There are many ways to budget your money. Some people use spreadsheets, and others use apps. But I believe that the best way to manage your money is using a monthly budget planner. Why is budgeting on a book or notepad better than electronically? For a simple reason. Writing down your income and expenses will make you more aware of the REAL estate of your finances.
I know this because, for over a decade, I used an Excel spreadsheet for our household budget. It was easy, practical, and my husband liked that method. Budgeting electronically saved me time as well. I could copy my template from month to month, getting a head start. However, sometimes, in fact, many times, I would go weeks without looking at my lovely spreadsheet, hence not paying much attention to my expenses.
I dreaded getting on the computer to budget. After all, I would spend most of my day at work behind a screen. So, I decided to give budgeting with an app a try. But that also didn’t change anything for me! There was something about tracking expenses digitally that I did not enjoy. It became another chore. Also, I didn’t register my spending emotionally. Then, I decided to go old fashion and use a budget planner book.
Starting A Budget Planner Book
Using a legal pad, I started doing my monthly budget and expense tracking on paper, and oh boy, was I up for a rude awakening. The first time I wrote all our expenses down, I got sick to my stomach. I filled out an entire sheet with all our grocery store purchases adding up to almost $1,500!
Are you kidding me? What the heck did we buy at Walmart? Did we buy the entire store?
That visceral feeling of knowing where our money had gone was a great wake up call, one I was utterly missing for years when using digital tools to budget.
Since then, I’ve upgraded from a legal pad to a budget binder to a monthly budget planner I personally designed. Occasionally, I use the spreadsheet to map out different spending scenarios and show my husband the numbers.
What Is A Monthly Budget Planner?
A monthly budget planner is a workbook that you use to calculate and track your estimated and actual monthly income and expenses. You can start one using a blank notebook or buy one of the many available in the market.
In the short and long term, budgeting on paper will give you better results with your money. Doing the math on paper requires that you pay more attention. And, what you focus on, you get more of. When you focus more on figuring out your income and expenses, your will make better money decisions.
Even if you are resisting the idea of writing all your expenses down to budget, give yourself a chance. A monthly budget planner requires an investment of your time. But, after all, you work hard for your money; you should work even harder to make it work and grow for you.
Monthly Budget Planner Sections
A good monthly budget planner should include at least the following sections or features:
- A monthly calendar
- Money goals tracker
- Savings trackers
- Estimated and actual income trackers
- Estimated and actual expenses trackers divided by categories
- Debt trackers
- Monthly income and expenses summary worksheet
Other Sections A Good Monthly Budget Planner Can Include
Ideally, your budget planner should also include worksheets to calculate your net worth once per year, to track your investments, and a debt snowball worksheet to work on getting out of debt as soon as possible.
These are other sections our own monthly budget planners include:
- Bank account trackers
- Annual income and expenses tracker
- Bill tracker
- Investments tracker
- Short, mid, and long term money goals worksheet
- Net worth calculator
- Recommended spending percentages
- Debt snowball worksheet
- Financial goals trackers
- And finally, “special projects” trackers for budgeting for big purchases like vacations, home remodels, a car replacement, etc.
I am a big proponent of getting out of debt sooner than later because getting back control of your money will enable you to grow your net worth at a much faster rate than dragging out debt payments over the life of your loans.
Monthly Calendar
A monthly calendar is a must in your monthly budget planner because it’s essential to know when you get paid and when your fixed or recurring bills are due.
Examples of fixed or recurring bills include:
- Rent or mortgage
- Utilities
- Internet, cable, and cellphone bills
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Investments
A monthly budget calendar is ideal to do a monthly expenses snapshot and reduce financial stress. Doing an expenses snapshot before the month begins, you can know ahead of time if you can afford your lifestyle or if you need to look at reducing expenses or generating extra income.
In this video, I explain step-by-step how to do a monthly expenses snapshot.
How To Do A Monthly Expenses Snapshot
Money Goals Tracker
Just as you do a budget every month, you should also set goals for your money monthly. Your goals can be as simple as lowering eating out expenses by $100 or as ambitious as saving 15% of your income.
Your goals don’t have to be only about money. You can also set goals around your money habits. For instance, one of my money goals is to track my expenses daily. I make this a goal because I am still developing this habit. I often track my expenses weekly, but I want to do it daily to feel in total control of my finances.
a few money goals to keep on your list include:
- Save a spending cushion equal to one month of expenses
- Build up an emergency fund of at least three to six months of expenses
- Invest at least 10% of your monthly income for retirement
- Save $100 per month for a Christmas savings fund, also called a sinking fund
- Meal plan to save money on groceries
- Bring your own lunch to work to save money by not eating out
- Canceling services or subscriptions that you are not taking advantage of
- Paying extra on your smallest debt to eliminate it faster using the debt snowball method
Also, you can download my free money goal-setting workbook to get your goals in writing today.
GOAL SETTING WORKBOOK
Set and keep track of your money goals with our FREE financial goal-setting workbook.
Savings Balance Tracker
There are at least two savings balances that you should be tracking carefully every month:
- Your spending cushion, or the amount left in your checking account at the end of the month,
- And, your emergency savings fund balance.
