Housing and utilities: Your housing and utilities include mortgage or rent payments, property tax, household insurance and maintenance or repairs. You might include paychecks, any contractor payments, tips and additional income sources, like child support or investment returns. Income: Include all incoming money under the income section of your budget sheet. Savings: College and retirement savings as well as contributions to your emergency fund. Miscellaneous: Entertainment, such as movies and concerts, as well as donations to charitable causes and vacations or other attractions. Include school supplies, laundry expenses and other family-related costs.įinance: Credit card payments and fees, student loan payments and other fees or prepaid expenses. Personal care: Toiletries, clothing, shoes and trips to the hair salon.įamily: Child care and babysitting, outgoing child support payments and tuition or school fees. Health care: Health insurance and related expenses, such as copayments, as well as prescription and over-the-counter medications. Include public transportation and taxis or ride-sharing as well.įood: Groceries, nights out at restaurants and takeout and delivery orders. Transportation: Vehicle payments, insurance and maintenance as well as recurring costs like parking, gas and tolls. Include natural gas, electricity, water, sewage and other utilities, as well as phone, cable and internet bills. Housing and utilities: Mortgage or rent payments, property tax, household insurance and maintenance or repairs.

Income: Include all incoming money, such as paychecks, contractor payments, and tips, as well as other sources of income like child support or investments.

While your budget worksheet is unique to your situation, consider the following sections to include when tracking your finances: To make sure the numbers you include are correct and up-to-date, use pay stubs, bank statements, credit card statements, receipts and other documentation. To create a custom budget worksheet, you need records of your income, expenses and savings. Related: Why Budgeting Is Important What should you include in a budget worksheet? Since the typical budget worksheet is divided into categories, it can help you understand where the majority of your spending happens and whether too much of your income is going into categories that aren’t essential. With this simple calculation, you can determine whether you have extra money for savings or whether you need to cut back on expenses. It calculates disposable income at the end of each period. With a worksheet, you can easily spot discrepancies and identify areas where you need to get on track. It tallies your planned expenses, savings and income as actual numbers for each category. When you add up each section of the worksheet, you can understand whether your anticipated income is enough to pay for your planned expenses and savings. That means you can quickly assess whether your budget is balanced or if you need to reduce expenses or increase income. It tracks income and expenses in one convenient place. Using a worksheet to track your finances offers several benefits: Why is a budget worksheet important?Ī budget worksheet is a simple spreadsheet or chart where you can record your income, expenses and savings. When you create your budget sheet in a spreadsheet, you can add or remove rows and columns to reflect your unique financial situation. You can create budget sheets using basic spreadsheet software, or you can track your income, savings and expenses by hand in a notebook or accounting journal.

What is a budget worksheet?Ī budget worksheet is an effective tool for listing, tracking and evaluating all your income sources, expenses and savings. In this article, we discuss why a budget worksheet is important and what to include in one, with a template and example for more insight. You can also see where you might be overspending so you can improve your budget and find ways to save more each month. An effective budget can also help you monitor your spending and identify any patterns in your financial activities. In this article, we discuss what to include in a budget worksheet and we provide a template and an example to help you get started.Ī budget worksheet can be highly effective for tracking your income and expenses, along with any savings you deposit. An effective budget worksheet can help you keep track of expenses, identify spending patterns that could help you avoid over-spending and also boost your ability to save money each month.

Budget planner template