have to agree with someone to like them.
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Okay, I’m no excel expert, so I have a question… If we’re starting now, how do we format the date in the formulas? I tried figuring it out, but that looks like way too many 1s and 0s for my brain to process how that’s a date.
help?
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kylydia Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Kirsten, are you using Google Docs spreadsheets or Excel?
In Google Docs spreadsheet, you should simply be able to click in a blank cell and type a date in the following format: 8/08/09. You can format a cell however you like. The simplest way to do this is the click the 123 button on the toolbar. That will open a drop down box and you can click on the format that you want.
In Excel, you should be able to do the same thing - just type in the date in that format. If it doesn’t work for you, click on your cell, click Format on the menu bar, then click Cells. A window will pop up and you can go down to “Date” in the Category box.
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Kirsten Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Hi kylydia!
I’m using google docs, but I guess I didn’t formulate my question very well… I know how to format cells, I’m asking about the specific formulas. For example: for Jenna’s current accrued grocery budget the formula in the cells reads “=(NOW()-DATE(2009.0,1.0,1.0))*(D4/E3)”
Now, I assume that the 2009.010 nonsense is the date of January 1st. I’m just not sure which numbers to change to make this the current date. Would it be 2009.0,8.0,5.0? I think my brain is just having a hard time with the “.0″s I guess that’s right though, huh?
Thanks for the help anyway!
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TH Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Kirsten,
I think the spreadsheet needs some changes to make it easier to adapt, so once I have some time I’ll revamp it a bit to make it easier to edit. To answer your question, the format in the formula is: DATE(year,month,day) like DATE(2009,1,1). Google just added decimals and that’s what makes it hard to decipher.
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Managing finances is an adjustment. We do it a little bit differently, right now. We made up a budget for all shared expenses that are typically fixed (housing, utilities, groceries, etc.) on a monthly basis. Then, based on our salaries, we contribute an amount per paycheck to a shared account. The remainder is dumped in each of our personal accounts to do with as we please. We are each responsible for our own gas, our own non-grocery meals (going out to eat, etc.) and our own entertainment and clothing. We are free to save as much as we want or to spend as much as we want with the money in our own account. It often works out that one will treat the other to dinner or a movie. I was leary of this system, but it is much better than when we were trying to pool all of our money and manage all of our spending, together. I felt like the Spending Overlord when I gave The Fiance the stinkeye over a $3 energy drink he bought, one morning. It’s his money. He should spend it as he sees fit. Same for me. If we have a shared goal expense (like our honeymoon, or vacations, or our rehearsal dinner, or our charitable contributions fund) we create a new account on INGDirect.com (the best ever for high interest savings rates) and both contribute to that.
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21Are you guys hungry!? I can’t believe how much you spend on food. I bet we spend 1k per month on food (both eating out and in). I strive to be like you!!!
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Jenna Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
We (okay, I) overspend by about $100/month on food because I just can’t seem to stay within that budget. Which means right now we mainly eat tuna, bean soup, and fish sticks (he eats fish sticks, not me). I would love to cook all the time but my waistline and wallet can’t afford it.
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That’s a fascinating setup. I think I’ll create my own to play with. I think our setup for simple (typical) budgeting works pretty good for us.
Thanks for sharing this! I bet it has a lot of reader’s thinking hard today!
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23we are also mint.com and credit card only users…
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24Thanks for posting the google doc - I was so excited about this that I got distracted personalizing it for my needs and my expenses… I added in a tab with fixed expenses and a Cash Flow tab and a master tab with a summary of all income, variable expenses and fixed expenses to track where everything is going and when it needs to go out. I’ll let you know what other tweaks I add in, but this is a great start. Thanks to you and TH for the ideas and the doc.
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25Ok, I’m working with it…I’m wondering how i “add” the extra money every day/week. Thanks!
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26Thanks for this - one question, do you think that the amount of travel TH does and the expenses that are then covered by his business for things like meals etc make it easier for you to stick to your food budget?
I WISH I could stick to this budget. I am quite happy to be a homebody and frugal, but Mr. J is a bit of a socialite and it definitely impacts on budgeting. I am trying to adjust him to the fact that when we are living together (in Sydney, Australia - one of the top three most expensive cities in the world) we are going to have to adjust our EVERYTHING budgets. I am hoping that part of this will be entertaining people in our home and making more friends who are living out of home in Sydney and whose focus isn’t on expensive cocktails in the city every weekend.
$600 would not cut it for me clothing-wise. A decent quality skirt in Australia is at least $60 - $150. To put that in perspective, I work full-time and earn $510 a week. Rent is $180-$220 for going halves for a 1 bedroom apartment in a decent area. If I can make a ‘go’ of photography, my wardrobe needs will likely change though.
I try to buy quality brands lightly worn on eBay and in thrift stores but shoes are way more expensive in Australia as well.
Basically, I’ll definitely be starting to use your budget spreadsheet, whether it will work is another story entirely!
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Jenna Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Yes he does have a food allowance when he travels, which we really appreciate! He’s actually off his traveling case right now so we have to cut back on our food even more!
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Polka Dot Bride Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 12:21 am
Hannah I was reading this (great) post! Thinking it’s so different in Australia. You can barely buy a dress for under $150 that’s a decent quality
But then I also read with interest it’s cheaper to eat out there than cook at home? Even with McDonalds here it’s more expensive out
Love the look at a different side of the world!
