In our Ultimate Budget Planner and Spreadsheet Guide, you will learn:
In this ultimate Budget Planner Guide, we’re going to take you through the budgeting
process step by step, and show you how budgeting can be the best decision you’ll ever make
for your financial future. If you’d like to learn how to start saving money and achieve financial goals
you never thought possible, this guide is for you.
A budget plan is an accounting tool which lets you easily track your income and
expenditure. A budget plan is a crucial part of an effective financial plan, and can be
created to track short, medium, or long-term financial goals. You can use a budget plan to save
money, pay off debt, or assess long-term goals such as purchasing a home.
A budget plan can
initially seem daunting - if you haven’t created a budget plan before, seeing your income and
expenses realistically displayed in a spreadsheet can be quite a shock. However, an honest budget
plan will be the best way to see how much money you have coming in and going out each week,
fortnight, month or year - and help you take complete control of your finances.
Having a budget that details your income and expenditure will help you to maintain control of your finances and, if necessary, illustrate the problems you may be having with your creditors. It’s true that your debt problems won’t be solved by the fact that you have a budget alone. But beginning with this basic information about the reality of your current situation is essential.
Having a budget that details your income and expenditure will help you to maintain control of your finances and, if necessary, illustrate the problems you may be having with your creditors. It’s true that your debt problems won’t be solved by the fact that you have a budget alone. But beginning with this basic information about the reality of your current situation is essential.
How much money you make. Often referred to as ‘incoming money’.
How much money you spend. Often referred to as ‘outgoing money’.
How much money you owe and how much interest it is costing.
What you would like to achieve and when you would like to achieve it.
Before we begin, make sure you have an accurate listing of:
Now let’s look at how you’ll go about setting up your budget. We’ll
discuss each of these in more detail below, and you can click any of the steps on the right to
automatically take you to the desired section. We’ll use the notes made from the previous section to
fill out the appropriate sections of the spreadsheet with your budget information.
We’re
going to use this information to fill out the various pages on the Money.com.au Budget Spreadsheet
Template. If you haven’t downloaded the spreadsheet, you can do so here. You can refer to Getting
Started tab of the Budget Template for a quick guide on each section.
You can use this guide alongside our budget spreadsheet and tips to start your brand-new budget and create a pathway to financial security and happiness.
So far we have covered the critical components that make up a good budget, and you’ll have
likely created your own personal budget spreadsheet. However, in the spirit of being completely
fair, we’re going to look at how various methods for creating and tracking a budget compare against
each other.
Although we believe the Budget Spreadsheet is the most accurate and
easy-to-use budgeting tool available, the best budget tool is the one that works for
you and helps you save. Here are the pros and cons of each budgeting method.
We’ve created the Money.com.au Budget Spreadsheet to be the ultimate budget planner. Our free excel budget planner template:
Tracks income from multiple sources, at varying frequencies
Tracks every last expense - even the little ones you may miss!
Offers ‘simple’ and ‘advanced’ budget options (be as quick or detailed as you
want)
Has unlimited expense categories and suggests ones you are likely to have
Comes with 3 x bonus tools to estimate your savings, figure out
how much you need to save and create schedules
Creates beautiful graphs to motivate you to meet your goals and continue saving
Helps forecast spending and identifying ways to reduce it
Is 100 per cent FREE to download and use forever
Why is such an amazing tool free to use? Because we
don’t believe it’s fair to charge you money when you are already trying to show commitment to saving
and making a positive change in your finances.
No. You will never have to pay a single cent to use our spreadsheet. We know we could charge for this valuable tool, but we’re committed to helping everyday Australians take control of their finances. We believe our Money.com.au Budget Planner Spreadsheet can truly change the way you view your finances, and your dedication to making this future a reality is the only investment you ever need to make.
A budget planner is a way to track your income and expenses. Creating a budget plan allows you analyse the amount you are earning vs the amount you are spending, and helps in balancing your income. A budget plan is also crucial for setting financial goals, and is a popular way of learning how to manage or repay debt.
The budget spreadsheet is made in Microsoft Excel. It is able to work on all formats of Excel. If you have Excel installed on your computer, this will work for you. Otherwise, you can upload the spreadsheet to Google Drive and use Google Sheets to fill out the template.
Many people start a budget is to assess their current level of debt and discover ways to either manage their debt obligations or pay debts off early. A budget will display your income vs expenses, and allow you to quickly view where you can make changes to allocate extra cash toward additional repayments, or where you can cut back on expenditure to free up cash flow.
You certainly can, but using a budget template will make the process far easier, especially if it’s your first time budgeting. There are also lots of spreadsheets available on the internet, though there are no free templates that are as concise or useful as the one we offer here.