Planning a Personal Budget

New year. Perfect time to check our finances and put everything in order. We always tend to spend a little more during the holidays and, even though we are still trying to bounce back from our 2020 financial and health setbacks, our expenses are a bit more than what we expected (worldwide economics are to blame). But that’s ok. Now is a good time to rethink and organize our personal monies while we monitor our income vs. our expenses to evaluate ourselves each month.

You’ll access a free, downloadable, Excel spreadsheet when you scan this QR code with your phone. It is easy to use. You just fill one out for each month of 2023, and I can assure you that you will be able to track where your dollars go.

There are three columns: Projected: what we expect. Actual: What we really earned or spent. Difference: Were we over or under what we projected?

We’ve included some common expenses in each table, but you can personalize the rows to your source of income/expenses. It may not be a sophisticated way to budget your personal and family finances, but it is undoubtedly an easy tool to use. Let us be wise with our money. Good luck!