Want opinion on budget spreadsheet

[Anon]

Oh boy this is all new to me, but it's almost kind of fun! Almost feels like some video game when I actually sit down and plan everything out like this!

I'm new to using spreadsheets and Google Sheets, and I'm new to budgeting, so I want someone's opinion on whether or not if I've got almost everything covered. I think so, but idk, I'm new to this.

All of the numbers are before taxes out of my paycheck, and I did this with the assumption that not all of the numbers are going to be exact, but aside from taxes, they'd be accurate. So as long as there's not a margin of error where I'm off by like, $500 or $1,000.

I'm not vehicle living yet, but I'm preparing for it. I've got the vehicle, now I'm just trying to get a handle on my spending and keep track of my money, see where it's all going. I'm also trying to save up for some vehicle dwelling gear and a tent, as well as some things for personal character, and hobbies.

The, "After Expenses", do not calculate/include the weekly financial goals, as those are just wishlists, and I can do those just by viewing my bank account and using a calculator at the end of each week. Also spreadsheets are still confusing to me, don't wanna mess anything up.

After I repay my father, I plan on putting that $200 every week into the emergency funds. I forgot to add long-term goals. When I think of long-term goals, I think of what future I want and forgot about the practical long-term goals.

Also, as soon as I save up $4,000, I'm going to take $2,000 of that and put it into one of the emergency funds to go ahead and flesh it out.

How does it look?

 

[NoOvernightParking]

Vehicle Maintenance like oil changes, brakes, and less frequent items like tires can be averaged into your budget too.
Aside from food, you will probably need to buy T.P., and hygiene products.

 

[Morgana]

Only going to comment on one little piece:

spreadsheets are still confusing to me, don't wanna mess anything up

You'll get comfortable with spreadsheets faster if you do fool around with them.
Just make a copy (label it "backup" or something) and then experiment to your heart's content.

Once you have a lot of information in the spreadsheet (or just a lot of work invested), you'll want a backup anyway. It's nice to have at least one local and one remote backup. If you don't want/need to invest in a commercial backup service or software, you can just manually make a copy for local, and email it to yourself for remote. Or just start an email and then store it in your Drafts folder.

Also, there's a ton of helpful Excel advice online. Even if you can barely figure out how to describe your problem, plug it into Google and you may get surprising results.

^^
Just in case you decide to get into spreadsheets in a bigger way.
I now return you to your actual main point.

 

[Camper]

$100 a month for food?

 

[mpruet]

Before anyone makes a budget, they need to know what their current expenses are, at least over a three month period. If the budget is too tight, you’ll fail. I’d suggest getting a tool such as “Mint” or “You Need a budget” and track all of your expenses, checking, cash, credit card, debit card. Only when you know how you are spending money do you have any business even starting a budget.

You mentioned that you are going to budget $100 for food. Is that including restaurants and places like McDonald’s? $100 is doable, but only if you have access to discount grocery stores and/or bent-and-dent stores.

I’m not going to comment on the specific items that you have listed. I suspect that they are not realistic and aren’t anywhere close to your current expenses.

 

[Ripper238]

$100 a month for food?

That's a lot of ramen noodles. lol

I live in an apartment and have a fridge and spend $300+ a month on food for just me. He may starve.

 

[mpruet]

If one of your goals is to save money and/or reduce your expenses, once you have a valid and honest view of what your expenses actually are, then you’ll find it much easier to reach your goal. It’s amazing how much people spend on quick food. Then you can evaluate if you really need the things that you are spending on and make it a point to reduce or even eliminate that expense.

I’m retired now and am in a fairly comfortable state financially. But before I retired I went through this same exercise and found all kinds of places that my wife and I could eliminate expenses. Started by dropping cable and daily newspaper. Then went after our phone service. We had a land line as well as cellular. ;-). I found a bent-and-dent grocery close by and started making weekly trips there - usually buying about $50 per week. There’s usually all kinds of places where you can eliminate expenses, but you must first know what your expenses actually are.

This was a good thing to do because I knew that when I retired, my ‘income’ (from retirement accounts and SS) would be about 1/2 what my annual income was while I was working. So it was a good thing to see what I could eliminate before I actually had to because of lack of money.

 

[Anon]

$100 a month for food?

That's a lot of ramen noodles. lol

I live in an apartment and have a fridge and spend $300+ a month on food for just me. He may starve.

I really have no idea how much food is going to cost. I'd like to think it would only cost $100 a month especially while I'm trying to fix my diet, but realistically, it's going to be more.

Before anyone makes a budget, they need to know what their current expenses are, at least over a three month period. If the budget is too tight, you’ll fail. I’d suggest getting a tool such as “Mint” or “You Need a budget” and track all of your expenses, checking, cash, credit card, debit card. Only when you know how you are spending money do you have any business even starting a budget.

