I am a huge fan of Dave Ramsey and his budgeting techniques. Happy to note I am now working on baby step 6 - paying off my mortgage as fast as possible. My goal is to pay it off by my 40th birthday. I might miss it, but it won't be for lack of trying.
I have investigated so many different types of budgeting tools: including mint.com (my favorite), printable budget sheets, simple spreadsheets, and expensive planners. I looked at Erin Condren, the Happy Planner, Blue Sky, Mead, and even Martha Stewart - but none of them worked the way that I did.
As a heavy internet user and admitted cell-phone addict, I wasn't a huge fan of carrying around a giant yearly planner, no matter how much fun the stickers were! The thought of spending $70 for a planner wasn't exciting me either, preferring to use any extra cash to pay down the mortgage faster.
For those of you interested in a free budgeting tool, I highly recommend mint.com. It's my absolute favorite app and I am a daily user. But, it does have some limitations, such as the fact that you can only budget one month at a time and can't see any future financial information outside the current month. There's no predictive analytics or forecasting. Since my paycheck is biweekly, it makes it tough to plan out paying bills and how much I have to spend before my mortgage payment is due.
That's why I had to come up with a way to track my daily spend in a way that I could see how what I spent 'today' would affect the future.
As an example:
Say you want to buy the latest fitbit smart tracker. You just received your paycheck, and it's only $150 (on sale today). You can definitely afford it and you are itching to just hit the buy button on Amazon.com. But, what you can't see is that you have a $600 car insurance payment the next month, and if you spend that money - you'll have to pull out an extra $200 from your savings account to cover the cost.I designed the following spreadsheet to start from the month of December 2017 - so you can learn how to use it before starting off the New Year with a bang!
The spreadsheet contains the entire 2018 calendar year. It not only allows you to budget daily using a calendar, but it also tracks your goals, finances, moods, gratitude, special dates, weekly reflections, and goals, such as career, education, health, and finances. [I also use it to track what movies I plan to attend, so that I can put aside money for 'entertainment'.]
Try it for yourself, it's free. (The only thing I ask is that you share my blog link with your friends if you like it.)
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
How to use it:
- Download the spreadsheet
- Start off by adding the current balance of your account in the yellow box starting November 30, 2017. (I recommend only putting in your daily checking account balance there.)
- Enter the balances of your savings, mortgage, checking, and credit card accounts next to the calendar at the start of the month.
- Enter in the amount you expect for your paychecks. (It's easier if you are working a salaried job... but, you can always modify it over time.)
- Enter in any scheduled expenses the date they are due:
- Mortgage payments / rent
- Power / Electric / Gas
- Phone bills
- Internet bills
- Entertainment costs, like Netflix
- Don't forget your insurance payments!
- Once you've added in your expenses and income, it'll start to paint a picture. The spreadsheet will auto-calculate how much you will have in your account by date.
- As you spend outside those fixed expenses, you'll see how the 'small' expenses hurt your savings over time.
- Start planning your goals: if it's paying off your credit cards, or paying of your mortgage - add in the amounts you are willing to put aside in the spreadsheet and color code it so that it reminds you of your goal.
- As you spend, you may have to decrease the amount you put aside for payments - but it will help you decide if it's an expense you are willing to take on.
- Load it in google docs or microsoft 365 so that you can access it on your mobile phone as you travel and shop.
