The worksheet tracks your cash influx, total earnings, overall expenses, and income minus expenses so you can keep track of how much money you have to spend and can create a budget within any period you chose. There are sections prompting you to enter what you pay for your utilities and insurance premiums, as well as sections for your savings and investments (in addition to miscellaneous expenses). This worksheet provides suggested categories of expenses that you likely have, whether you’re unmarried or trying to set a monthly family budget - such as mortgage/rent, credit card, car loan and student loan - and also allows you to input additional rows together with your own categories. If you have multiple sources of income (or if you live with a partner whose earnings also affect your finances), you can add those numbers as well. This worksheet lets you choose your budget period (anywhere from one month to one year) and insert your take-home income. That’s why we’re hooking you up with a list of what we suppose are the best month-to-month budget worksheets to help you get started out: 1. Maybe you’ve already tried yourself via creating a template in Excel for your monthly expenses - but it can be tough to design your own personal plan. If you’re new to personal budgeting, the thought of a monthly finances plan may make you nauseous, but once you get started and have a clear outline of your spending and savings goals, it’s really not so horrific - especially if you’re using a budgeting worksheet to guide you. Of course, some expenses are 100% essential and certain items will drain your cash flow and monthly profits even so, you’re nonetheless largely able to dictate your overall normal spending patterns and habits. So whether you just got a raise and want to make sure you’re using the extra income wisely or you’re overdue for a raise and you have to pay extra close attention to your money situation, there’s no time like the present to start being more responsible about your finances. While you’re not necessarily in total control of your earnings or whether you’re getting paid fairly, you are in the driver’s seat with regards to deciding what to spend on - and when. Whether you like it or not, it’s time to start behaving like a real adult and take control over your personal budget. There are lots of sneaky ways we spend more than we mean to, so if you’re trying to grow your savings for long-term care, you need to start budgeting each month so you make some economic progress. Sure, you understand what your overall income is (and hopefully you also have a very good sense of your month-to-month earnings, your income taxes, and your take-home pay) - but do you have a plan in place to translate that info into a monthly budget? Why It's Important to Budget No matter how cautious you are about spending money, it may be difficult to keep yourself on track if you’re not using a budget worksheet to track your expenses. You might have used a budget worksheet, budget planner or budget template of any kind before, but what you really need is a budget manager - something to help manage your finances, not just plan your savings.