You mentioned that you are going to budget $100 for food. Is that including restaurants and places like McDonald’s? $100 is doable, but only if you have access to discount grocery stores and/or bent-and-dent stores.

I’m not going to comment on the specific items that you have listed. I suspect that they are not realistic and aren’t anywhere close to your current expenses.

I feel like it's going to be very deceptive to track down EVERY expense I have. It's going to have to be one of those things I do mindfully over the course of time. I guesstimated the gas since now I have an SUV but currently only live about 10 minutes from work.

As far as keeping track of my spending, are you talking about even going all the way down to how much the ATM charges for withdrawing cash? Would a simple pen and paper and jotting down every time I move money work?

And yes, one thing I noticed about quick food is that, there's this store not far from work that sells the tastiest home-cooked food, but two sandwiches and a chocolate milk (I'm a big eater but trying to stop) cost about $13. That's about $65 a week. Is that bad? I'm gonna start packing my own lunch but if I had to be honest with myself, I'll probably end up going back there at some point.

I was planning on lumping the personal care items in with the food and just relabel that as, "groceries", but maybe that's not wise. The food guessimate is based on groceries I buy every weekend, not fast quick foods.

And yes, the specifics are more like a wishlist.

If one of your goals is to save money and/or reduce your expenses, once you have a valid and honest view of what your expenses actually are, then you’ll find it much easier to reach your goal. It’s amazing how much people spend on quick food. Then you can evaluate if you really need the things that you are spending on and make it a point to reduce or even eliminate that expense.

I’m retired now and am in a fairly comfortable state financially. But before I retired I went through this same exercise and found all kinds of places that my wife and I could eliminate expenses. Started by dropping cable and daily newspaper. Then went after our phone service. We had a land line as well as cellular. ;-). I found a bent-and-dent grocery close by and started making weekly trips there - usually buying about $50 per week. There’s usually all kinds of places where you can eliminate expenses, but you must first know what your expenses actually are.

This was a good thing to do because I knew that when I retired, my ‘income’ (from retirement accounts and SS) would be about 1/2 what my annual income was while I was working. So it was a good thing to see what I could eliminate before I actually had to because of lack of money.

This is going to be quite a quest. I went ahead and cancelled my eBook subscription and Spotify Premium. I usually don't have time to read or listen to anything at work anyways I'm so immersed in it and having to coordinate with teammates. I can listen to music for free and read all I want at home. Both were just $9.99 a month. Doesn't sound like it adds up quickly, but it's unnecessary, and I take it that part of being frugal is the mentality, not just the actual money-saving.

 

[mpruet]

It may seem like a quest. That’s why I suggested using apps such as ”mint”. It can automatically record expenses made directly from your accounts such as an ATM fee. And yes - you need to keep track of all expenses. Otherwise any budget you come up with is going to be way too extreme, and you won’t be successful. Consider this — $65 a week for food is $160 a month - opps you’re already over budget.

 

[Camper]

I keep every receipt on what I spend every day, including food and gas. I enjoy adding them up to see what I spend. I'm not cheap... it's like a hobby for me. I usually spend about 50% more each week than I think I will.

 

[Ravella and X]

100 dollars a month for food is 3.33 per day. You could actually live on that, but it would mean either eating a lot of cheap carbs at the expense of more nutritious fare, or really being thoughtful about and putting time and effort into your purchases and food prep and cooking from scratch (canned beans are cheap, but dried beans are cheaper) and paying attention to serving size.

Based on your love of those 13 dollar sandwich meals, I’d guess that you need to at least triple your food budget and also budget your meals and snacks out separately.

If you want to get an idea of frugal life, browse Reddit r/frugal

Keep working at your budget spreadsheet — the more you learn about you and your spending, the better you’ll be able to guide your future.

 

[aytee]

Creating and living by a budget is like going on a diet - it works for a while but once a goal has been reached, one then so easily falls back into old patterns. When making a change, it needs to be applied to one's way of living, encompassing the entire lifestyle.

When I first began the nomad lifestyle, I wasn't retired and so tried to make my money last as long as possible before needing to stop and look for work. Eventually I realized that there were things that I was doing to make it happen, and boiled it down to three rules:

1) spend money one day a week - this stops the habit of continually putting one's hand into one's pocket and encourages thrift.

2) if one owns something and it works, don't buy another - this stops the "latest model" syndrome and also removes the "see...want...buy" habit that media has created in us. The correlation to this is that if I buy something new then I must get rid of a corresponding item - this removes the need/want for accumulation of "stuff".

3) don't spend more than half one's "hourly income" on any one item, or full if it a gift - exceptions made for gas, for instance, and twice a year on my birthday and Christmas gifts to myself.

These rules work for me, make your own and over time they will become unconscious. Develop a thrifty lifestyle (it takes time, be patient with yourself) and you will find that money and materialism becomes meaningless to you.

