Time to do a budget

(Image source: blogs.propertyfinder.com/)

Is this sound very familiar to you?

You received your salary on the dot and based on a rough calculation (some use only their 10 fingers), deducting estimated expenses for the month, you gather that there is a surplus of almost RM1,000. However, come middle of the month and you are at the ATM machine withdrawing cash, you soon realise that there is less than RM50 in the account. You start to panic. It is not enough to sustain you for the next pay day.

You sheepishly walk away from the ATM machine, thinking what had happened? Did the bank have wrongly debited your saving account? No, you think again. Did you overspend your income? You think again and you realised that is it – you spend more than what you can earn.

Every one of us has gone through this phase at one point of our life before. Like others, I used to complain that my income is just not enough for my expenses. That was a lame and cheap excuse indeed.

So I started to a budget and keep track of all my income and expenses and immediately I saw where I was bleeding cash. There seemed like I was spending more for magazines, drinks and more importantly, giving other people unnecessary treats. Anyway, by the time my budget tracking was up and running, I noticed that my surplus cash (the surplus used to be a deficit) began to increase.

For do the budget, all I used was a simple Ms Excel with 2 sheets - one for consolidated figures and another for daily figures.

My budget Excel has these components:-

1. Daily expenses – basically I put up these columns: date, type of expenses, amount and grand total
2. Monthly budget – I actually budget out for the next 4 – 5 months ahead so that I can plan out contingency in case there is a major expenses coming up in couple of months (like renewal of car insurance)
3. The comparison between budget and actual income & expenses – I have the daily expenses and I have the monthly budget - I compare them (it is easy to do – simply use the Ms Excel formulas) and see where I have overspend.

Google up “how to do budget” and you will get almost 404 million links on that. But if you want those ready made budget templates, you can download from the list below (google for more)

Microsoft Budget Templates
Personal Budget Excel Spreadsheet

So, with “change lifestyle” calls from the politicians, it is time to relook and rework the budget.

(Source: My past posts)

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