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Hannah Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 1:31 am
I know! I was looking at the cost of eating out thinking how much more expensive it is in Sydney. I think the only exception I can think of is that The Eastern in Bondi Junction does a really good and cheap steak with a drink for around $13 – a chicken salad runs about $14-$18 in most cafes! M and I think we’re getting off lightly if a dinner for two of us costs $40! Comparatively, if you shop around, eating in can be pretty cheap. That being said, overall costs are still really high in Sydney – I paid $6 for THREE capsicums (peppers) yesterday. My parents are Kosher and in Sydney that means you pay $20 for a chicken, but that is more to do with monopoly on the distribution of Kosher meat that costs in general.
Jenna – do you think cutting back more food-wise is going to be hard or do you actually have some ‘fat’ to trim in that area?
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Jenna Reply:
August 7th, 2009 at 1:39 am
TH said he did the math today, and our food budget (if we stay inside of it) is basically the equivalent of living off of food stamps. So yea, it’s going to be tough
When the baby comes, I think eating out will be cut down to a few times a year, and no more splurging.
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hannah Reply:
August 9th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Goodness - that is tough! I know M and I will have to do some serious streamlining of our food and entertainment.
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One potential problem with using CC only- some card companies are cancelling accounts if they see spending trends in stores like Walmart or CVS and for fast food or bar purchases. So if you use your CC for everything- you may find yourself out of a card- regardless if you pay off the balance each month.
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Jen Reply:
August 5th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Jennifer, credit card companies haven’t been canceling for specifically spending at one store or another. American Express lowered credit limits on people who trended towards certain models, which the Wall Street Journal article I have a feeling you are recalling specifically stated included shopping at walmart and marshalls AND having a mortgage held by countrywide.
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Wow, this is great. My husband and I are in “saving” mode right now, and we’re about to do a revamping of our finances. We might just end up using this model!
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29This is a super idea! Since hubby and I just got married… this is one of the areas that we DEFINITELY need to see eye-to-eye on. He’s such a budget person, and I love seeing it on paper (not just knowing it in my head) so, this is perfect! thanks!
I’ll let you know how it works out for us
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30This is such a great system! Thanks so much for sharing it with us! I’m definitely going to send this post to my BF so we can start budgeting together.
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31I’ve tried several budgets in the past and never found anything that fit, especially with my husband since we’ve been married 3 years. Nothing seems to work out right for us. But I’ve got to do something! I’ll definitely give this a try.
I always have this question when I see people’s budgets: say you make a $75 purchase at Walmart (for example) that included both groceries and household items like toiletries, how would you categorize it? Would you break it up and put it into the right categories?
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Jenna Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Yep, we categorize everything into the respective budgets. It’s some extra work but keeps us out of debt
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I love this idea! I’m excited to try this, I’m already a huge fan/user of mint.com (I love that its free). Now if I can just get my hubby to contribute into this project…
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33This is a really cool budget, I’ve created similar ones in the past but then never really stick to them. My budget though is just for my half of the bills, I know it’s not always the accepted thing to do, but we have separate finances, always have and probably always will to some degree. We split the rent (or at least we did until he was laid off) and then each pay for our own cells, cars and switch off on cable, electric, etc.
It works for us, but budgeting for everything when you split the bills is sometimes difficult.
And on another note, I totally agree that $600 is way too low for the clothes budget, I have to wear a jacket to work everyday and most of my outfits are suits, to get a good one that lasts - they are half or more than that and good jackets can run upwards of $200 on their own.
Thanks for the info, I plan to try and modify it to fit my needs.
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34My husband and I are just starting to integrate our finances and form a budget. Thanks for the great ideas!
Completely aside, in your food expenses you show you went to Fossil Rim in Glen Rose. My grandma, 2 aunts, and a ton of extended family live in Glen Rose and surrounding area. It’s fun to see that someone else in the world knows where that is!
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35Our husband’s would definitely get along. I need to read through this more carefully…we have just revamped our system…a very elaborate one I might add…but we are always looking for ways to improve it:)
Why don’t you come over for Sunday dinner so we can talk budgets and so I can show you my photo wall:)? And maybe our husband’s can entertain my kiddos so we can do some photoshop talk too!
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36Thanks for posting the spreadsheet for those of us who aren’t (yet) spreadsheet geniuses!
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37I want TH to make a budget for us. We are terrible with spending - I blame it on Amazon. We sometimes spend your yearly budget in a month. Our problem is that we’re not in debt and have a considerable amount in savings — so we feel justified in spending and not really keeping track or having accountability. Hopefully the baby coming will keep us in more check since I wont be working as much and we’ll have more necessary expenses.
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38At the end of the month, how do you zero things out without wiping out the total you have spent?
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39I’d really love to use this for me and my hubby but I’m AWFUL at excel, what are the formulas that need to go in each cell?
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Jenna Reply:
January 22nd, 2011 at 4:03 pm
No formulas necessary, you just need to make a new copy for yourself (don’t change mine!), change the totals for the “accrued” column to $0, and then start filling in your information in the “per month” column. Everything else will change automatically!
For instance, for groceries change it to the number you want to spend each month. You should see all of the numbers change. I hope that helps!
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These images are no longer visible FYI. I came here via you FAQ page.
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Jenna Reply:
May 27th, 2012 at 2:38 pm
Thanks Nina! I have a whole bunch of broken links. It’s on my list this summer to fix them.
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