RE: husband to manage money
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2009 5:43 pm
Before I retired I did not pay much attention to how much we spent.
Being we are on a low fixed income I need to control spending, to control I needed to know what was coming in and going out.
I created an excel spread sheet that keeps track of our spending.
Take all of your fixed expenses, insurance, property taxes, auto registration etc. and find your annual burden. subtract that from income. Divide by 365 days and this will be your daily allowance.
The spread sheet only deals with discretionary spending. I only have about 6 or 7 categories. I use averages for utility bills for the burden amount. You can adj the spread sheet as time goes on.
I enter all purchases and the sheet subtracts that from the income and provides an answer that shows where I am at each day.
It also calculates the average amount spent for each category.
I start a new sheet each month and avoid spending until my balance is positive. Sounds complex, but it is easy and straight forward.
Being we are on a low fixed income I need to control spending, to control I needed to know what was coming in and going out.
I created an excel spread sheet that keeps track of our spending.
Take all of your fixed expenses, insurance, property taxes, auto registration etc. and find your annual burden. subtract that from income. Divide by 365 days and this will be your daily allowance.
The spread sheet only deals with discretionary spending. I only have about 6 or 7 categories. I use averages for utility bills for the burden amount. You can adj the spread sheet as time goes on.
I enter all purchases and the sheet subtracts that from the income and provides an answer that shows where I am at each day.
It also calculates the average amount spent for each category.
I start a new sheet each month and avoid spending until my balance is positive. Sounds complex, but it is easy and straight forward.