Monthly budget template

What prints

The heading reads Monthly Budget unless you type your own, and the top right has write-in lines for the month and the year. Under it is an income table with the columns Income, Budget and Actual, and a single band called "Take-home pay and other income" holding the rows Paycheck 1, Paycheck 2, Other income and one blank row.

Beside the income table sit three boxes: Total income, Total expenses and Left over. They are empty boxes, so you write the sums yourself.

The main table has the columns Category, Budget, Actual and Difference. Its rows come in six bands: Housing, Transportation, Food, Personal and family, Savings and debt, and Other. That makes 26 lines in all, such as Rent or mortgage, Car insurance, Groceries, Childcare, Emergency fund and Fun money. A few lines are left blank for whatever your household needs that the printed names miss.

The settings

• Heading. Type a name such as "November budget", or leave it blank for the standard title.
• Notes box. On or off. When on, a ruled box at the foot of the page holds reminders like "dentist bill due" or "cut cable".

The other budget styles live on their own pages, including the zero-based budget and the 50/30/20 budget.

How to use it

Fill in the Budget column before the month begins, using last month's bank statement as a guide. During the month, jot actual spending as it happens, or once a week from your card activity. At the end, write each gap in the Difference column. Large gaps in the same row two months running tell you the plan was unrealistic, not that you failed.

Start with fixed costs, since rent and insurance barely move. Then estimate the flexible rows, groceries and fun money especially, from real numbers instead of hopes.

Worked example: a $4,200 month

Dana's household earns two paychecks of $2,000 each and $200 in side income. Income box: 2,000 + 2,000 + 200 = $4,200.

Groceries were budgeted at $550 and came to $612, so the difference is $62 over. Eating out was budgeted at $200 and came to $175, which is $25 under. Together those two lines ran $62 − $25 = $37 over plan.

Across all 26 lines Dana budgeted $3,950 and actually spent $4,010. Left over: 4,200 − 4,010 = $190. That leftover can move to the Emergency fund line next month, and Dana writes "raise grocery budget to $600" in the notes box.

Tips for the Difference column

Pick one convention and keep it, for example, over budget as a plus number and under as a minus. The sign matters less than reading the column the same way each month. Circle rows that miss by more than ten percent and talk about them with anyone who shares the budget.

A note before you start

These sheets are organizing tools, not personalized money advice. For help with a hard situation, a nonprofit credit counselor is a good place to start.

Sources

1. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Budgeting, how to create a budget and stick with it consumerfinance.gov
2. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: Creating a cash flow budget files.consumerfinance.gov