Awesome Jocelyn’s Geeky Nerd Approach to Budgeting

First, a bit of housekeeping: “Fix Blog” has been in my file of denial and procrastination for some time. I need to sit down and take study the CSS Zoe the Wonderkid set up and adjust it to my preferences. In the meantime it’s a little difficult to look at (at least for me) so I changed it back to a generic wordpress theme.

I’ve had a few requests for my Budget Spreadsheet. It’s designed to do three things: (a) Follow the wealth (hardy har) of financial planning advice I’ve received;
Ease of use, especially for my random abstract self; (infact, if you’re a linear thinker you may choose to look away)
Clearly identify where I was according to my budgety goals.

Here’s the spreadsheet (opens in google docs. If that doesn’t work leave a comment & I’ll email it to you)

This spreadsheet is designed into three different sheets:

Daily, Weekly and Monthly; All three are cross referenced to automatically tabulate information you enter. Now, I designed it to track my daily spending (per financial advice) figure out where I was nickle & dimeing myself to death. I believe Oprah calls this this the “latte” factor.

Each sheet cross references individual line items that I designed to work for me. You create your own. You’ll only need to change the line items in the “daily” category once, and they’ll automatically update the “weekly” & “monthly” sheet. Ibid for the “Monthly Bills” section in the “Weekly” sheet.

The Daily sheet

“Daily” sheet was designed to be a prime interface. It tracks every dime I spent on out-of-pocket. Categories are Day to Day (coffee, groceries, snacks, etc) FDS*, Household, etc.

You only need to enter the numbers into the spreadsheet once. The spreadsheet will automatically tabulate and do all the maths for you.

This is an excellent place to start your own budget. Track your daily spending for 4 – 6 weeks and design your budget based on the data you collect.

Note: I set this up to go from Wednesday to Tuesday, because that’s what worked best for me.

*FDS Joce-code for Fun Daydreamy Stuff. The stuff you I love to B-U-Y, or save for . The optional, non-mandatory items that make you happy. Be sure and budget for impulse purchases!

The Weekly sheet

The only information you need to enter into the Weekly sheet are:
Any income you receive; Calculations will automatically show you how much cash you have left. I know. Brilliant.
This is where you enter your actual budget numbers into the “projected” column – how much you anticipate spending on your line items. Again, the numbers will automatically calculate where your spending is against your goals.

I added “Monthly Bills” to the weekly sheet, because it helped me reference what bill was due what week of my budget period. Because the calculations automatically deduct any “projected” expenses from my income, it served as an easy reference to see how much cash was on hand at any given time during my budget period.

Monthly sheet – Is an easy one-page reference to see where you’re at in your budget. Simple.

I hope you find this spreadsheet as easy to use as I have. It’s a tool I’ve used to become very successful in meeting my budgeting goals. If you want to really geek out, you can create a thermometer style bar graph that shows how close you are to saving for a down payment, pay off credit card, etc. Good times.

Please don’t resdistribute this spreadsheet. It’s my baby and I’d really prefer you direct ppl to my blog instead. If you have any questions or catch any oopsies in it, please leave a comment below.