We have all heard that it is vital to save every month to build up your emergency savings account. However, not enough people talk about having a spending cushion for monthly expenses.
A spending cushion is an extra amount of money you keep in your checking account to ensure no checks or bills bounce. I recommend that, in addition to your emergency fund of, ideally, at least six months of expenses, you focus on growing your monthly spending cushion to one month of expenses.
Monthly budgeting becomes a lot easier when you have that extra money in your checking account. With extra cash in the bank, you can set up your fixed expenses for automatic withdrawal and not worry about timing your bills with your paydays.
Until you have that extra in the bank, you will have to watch every due date and ensure that you can cover the bill before it drafts to avoid fees. If you think automatic drafts will result in over drafting while building up your spending cushion, I don’t recommend scheduling drafts.
Estimated And Actual Income Trackers
Doing a monthly budget happens in two phases:
- You do an estimation of your income and expenses before the month begins.
- You track your actual income and expenses as the month goes by.
If you are not mapping out your expenses and calculating your income before each month but just writing the expenses as the month goes by, you are not really budgeting.
Your budget is the plan you establish in writing, on purpose, and in advance to decide what to do, or not, with your money. So, if you are only tracking expenses, you are doing 50% of the work.
Do you need help learning how to budget? I have several resources to help you fine-tune your budgeting skills:
Access my free budgeting course
Check out the following budgeting articles, podcast episodes, and videos:
- What Percentage Of Your Income Should Go To What?
- How To Do A Monthly Expenses Snapshot
- 5 Necessary Steps to Get Control of Your Finances
Estimated And Actual Expenses Trackers By Categories
Not all expenses are equal. One thing is to spend money paying for rent or the mortgage, another thing is to spend money on the latest iPhone. A good monthly budget planner will help you differentiate between your basic necessities, and your discretionary spending, also known as your wants.
You must learn to make this distinction, because, if we are really honest with ourselves, we often spend money on things we don’t really need, but we want.
For example, who has not financed a new car because we think we need a reliable work vehicle? So, we end up committing $400, $500, or even some people $700 of their monthly income for the next five to seven years to a car payment.
Opportunity Cost And Compound Effect
If we are honest with ourselves, we know we can find a reliable enough used car, to get around. We rationalized the purchase because we would rather drive a new car with all the bells and whistles. We also look much cooler on a new vehicle than driving an old Toyota Camry.
But the compound effect of our commitment to this new car is enormous. What if, instead of spending $500 per month on a car, you saved up enough money to pay cash for an old reliable car. You could then use those $500 to build up your emergency fund, pay down your debt, invest, pay for a vacation in cash, etc.
Do you see the opportunity cost of considering a car payment a necessity instead of a want? The same process should be applied to all your expenses to distinguished your actual needs.
My monthly budget planner makes this vital distinction by grouping expenses into different categories.
Budgeting categories:
- Savings
- Basic living expenses
- Transportation
- Groceries
- Insurance
- Lifestyle
- Debt
This expenses categories list is arranged, prioritizing saving money and covering your basic needs. The expenses that fit into the lifestyle category should be reduced or eliminated to create room in your budget to pay down your debt.
Getting rid of credit card debt, car payments, personal loans, student loans, pay-day-loans, etc., as fast as possible will enable you to recover your purchasing power and grow your net worth.
For a thorough list of how much I recommend you spend per category, check out my guide: What Percentage Of Your Income Should Go To That.
Debt Trackers
I hope you have sensed that I am a hardcore advocate for paying off debt as soon as possible and staying debt-free. Keeping more money in the bank instead of handing it out to creditors is the only way to grow wealth.
That’s why a good monthly budget planner should include worksheets to track your debt balances and payments monthly. When you get back your purchasing power, you can now commit to the money goals we mentioned earlier. Also, you can increase your saving and investing rate.
Getting out of debt is how you turn your finances around, but it is not what they teach us! They teach us that we need to finance things to build up a good credit score. But the only way to build up a good credit score is by financing purchases.
The cycle of financing cars, homes, vacations, dental treatments, medical bills, etc., turns into a rat race that traps many consumers for life. Fortunately, after the 2008 recession, I realized I was in the rat race and decided to learn all I could to escape it.
You can learn all about my darkest financial moments in this post:
In the meantime, let me share with you the best takeaway from my financial rock bottom: There is no magic formula to grow wealth. You can turn your finances around by merely following these four steps.
Four Steps To Grow Wealth:
- Spend less than you make
- Stay out of debt
- Invest your money in appreciating assets
- Be patient
Recommended Reading
Monthly Income And Expenses Summary Worksheet
So, you are now calculating your income and expenses before the month begins. You are also tracking your actual expenses and income as the month goes by. Congratulations, you are now 100% budgeting.
Making a monthly summary of income and expenses is the cherry on top of your budgeting cake. This is what I call a cost-of-living worksheet. This page on your monthly budget planner will summarize your estimated income and expenses and compare them to the actual numbers.
