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    Guide To Using The Budget Tracker Effectively

    Uploaded by

    Minahil
    Guide to Using the Budget Tracker Effectively

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Guide To Using The Budget Tracker Effectively

    Uploaded by

    Minahil
    2 views4 pages
    Guide to Using the Budget Tracker Effectively

    Original Title

    Guide to Using the Budget Tracker Effectively

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    Guide to Using the Budget Tracker Effectively

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    2 views4 pages

    Guide To Using The Budget Tracker Effectively

    Uploaded by

    Minahil
    Guide to Using the Budget Tracker Effectively

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    Guide to using the budget tracker effectively

    Setting up your template

    1) Download an original copy of the Budget Tracker spreadsheet alongside this guide.

    2) You will notice that there are three sheets: Monthly Budget, One-Off Transactions and
    Annual Tracker. At first, we are interested in the Monthly Budget sheet.

    3) Go to the “Post-tax income summary” table and fill in the amount of income you know
    you will receive each month (ie a paycheck amount). Do not worry about including
    side hustles or other incomes at this point, just the amount that is carried over each
    month.

    4) Go to the five green tables for monthly saving, investments, expenses, life costs and
    debt repayments. Fill in the monthly costs in each of the five tables that you know you
    will have to pay.
    - Monthly costs are things like Gym memberships, phone bills, rent, Netflix etc.
    - To easily see all of your monthly expenses feel free to download the app Snoop
    with this link. You can link it to your bank account + automatically see your
    monthly expenses.
    - Remove any suggestions or descriptions in the template that do not apply to you.
    5) You may also want to adjust the Annual Budget Tracker so it starts with the
    appropriate month for you. You can do this by dragging the selection C4:J4 downward to
    the appropriate month.

    6) Save a copy of this template. Call it Budget Tracker Spreadsheet. You will now be able to
    use this each month and will have saved yourself time by filling in monthly costs in
    advance.

    Using your monthly spreadsheet

    1) Open up your template and choose “Save As” to create a tracker for the upcoming
    month. Perhaps you will want to name it “Budget Tracker - <month> <year>”.

    2) Throughout the month, you will want to be logging two pieces of information: any
    extra income you receive from side hustles or other means and any transactions you
    make that are not monthly costs.

    3) When logging extra income, use the Monthly Budget sheet. This can be for side
    hustles, one-off payments, gifts, tax rebates etc.

    4) When logging one-off transactions, use the One-Off Transactions sheet. This is for
    anything you spend that is not a monthly cost. (Top tip: to save you time, rather than
    writing down each transaction, use your online banking system to download a
    spreadsheet copy of your spending and move it over to the tracker).

    5) Use the various features of the tracker to stay tuned to your budget over the month.
    The top bar shows you a breakdown of your income and spending so far. The pie chart
    shows you how your spending has been distributed. The line chart compares your
    spending to other months of the year.
    6) So long as you are in green, it means that you
    have some remaining income that you can
    spend. When you are in red, it means that you
    are in debt and depending on your debt

    repayment schedule, you may need to include


    this in the next month’s debt repayment section.

    What to do at the end of the month?

    1) If there are any permanent changes to your monthly income or costs, revisit your saved
    template and make the adjustments.

    2) Go back to your original copy of Budget Tracker Spreadsheet, and input manually

    3) Return to the using your monthly spreadsheet section for the following month.
    Any further tips

    1) Try and set aside some time a couple of times each week to log your latest income and
    spending onto your monthly tracker. This will allow you to keep on top of your budget
    throughout the month.

    2) You can adjust the currency of the spreadsheet. In Google Sheets, select the appropriate
    cells and click Format > Number > Custom Currency to adjust the currency. In Microsoft
    Excel, select the Data Type dropdown on the Home bar and select More Number
    Formats.

    3) Do not delete your tracker spreadsheets once the month has passed. It is always useful
    to keep them in case you need to refer back to them.

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