I joked about it one time that the first word my daughter will learn is “budget.” Part of me was serious though. Living on a budget is something I want to instill in my children so they can understand to be in control of their money and not the other way around. This is where learning to budget is important. When you learn to budget and track your income and expenses you develop a sense of control over your finances. I know I have and it’s probably one of my favorite things to do now. I know, sounds nerdy. But let’s be real, budgeting can be boring. In this article I will teach you how to use a Google Sheets budget, gain financial control and have fun.

Why Budget

If you ask this question then you’re probably struggling with too much month left at the end of your money. Budgeting helps you take control and provide a means of financial stability. You no longer question where all the money went to last month. When you budget you stop living paycheck to paycheck, because of the good financial habits you exercise.

How To Budget

Personally, I like using the Google sheets doc that’s free to you when you subscribe to my newsletter. Actually it’s my favorite, but any spreadsheet based budget should be ok. There are apps on phones and tablets you can use that I’ve listed for you in the Resources section of BrotherFI. However, I have found no other budgeting method more effective than using a Google sheets file that both me and my wife have access to.  It’s basically Excel online, but the Google version. The steps to budget are simple and I’ll go over that here. One piece of advice I will give is don’t worry if your budget doesn’t flow smoothly the first few months. It usually takes 3-4 months to get a consistent monthly budget going.

1. Budget manually. I believe when you have to manually look and update what you’re spending you start becoming more financially responsibly. Of course if you want to connect your bank information to one of the cool budget apps go ahead. At least you will be tracking your income and expenses. Just be sure to review the app as often as possible.
2. Make sure the budget is filled out on the first day of each month with what your projected income and expenses are. This means you may have to work on getting the budget ready a few days prior. Below is a screen shot of what a monthly budget looks like. Don’t be intimidated, this stuff is very easy!Create your categories and how much you’re going to budget for each category item. As you can see above we have a bunch of different categories and subcategories. For example, under Home Expenses there are different subcategories with their own amount to budget for. We obviously don’t use all the items below, but stuff like mortgage/rent, cell phone, internet might be items you have.
3. Update your budget regularly. It doesn’t have to be every day, but a few times a week should be enough.
4. Don’t be discouraged. Each month is an opportunity to improve on how much you spend. Stay diligent and trust me you will get the hang of this after a few months.
5. If you still need a little help, then I highly encourage you to sign up for my free course on budgeting and using this Google sheets budget. You even get access to my personal financial checklist that gets updated and sent to you periodically.

What About Budgeting Irregular Income?

I received an email asking how to budget when income is not steady also known as irregular income. For example, you may be self-employed and the money you make varies month to month. From a general point of view, I would create a monthly budget based on the lowest income month from the last 6 to 12 months. So, if your income in January was $2000, $3500 in February, and $2800 in March then your monthly budgeting will be based off January’s income. You can use any surplus or extra cash for investing, putting back into the business, college funds, or simply carrying over to next month to stay ahead of your finances.

For more information I found this really great video on Youtube that I like and I’ve listed her 5 tips below:

1. Work in reverse.
2. Prioritize budget.
3. Use smallest paycheck for worst case scenario to budget off (my favorite tip).
4. 50/20/30 rule. 50% for living expenses, 20% goals (building business), 30% flex spending (I like this concept or using some variation of this. This is money you can start to invest with).
5. Use half payments (not really a fan of this, but I added since she talked about it in the video).

Last, But Not Least

As I mentioned before mastering the art of budgeting takes time. As a married couple it was important for me and my wife to work together on the budget. I advise couples to make sure both people understand the basics of the budget and understand it at the beginning of each month. There are too many problems within marriages that involve money and I believe budgeting can actually help extinguish money fights and problems.

Now you know how to use a Google sheets budget that’s free and powerful. Within a few months you will be so good at it you will wonder how you ever handled your finances without it. The best time to start budgeting is right now. Hopefully, you feel inspired to do so. Simply click on the link provided and start manually managing your budget. Let me know how it goes!