Budgets

So recently I've been teaching myself things. This has led to me trying to work out the details of another blog focused around things people can teach themselves free with the help of the internet, but I digress. I've been working a lot recently on excel. The main thing that got me started with excel ( I never took a class in school) was keeping track of my money. I read some of the help and made a basic sheet to keep track of my earnings and spendings. It does the math for me so at the end of the month its really easy to see how much I made, how much I spent and on what. When I was working as a server it was helped me evaluate what shifts were best and if I was making enough money to keep the job. It also helped me see what I was spending money on that I didn't actually need (Godiva, Starbucks etc). I could even calculate percentages for unnecessary items or how much I spent on "fun".

From this I developed a shared budget that Eric and I use together. Its one workbook (one file) and it has three sheets. One for items we share the cost of, one sheet for him and one sheet for me. At the end of the month it balances how much we each spent on "shared" items (Dinner out, Utilities, Rent, Bus tickets to Seoul etc) and the difference so we can pay the other back. I've honestly always wondered how successful married couples split finances or share money. I know its one of the biggest contension points in relationships and this is what we do. We share most food even though I normally eat all the tomatoes, because in the end what's mine is his and his, mine. I think the main reason we still seperate our money is because when I buy him a present I don't want it to be from his own money (that seems wrong) and if we share anything that is how it would be. It also makes it easier when  I buy something I don't think he would want to spend money on (like the chocolate muffins I buy and eat at school that he never sees).

So to get to the point here I've decided to give you the templates for my budget sheets.  I've talked to a couple of people who expressed mild interest, and thats enough for me :D I'll also include instructions because I'm good at that.

How to get the sheets for yourself? Click on the links (below). I've made these publicly shared google docs so you can see them. You have two options.

Option 1: click File and choose the "Make a copy" option. This will copy it as a private file for yourself. You can then use it on your own and make new copies for each month or however often you want. (You might need a gmail account for this)

Option 2: click file and choose the "download as" option. This option works if you have an excel program on your computer. (You might need some form of excel for this, but the old version would probably work)

All my budget sheets have different categories to differentiate what you spend money on. The categories I have are food, travel(when I lived in America this column was for gas), important (rent, utilites, medical, college loans, etc), misc. (shampoo, toilet bowl cleaner, etc), Fun (Concerts, new clothes not for work, going out, anything extraneous, I also include going out to eat in this category because its expensive and not actually necessary). What it is goes in the color column. The price goes in the white title column. These add up at the bottom to show how much you spend each month on the different categories. The green column on the right is your income. Green is where it comes from. If you have multiple jobs or get several checks per month (I just copy a new spread sheet for each new month) it has plenty of space for that. In the white put in the amount you make. There is a seperate spread sheet I'll include for servers, because server and bartender income work a little differently than other jobs. On the side in yellow, is a summary of earned, spent, and saved.

Personalbudget sheet (the budget for one)

At the bottom of the personal spread sheet there are numbers to help keep you on track for spending goals. The number above the black line is your total spent so far. The number directly below it is the amount of money you have left out of your allowed spending limit. The number below that is the allowed spending limit. The third number is the one you can change. I have them set at random numbers, but everyone has different finances.  If you usually spend $300 on food you can change the limit to that. If this confuses you, you can delete the bottom two numbers. DO NOT DELETE THE NUMBER ABOVE THE BLACK LINE. Those numbers add your total spending, without them the spread sheet is kind of pointless.

The server budget 

The server/bartender spreadsheet has a space to put each shift and the date worked, so you can see what you make on average per shift or note what shifts you make more on. This also makes it so you don't have to add tip income from one day to the next, just put it in and forget about it :D 

The shared budget

The shared budget is for people who share their financial responsibilities with someone else.   The first sheet is the shared sheet. Like I mentioned earlier it is for things that are split down the middle. This helps to minimize the "Did I pay you back for that?" or the scrambling to make sure I pay you back in cash right now for the dinner we just ate together. It relieves stress due to money sharing (or at least that is why I designed it). It works best if you can trust your partner enough to pay you back at the end of the month and you both spend money on shared things. Ours usually evens out to a pretty low number (under $50). The Green part is for one person, and the Blue part is for the other. These have the same categories of food, travel, important, misc, fun. These columns are added up on the side and then some fancy math shows what person 1 owes person 2. I have left our names on it (which you can change of course). So Eric enters in the green (the first column is for what the second is for the amount) and I enter into the blue. At the end of the month is shows how much Eric owes me. If it is a negative number, I owe him that much. The second page is person 1. (you can change the page name by right clicking and choosing the rename option). The third page is person 2. These pages are the same as the personal spreadsheets with one new addition. The shared budgets are added to the bottom split in half. It is important not to write in these boxes on the individual sheets as it will erase the formulas, and then the math and totals will not work.

Eric and I have the shared budget on a shared google document. That way we can access it from work and separate computers when we are at home.

ANYWAY I really hope you find this useful. After all knowledge is power, right?

Oh right, if you have any questions you can email me or leave a comment, or look it up on youtube, or whatever. I also have versions for a couple of money conversions and etc. if anyone is interested. OK THX BYE