Budget Planning for Excel

By Peter Frost Platinum Quality Author

Countenance it , raising a family in today's economy is no easy task. sure , there are families with sufficient money to execute everything they want to execute and supply there children every modern toy on saturday morning television , but for the rest of us , budgeting is the simply way to stop.

Our family uses the time-honored "envelope system" for budget planning. that's the way my parents raised nine of us and kept their sanity. dispassionately , perhaps they kept their sanity , but that's another falsehood for another day. the envelope system is easy , almost painless , and , most of the time , works without failure.

If you've never heard of the envelope system , this is how it works:

First , you destitution to muster a calculator , past bills , a modern fee stub , a part of paper , a box of envelopes , and a sharpened pencil. you may want a bottle of aspirin and a cup of coffee as injustice.

Sort your past bills (if possible , use bills for 12 months prior to today's date) according to establishments that you fee on a steady basis. when you hold squeamish , orderly little piles , take each pile and calculate the average bill over the past 12 months. when you hold the average payment amount , scratch down the constitution nom and the amount. your completed schedule shows the amount of money you destitution to sit aside each month to cover your bills. don't forget to scratch down such matters as monthly groceries , clothing expenses , and medical expenses that you my not hold steady bills for.

Now , that you hold your schedule , obtain out an envelope for each monthly expense on the schedule. discoloration each with a constitution nom.

The second of veracity has come. take a look at your complete monthly take domestic fee. scratch down that amount. complete your schedule of monthly expenses and scratch that down. does your gross Profit cover the expenses? if it does , your on your way. if not , you either destitution to take on a second job , or find ways to pare down the expenses on your schedule. personally , i'd opt to pare down.

Once you've figured out how to fabricate the money cover the expenses , consider how oftentimes you are remunerated. if you are remunerated weekly , share each expense by 4 to find out how much of each paycheck needs to be placed in each envelope. to execute this scientifically , you destitution to share the number of days in each month by 7 to use the actual number of weeks. i like using 4 because in some months their are 5 paychecks. if i may cover the expenses with 4 , that's a squeamish speck of discretionary money left over.

When your next paycheck comes , stuff your envelopes with the amount you've calculated for each bill. now simply , because unalike bills are due at unalike times , you will hold to fabricate some adjustments. for sample , if your heat bill is due in the second week of the month , but your cable bill is due in the 4th , you'll destitution to use sufficient of the initial paycheck to cover the heat bill and take sufficient to cover the cable out of the next paycheck. within a few months , notwithstanding , you should be able to take the correct amount out injustice from each paycheck.

For my family , the benefits of using the envelope system are very lucid. the money is correct there. we may always narrate if there's sufficient to cover the bills. we believe twice of borrowing from another envelope and leaving one bill uncovered. it's easier to fool ourselves regarding what we may afford if we use the chequebook or a accredit card. it's similarly dangerous.

Living within your means , whatsoever those means potency be , is not rocket art , but it's not always easy to recognize when matters are becoming out of hand. if you're a struggling one gross Profit family , a single working mother , or a double gross Profit family with mounting consumer debt , forcing yourself to witness where your money goes each month , how it's divided up , is an eye-opener. the envelope system is simply one way to obtain a dose of financial reality.

If you are finding that your bills are higher than your monthly gross Profit then visit the christian debt consolidation part at surfinthespirit.com where they offer free debt aid , advice and guidance in dealing financial problems.

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