Daily Archives: February 12, 2013

Spreadsheets! As it turns out, spreadsheets are one of the easiest ways to maintain a budget. Who knew? Most people. Anyway, I sat down and drafted myself up a nice little budget only to discover that my end of year dollar total ended up being in the negatives. I promptly passed the task on to my dad, who not only brought me back into a positive dollar amount but turned my sad little spreadsheet into an easy-to-use thing of beauty.

Some general thoughts on my budget for this year –

* I refuse to cut my morning coffee out of my budget, which equates to $1300 a year. I may have to rethink this decision.

* I’ve given myself an allowance of $25 a fortnight for beauty products. This will most likely be saved and spent on necessary replacements (foundation, skin care, etc) when needed.

* My general ‘entertainment’ budget is a LOT lower than the amount I’m spending at the moment so it’ll be quite an adjustment for me. I’ll have to see how I go. Any fun and free entertainment ideas are more than welcome!

I’m feeling a lot better about my budget in general now that I have this structure behind it. Props to my dad for taking the time to help me make the spreadsheet and because it’s been so useful to me I figured I might as well share it. If you’d like me to email you a blank copy of my annual budget spreadsheet just drop me a line and let me know!