Budgeting your way

Paper budgets used to be the way to go.  Hanging out in an office or on your desk at home plugging numbers into the old ledger an using your calculator or 10-key to bring the numbers home.  I used to do my budgets this way back before I had a computer.


For the past 15 years or so, I've been completely computerized.  Originally, I had to design my budget from scratch because I didn't have Internet access at home.  I played with a few different ways to do it before I settled into a system.  Later, when I was able to peruse the Internet, my budgeting changed.

Some people like to see their budget as a ledger (picture your checkbook design).  Some people liked to see their budget straight up like in my Simple Monthly Budget*.  Some like a little more detail, but not a lot, like in my Basic Monthly Budget*.  I, however, tend to get a little more complicated.  I tried using the Simple and Basic formats but there were so many places that I had to enter my data that I got frustrated.  My "complicated" version is only complicated in the set up.  After that, I see one screen and enter on only one screen.Out of all the budget formats that I've used over the years, the Rolling Total Budget* works the best for me.  It takes me no more than 2 hours to set up my budget for the entire year.

You will have to figure out which one works the best for you and run with it.  Don't get frustrated if you find that your choice of budget format isn't working for you as you can always try a new one or adapt it to fit your needs.  The important thing is that you have done your budget.

*See Individual Pages for instructions and template examples.