Budgeting for Beginners

Budgeting can be such a bore and I suppose that's why many of us avoid it. We'll do a bit of mental budgeting, check our bank accounts regularly but we don't really know what we're spending. While I've always been a saver as apposed to a spender and often very conscientious with my money before I came to uni I never really had to budget. But since I've become an independent adult of sorts, basic budgeting is a skill that I've had to acquire.

Personally I find the easiest way to budget is to fill in this simple spread sheet everytime I buy something. To make this easier I try to keep all of my receipts so I don't forget what I've spent. I've created a spreadsheet that you can download below if you want a little help when it comes to budgeting. The spread sheet has a spaces to record spending Monday - Sunday for 52 weeks, so you can start whenever you like and have enough space for a whole year. I've input all of the formulas so that excel calculates the total weekly spend, the amount left of your budget for the week, the total yearly spend, total remaining budget for the year. All you need to do is decide how much you want to spend each week and insert that into the cell saying 'Weekly Budgeted Amount'.

Download Template Here

Keeping a record of everything I spend has also made it easier for me to save money as spending money seems more real. I also don't panic that I'm going to run out of money at the end of the term because I know how much I can spend each week. I know this wasn't the typical beauty or fashion post you were probably expecting to find on my blog today but I hope it has been useful to at least one of you out there. 

Eleanor xx