Finding ways to curb spending is what it is all about, reprogramming one's mind. For instance, I am am avid reader and can get through a book a day - most campgrounds have free books and libraries sell them for 50c. And learn to do without.

Make this a lifestyle, not a goal.

 

[Dennys Adventures]

you may not want my opinion. I am abnormal, I'am left handed. your budget list is a good start. have you ever looked around for how to set up a budget. dave ramsey has some great pointers and can get you going in the right direction. just don't forget any web site will try and get you to pay for services you may not need or want. prepper princess also has good youtube videos on a budget both for food and money. remember never spend more money then you make, always spend less then you make. and always have an emergency fund for the bad times that will happen. I have lived the past 15 or so years on a budget and sticking to it. has gotten me through a 13 year legal battle paid in full with cash. I am so used to a budget I do not even think about it any more, it's just natural. but like i said i'am abnormal. I use 2 banks both with checking and savings plus 1 investment account. all layed out in 1 spread sheet. yes I now have 2 fully funded emergency funds. but why 1 is for normal little things to go bad and one is for my next Vehicle. your options are unlimited with what you can do if you make and keep a budget.

 

[rruff]

I really have no idea how much food is going to cost. I'd like to think it would only cost $100 a month especially while I'm trying to fix my diet, but realistically, it's going to be more.

There are 4.35 weeks in a month on average, so that's $23/wk or $3.28/day. If you eat really cheap stuff bought in bulk you might make it, but I'd at least double that. Maybe triple it.

Consider this — $65 a week for food is $160 a month - opps you’re already over budget.

$65/wk is $283/mo.

 

[mpruet]

Opps!

 

[Tony's Dream]

I'm a bean counter from way back. The most important part of a budget is data. I have found that most people who try to forecast their costs often fail. If you have no data, then overestimate your costs until your data is available. Then as each month passes you can work on getting more realistic numbers.

 

[rruff]

The most important part of a budget is data.

I over-estimated my budget by 3x! I was happy it wasn't in the other direction...

It wasn't a lack of data so much as not understanding what I'd really want to spend money on. Turned out, it was pretty much nothing.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

$100 a month for food is totally doable. If I cut out snacks, firewood and fizzy water that is pretty much what I spend.
You'd be surprised how cheap it is to eat just vegetables and pantry staples if you know how to cook.
One pack of Soba noodles is $3, That's 4 meals worth. (better than ramen!)
Kale, collards or broccoli is about $2-3 each for a weeks worth.
Same for cabbage. Onions are about $3-4 for a months worth.
dry beans will give me 2 weeks worth out of each 1lb bag.
Stuff like frozen pizza, processed meat or meat substitutes, milk, eggs, butter etc can get expensive fast.
Those convenient breakfast meal items.. Yes they save time on preparation and clean up. But they aren't cheap.
Ditto for frozen foods. You are basically paying almost what eating out at fast food places costs.
Just make a solid list before you get to the store. And don't deviate for impulse things like beverages, snacks, special sales on things your weren't planing on getting. Learn how to shop at places appropriate for specific items. I like to go to Asian markets for veggies and some staples. Latin markets for beans, cheese, tortillas, spices. Places like Grocery Outlet and Dollar General are scam because some things are very cheap, but many things are priced the same or higher than you would pay at Food Lion/Safeway.

As far as the overall goal of a budget, I think it is a good baseline.
You do not have to itemize every dang thing you spend money on. Vehicle expenses for example. Yes maybe you spend $50 a week on gas every week include that. Don't include maintenance costs. That is not a regular occurring thing. That comes up when it comes up.
The point to me at least for making a budget is so I can get a grip on my inflows and outflows and manage to put some to the side for when I need new brakes or whatever.

 

[Tony's Dream]

As I am getting ready to retire, I am helping 3 coworkers try and figure out what they will need to retire...15 years from now. All are really clueless on their costs because their present paychecks cover everything. If you over estimated by 3X, you are off to a good start. You are identifying things you don't want to spend your money on, that's good too. Keep working and fine tuning it and you will be fine.

 

[ohbejoyful]

"Don't include maintenance costs. That is not a regular occurring thing."

Au contraire. It is important to budget for non-recurring expenses. You will need x number of oil changes per year, so find out how much they cost and divide that by 12. Vehicle registration may only be once every 2 years, but you still need to be prepared for it. Tires will need to be replaced, new wiper blades, all sorts. Look at what these things cost per year and divide by 12; put that aside every month. And you have to have some money set aside for emergencies - again, put aside some money every month.

Food - I was on SNAP for about a year, and my monthly amount was $300. I didn't eat ramen, but it was still a tight budget. Fresh vegetables from Grocery Outlet saved my butt. Cooking from scratch is cheaper than buying ready made meals.

It's been a couple of weeks since you started the thread. How are things coming along?