How to Make a Budget Sheet
A budget is important to help you manage your finances, both your income and your obligations. When you are making a budget sheet, you need to make sections for both your income and your expenses. It can be more helpful to make a monthly budget rather than an annual budget because you better track how you are doing in relation to your budget when you have a smaller time frame. Make sure that you are including a savings category for emergencies.
Other People Are Reading
Instructions
-
-
1
Set up a column for income. If you have only one source of income for your household, this is very simple. If you have multiple streams, estimate the income you will make from each and then take the total.
-
2
Calculate your estimated taxes. If you do not expect a major change in your financial situation you can use the effective tax rates from your previous year's tax returns. For example, if you earned $30,000 and paid $3,000, your effective tax rate would be 10 percent. You can also use a tax estimator found at Bankrate.com to give you a reasonable estimate.
-
-
3
Calculate your net spendable income by subtracting your estimated taxes from your annual income. Then divide by 12 to get your monthly spendable income.
-
4
Determine your expense categories. These may differ from person to person, but most people will have categories for housing--which can include utilities, transportation, food and savings. Other common categories include entertainment, clothing and insurance.
-
5
Estimate the monthly expenses for each of the categories you have outlined. If you have expenses that only occur annually or semi-annually, determine their monthly cost by dividing the payment amount by the number of months the payment covers. For example, if you pay $300 semi-annually for car insurance, you would divide 300 by six because it covers six months of insurance payments and budget $50 per month for car insurance.
-
1