Summarizing your expenses is really easy as you have already collected all the information in your budgeting book. This snapshot will clearly tell the story of where your money went. Knowing the facts about your spending will empower you to make better decisions as you prepare next month’s budget.
These are all the sections I recommend your monthly budget planner includes.
However, you may also be asking yourself how to budget when you get paid monthly, weekly, bi-weekly, or twice per month. Let’s get into that.
Monthly Budgeting Vs. Paycheck-To-Paycheck Budgeting
Monthly Budgeting
I recommend doing a monthly budget regardless of when you get paid. In my opinion, monthly budgeting helps you calculate your actual cost of living with more precision. Monthly budgeting also enables you to keep a broad perspective of expenses that might be coming ahead.
To do a monthly budget, you have to factor in all the income and expenses you will generate and incur within a specific month, regardless of when you get paid and when your bills are due.
For instance, in January, your monthly budget will be from the 1st through the 31st. In February, your monthly budget will include expenses and income from the 1st through the 28th, and so on.
Paycheck-To-Paycheck Budgeting
In contrast, some people like to budget paycheck-to-paycheck. They decide what bills to pay according to the dates they are paid and the bills’ due dates.
Budgeting by paycheck, although it may seem practical, I fear can keep some people trapped in the cycle of living paycheck-to-paycheck. In my experience, people who budget by paycheck focus on the following week’s bills instead of looking at their total monthly income and cost of living.
Having a narrow focus on your income and expenses can make it challenging to manage unexpected and future expenses. Also, I have coached many people who are used to budgeting paycheck-to-paycheck who recourse to debt more often and feel financial anxiety when looking at the future of their finances.
How Often Do You Get Paid?
As I said earlier, regardless of when you get paid, I recommend doing a monthly budget. This method will help you keep a broad perspective of your finances. Understanding your income and expenses variations from month to month is key to budgeting.
So, do you know how often you get paid? Some people receive one paycheck per month, while others get paid weekly. Also, some people get bi-weekly checks, which is different than getting paid twice per month.
Let’s explore salary schedules in more detail and how they may affect your monthly income.
Salary Schedules
Monthly Pay Schedule = 1 Check Per Month
It’s essential to be aware of the frequency that your household receives paychecks. Obviously, when you get paid once a month, you get a total of 12 checks per year.
Ideally, you should cover your monthly expenses counting on your monthly income and not tapping into next month’s check to pay the previous month’s bills. That’s why doing an estimation of your income and expenses before the month begins is essential for your financial health.
Weekly Pay Schedule = 4 or 5 Checks Per Month
If you are on a weekly pay schedule, you get 52 checks per year or four to five paychecks per month.
Most months of the year have four weeks, which will account for 48 paychecks. However, four months of the year will have five weeks. That means your income will be higher four months of the year.
If you are not aware that you will bring an extra check several times per year, you may miss a great opportunity. You can use the extra paycheck to save, work on your money goals, or pay down debt.
Twice-Per-Month Pay Schedule = 2 Checks Per Month
People who get paid twice per month get a total of 24 checks per year or two checks per month.
Usually, on a twice-per-month pay schedule, you get paid around the 15th and the last day of the month. Your pay dates may vary from month to month, so it is essential to use a monthly calendar to mark your paydays.
Bi-Weekly Pay Schedule = 2 or 3 Checks Per Month
People on a bi-weekly get paid every two weeks, which is not the same as twice per month.
Instead of getting 24 checks a year, people on a bi-weekly pay schedule get 26 checks per year.
Like I mentioned earlier while discussing the weekly pay schedule, most months of the year have four weeks. So, on a bi-weekly schedule, you get two paychecks.
There are two months of the year with a fifth week. As a result, people on a bi-weekly schedule get three paychecks twice per year, for a total of 26 checks.
Again, being aware of this “extra” paycheck is key to making smart decisions with these funds.
In Conclusion: How To Use A Monthly Budget Planner To Manage Your Money
As you can see, a monthly budget planner is a great tool to help you manage your money and understand your actual income and expenses with clarity.
Your income and expenses will vary from month to month. Managing your money on paper and with purpose has many benefits you don’t get with other tools like a budgeting app or an Excel spreadsheet.
Writing down your income and expenses, doing the math, and planning ahead will help you become more aware of your finances’ REAL estate.
And awareness is key to evaluating your money decisions and making better choices.
While you consider starting your budgeting journey on paper, we recommend a paper planner that includes at least the following sections:
- Monthly calendar
- Money goals tracker
- Savings trackers
- Estimated and actual income trackers
- Estimated and actual expenses trackers divided by categories
- Debt trackers
- Monthly income and expenses summary worksheet
Our monthly budget planners also include worksheets to keep track of other important financial information such as:
- Bank account trackers
- Annual income and expenses tracker
- Bill tracker
- Investments tracker
- Short, mid, and long term money goals worksheet
- Net worth calculator
- Recommended spending percentages
- Debt snowball worksheet
- Financial goals trackers
- And finally, “special projects” trackers for budgeting for big purchases like vacations, home remodels, a car replacement, etc.
Questions?
I hope this article has helped you see the value of using a monthly budget planner. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to drop them in the comments section below. I personally respond to all of them.
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