Part 3: Putting everything in your Spreadsheet

Part 1: Getting ready to start a budget
Part 2: Setting up a monthly budget

We have finally reached the fun part of our budget-putting it together in a spreadsheet! This is where the fun happens. Putting everything in the spreadsheet and watching your debts go down monthly along with your expenses being paid regularly and on time.

Here is what your spreadsheet might end up looking like if you are a live in professional nanny. If you are a live out professional nanny you might have additional items such as rent, utilities, and car expenses etc. Those expenses can easily be added to your budget spreadsheet.

(Click on the picture to enlarge it-you will need to do this to figure out the next steps)

This is an example of my budget (alias numbers/names).

The column (A) names my expenses and column (B) shows the payment due. Column (C) shows the accumulated total of those expenses due. Column (D) is the due date for these expenses. These are fixed for me. You may have some flexible expenses. Cash is my monthly allowance to use on those items that are not fixed like gas, eating out, clothes, and anything else not written on this budget.

Row 14-C shows my monthly total of $910 for expenses a month. There is a formula for this that automatically figures out the addition for you :)


The column (E) is my debt-credit cards. There are three credit cards on this budget. Column (F) is the balance of the debt. Column (G) is the minimum amount due. Column (H) is the amount of money I am paying towards these items to pay the debt down faster. This will vary based on how much money you have left over a month after subtracting your flexible/fixed expenses from your income. I will share in the coming weeks how to determine which credit card to pay down first via Bankrate.

F-5 is the total debt of credit cards
G-5 is the total minimum due monthly for my credit cards.
H-5 is the total amount of money I pay on my credit cards monthly.
H-17 is the minimum amount needed monthly to pay your credit card debt and expenses
I-17 is the minimum amount you need for 3 months worth of your expenses/debts.
L2-9 is the names of my checking, money market, IRA and savings accounts
M2-9 is the balances of those accounts. This is helpful when figuring out where your money is.
P-Q shows the dates of my paychecks and the amount received on my paychecks.

You may notice several color cells on the spreadsheet. It is color coded according to my 3 banks and what money for debts come out of what account.
Green is Fidelity Credit Card
Blue is LGCU Credit Union
Gold is Wachovia

I have 3 items that are paid on my Fidelity Credit Card monthly because I receive cash back awards for using that account. I then transfer 5000 points to $75 to my Fidelity IRA account. I allow my money to work for me. I get rewarded for paying my bills for my retirement. The items in blue for my Credit Union are auto drafted from my checking account. My paycheck is direct deposited every two weeks on Friday. The gold items come from my Wachovia checking account. This is my account that basically is my "allowance" account. It is a seperate account from my expenses/bill checking account. I have found this has been working very well for me as it seperates my money. Every two weeks I write a check to myself from the Credit Union to Wachovia for my "allowance" When the money is gone in that account, the money is gone.

I hope this gives you an idea of how to set up an excel spreadsheet of your budget. If you do not own Excel you can go to Microsoft Office Live Workshop and set up an account there. Then if you email me at thefinancialnanny (at) gmail (dot) com with the names of your expenses/debts I can fill it in for you and share it with you via MS Office Live Workshop. Then you can enter your amounts of everything. You can also use Google Documents to make a spreadsheet as well. I will be happy to help you with formulas or setting up the columns if you run across problems.

You should revisit your budget monthly. This way you can make sure you are staying on task for your budgeting. This way you can see your monthly debt going down versus staying the same.

Up next week: Where do you put that money for expenses that is due quarterly or bi-monthly.