"Think you can handle my inner comedian and philosopher?"
Archives
Categories
How to Manage Your Money with Google Documents
Ever notice that you run out of money before you run out of month, even with a decent income?
I’m going to show you how to cut back and save some money by putting together a monthly budget in Google Documents. It’s worked really well for a few of my friends as well as me, so here’s the version for the rest of the world.
Where does all your money go?
Chances are, your extra money is going to one of two things:
- Food (eating out…)
- Entertainment (movies…)
Many people are not financially educated and don’t think to change their buying habits.
Two rules to reduce spending
Rule one: Change where you eat! Don’t eat out five, ten times a week like most office people - bring your lunch. Buy groceries to start the week. Eat out occasionally so you don’t binge.
Rule two: Limit the amount of times you go out for fun per week. A date with your girlfriend can be a great time, but more than once a week and you’re broke. Do something at least once a week, though, or you’ll have a pissed off girlfriend!
The best way to enforce these rules is by going on a monthly budget.
Start managing your money with Google Documents!
Load up Google Documents, where you can create your budget and share it with family, friends, and other broke people.
Create a new spreadsheet; we’re going to use five columns and three rows, initially.
Add headers to each column:
- Item
- Allocated
- Remaining
- Spent
- Savings
View an example spreadsheet with Budget Headers
How to make a list of Income and Expenses
In the Item column, create three line items in bold:
- Income
- Fixed Expenses
- Monthly Spending
In between these headers, put line items that specify where you earn and where you spend.
- Put where your money comes in from every month under Income.
- Put rent, bills, and other expenses you pay every month at a fixed rate into Fixed Expenses.
- Put food, entertainment, and other flexible (possibly fun) expenses under Monthly Spending.
View an example spreadsheet with Budget Line Items
How to Allocate and Track Funds
Do your best to estimate the Allocated cost for each area, and change it later if it’s way off.
Track how much is Remaining while you’re laying this out using the =sum(field1,field2) to subtract the additional Allocation from the previous Remaining total.
View an example spreadsheet that Allocates Funds and shows the Remainder
Track your Spent money each month by entering in a negative number with each purchase.
For Savings, just add up all the Spent fields with the =sum(field1,field2,field3,etc) formula.
View an example spreadsheet that tracks Spent Money and helps you Save
Do you duplicate me?
After actively tracking my budget for a month, I saved about $400! It’s a matter of changing habits, so you can afford what you really want and need.
For people who already keep a budget, what is your method? How do you keep yourself from spending too much?