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A weekly budget template is the most effective way to keep an eye on your budget. It allows you to keep an eye on your income and expenses. This way, you save money in the long run. You can prioritize your expenditures and consequently manage your savings with the help of this template.
Reasons for making a weekly budget:
Below are some reasons that why you require a weekly budget;
- This document helps you in keeping track of your expenses and you can control your budget.
- A weekly budget provides you a good idea of either you are on the path towards meeting your goals or not.
- Since it will provide with you an overview of your income and expenses so you will control your expenditures better.
How to create a weekly budget template?
By using MS Excel, you can easily create your weekly budget template. You just have to create a column for each of the following;
- Create an ‘income’ column in the spreadsheet and then enter your expected income. In the different sections, input your paychecks separately.
- Next, make an “expenses” column. List down all of the categories you usually spend your money on. You have to be as specific as possible. If you add vague categories then it becomes harder to monitor your expenses. Here are some categories you can include while it comes to budgeting;
Fixed expenses:
- Auto Insurance
- Electricity
- Health Insurance
- Internet
- Life Insurance
- Mobile Phone Bills
- Mortgage or Rent
- Other Insurances
- Subscriptions
- Utilities
Variable Expenses:
- Clothing
- Date Night
- Entertainment
- Gas
- Gifts
- Groceries
- Grooming or Haircuts
- Household
- Personal Allowance
- Restaurants
Miscellaneous expenses:
These expenses occur in the month you’re presently budgeting for. Moreover, these expenses usually don’t occur regularly.
- After inputting your categories, for each of the categories in your “budgeted” column, write the amount that you estimate to spend.
How to calculate weekly budget?
Below are four helpful tips if you’re making a weekly budget planner for the first time;
- At first, you just have to subtract your expenses from your take-home pay. The amount that you get from the take-home pay and the expenses will be your leftover. You can use this amount spend on leisure expenditures such as watching movies, dining out, etc. but, if the difference is a negative value then you have to remove certain expenses to keep yourself in the positive.
- Most people have several reasons of why they could not or did not set aside a specific amount every month for savings. Such people savings account will never grow. You should set a part of your paycheck deposited into a savings account automatically in order to grow your account. For employees, if your company has a retirement savings plan then take benefit of this.
- You should pay your bills on time each month and in full in order to avoid sky-high interest rates on your outstanding debts. This also assists you in keeping a healthy credit rating. During applying for loans, bear in mind that the lower your credit rating is the harder it will be for you to get approval.
- You should keep an accurate estimate of your monthly expenses. However, it would be very difficult for you to know how much you are spending. Each month, it is easy to identify how much you’re bringing. By keeping every bill and receipt, you can easily determine how much you spend each month then enter these numbers into a simple budgeting template.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, a weekly budget template is an effective tool that allows you to keep an eye on your budget. It is an important part of life to ensure that our finances are always kept in order. With the help of this document, you can keep everything in order.