Hey yall!
I recently filmed a video for my channel talking about how I create a budget, but more specifically, how I created a budget that will help me find my first post grad job. I want to make sure I am looking for jobs that are actually within my budget and price range and will actually pay the bills, ya know? The easiest way for me to do that is to create a budget based on what I would like to spend in any given month, so that I can see how much I will realistically need to make, to sustain that lifestyle.
So let's break down my process:
❒ Gather your bank statements for the past 4 months and go line by line, item by item, of everything you have spent money on in that month and separate everything into different categories. Some of the easy ones would be: Fast Food, Gas, Shopping, Groceries, Rent, Utilities, etc.
❒ Add up the total amount for each category that you spent, for each month. Also have the total amount of income you earned for each month. I only count income that is guaranteed, as income I budget with. For example, I do not count my YouTube money as budgetable income because that fluctuates much more than my hourly job income. I think of Youtube money as bonus money to either spend or save every month.
⇨ This is where my editable Google Sheet will come in handy, or you can create your own. If you'd like to use my sheet, you can access it HERE and save it to customize yourself!
✳Be sure to only edit the white cells as the colored cells are all functions and will fill automatically as you fill the white cells.✳
❒ If you're using my sheet, edit the categories I have listed to what fits your budget the best. Then input your total amounts spent for each category and for each month, as shown below. The blue spending column will update with the sum of each month's spending, followed by the grand spending total in the last blue cell of that column. Input your income totals for each month in the yellow column to the right. The sum of your income will show in the last yellow cell. The purple Averages row shows the average amount spent in each category as well as the averages for your monthly spending and monthly income.
The next few steps may have to be repeated as you play around with different numbers and amounts to see what works best for you, so feel free to change as much as you want and play around with it.
❒ The green GOAL cell is asking for you to come up with a goal spending amount for the month--what is the most amount of money you would want to spend in any given month? This can be your average income, or you can come up with a different goal amount if you would like.
❒ Once you come up with your green GOAL cell amount, start filling your categories with their own goal spending amounts. These can also be their spending averages, if it fits within your budget--but if that puts you over budget, you will have to play around and see what works best for you.
⇨ You can see if you're going over budget with the red Budget and Saving area. Once you start filling your category goals, it will start subtracting from your green GOAL cell amount to read how much you have left in your budget to allocate to other categories. This will also start to change your red savings cell as it takes your average income amount minus how much money you are allocating to your categories. This number is your guaranteed savings amount, IF you stick to your budget!
The key here is to ensure you have a guaranteed savings amount every month--the amount is up to you and what you are comfortable with. While also ensuring your red Budget cell doesn't go into the negative. This keeps your category spending within your green GOAL cell spending amount each month, which is....YOUR BUDGET!
✳To save more money, make your green GOAL cell spending amount LESS than your average income. By doing this you increase your guaranteed savings amount each month!✳
I hope this explanation was thorough enough for you! If you have any questions regarding how my budgeting process works or how to work the Google Sheet budget I've shared with you, you can send me a Direct Message on my Instagram, or leave a comment on my YouTube video where I went into detail how to work this budget and the sheet I provided. I would love to further explain anything that was confusing to you.
You can also leave me a message or comment letting me know if this was helpful for you or eye opening to see how much you were spending--because I know it was for me when I saw how much money I was spending on lyfts lol.
Thanks for visiting, come back soon!
xoxo LOVE YALL!
If you found this post helpful, I would love it you would share it with a friend who would also enjoy it!