

Creating unique colors for the months helps with readability and might even make it a little more fun to use.

Family Budget Planner A yearly (12-month) budget planner, but with different categories and formatting than the one listed above.Zero-Based Budget Worksheet This is an excellent template and pdf for prioritizing your expenses and savings and contributions.I treat transfers to savings as expenses for home budgeting purposes. In other words, I don't include investments, retirement, or savings accounts in the balance.

How do I calculate my "actual balance"? What you include in the balance is up to you, but I usually just add up the balance of my checking accounts and then subtract the balance from credit card accounts. If the actual balance is much different from the prediction, try to figure out why, and you may want to adjust your worksheet to reflect your actual income and expenses for the month. That makes it easier to compare the spreadsheet to Quicken reports.Īfter each month passes, enter your actual balance in the summary section of the worksheet. Make sure that you set up the Quicken categories the same as in your spreadsheet, or vice versa. I recommend using Quicken to keep track of your expenses, or your budget projections will end up being only wild guesses. For example, I like to use cell comments to explain certain budgeted items in more detail (such as the fact that in May, there is Mother's Day and a couple of birthdays to remember). Why Use Excel for your Family or Personal Budget? I use Excel when working with my budget because that it gives me the flexibility to keep track of the information the way I want to.
