How Can I Make a Separate Budget Sheet for Each Month?

Budgeting money can be a difficult but rewarding experience.

While it is difficult to make a monthly budget for yourself, it is necessary if you are going to eliminate debt and start saving for the future. Creating a budget in a program like Microsoft Excel allows you to quickly change increased or decreased payments for a particular bill so you can see where your hard-earned money has gone. This program also lets you separate your budget month by month for easy printing and viewing.

Things You'll Need

• Microsoft Excel
• Financial data
• Notebook
• Pencil

Instructions

1. Use your notebook, pencil and financial data to document all of your monthly expenses each month for the next 90 days. This can be overwhelming if you have never completed a budget before, but this task is necessary to get your money situation under control. Organize your expenses into specific categories like "Credit Cards," "Utilities" and "Entertainment."

2. Open up Microsoft Excel and select "Create New" to open your budget document. In the first cell (A1) write the phrase "Sources of Income" and follow it in B1, C1, D1 and so on with the names of your sources of income ("Paycheck," "Gifts," etc.). In B2, C2 and D2 type in the dollar amount that you receive per month from these sources. Highlight B2, C2 and D2 and click the summation icon (it looks like a backwards E) to total your monthly income.

3. Move down a few rows and in the cell H1 type "Expenses." Use I1, J1 and all of the cells below that to type in the expenses that you created using your pencil and notebook ("Credit Cards," "Utilities," etc.). Make sure to create at least three cells for "Miscellaneous" since you may have an expense from month to month that you do not expect. Also, create a cell for "Savings" even if you do not have a savings account since that should be one of your future goals. In cells I2 through the bottom of expenses column, type in the number in dollars and cents for each expense. Highlight the expense dollar amounts and use the summation icon to determine your monthly expense.

4. Move down a few rows and write the phrase "Money Remaining" in the first column. In the second column create a formula that reads total income cell minus total expenses cell. The spreadsheet will do the subtraction for you if you tell it which cells you want to subtract. For example, the formula may look like "=E2-X2" which would give you the money you have remaining that month, assuming your total income was in the E2 cell and your total expense was in the X2 cell.

5. Use your mouse to highlight the entire chart from A1 all the way down to the formula cell you just created. Click "Copy." Click on the tab "Sheet 2" at the bottom of your screen. Click in the blank A1 cell on Sheet 2 and right-click. Select "Paste Special" then "All" then "OK."

6. Repeat step 5 in the in the "Sheet 3" section to create a third month budget. Double click on "Sheet 1" and type the name of the first month (for example, "January"). Do the same on "Sheet 2" and "Sheet 3" to label each monthly budget properly. Save the file on your computer by clicking "File" and "Save."

7. To print your separate monthly budgets, click "File" and then "Print." Your budgets will print on separate pages. Edit each month separately since expenses change from month to month.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do not have Microsoft Excel, you can use a very similar free program called Open Office Calc.

References

• Gather Little by Little: My Personal Excel Budget Spreadsheet
• Integrate Learning: Excel Budget Set Up

Resources

• Open Office