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Did you know that you can easily organize your finances by creating a monthly expense spreadsheet?
This tool is great for helping anyone control their spending and track where every penny goes efficiently.
In today's text you will discover what it is and where to create your spreadsheet easily and for free.
In addition, you will find some ready-to-download templates that you can use to suit your needs. So, be sure to read until the end!
What will we cover in this text?
- What is a monthly expense spreadsheet?
- How important is financial education?
- How can an expense spreadsheet help me?
- What can't be missing from the spreadsheet?
- How to create a monthly expense spreadsheet?
- What is the best free monthly expense spreadsheet?
- Conclusion.
What is a monthly expense spreadsheet?
It is a spreadsheet for controlling expenses, in general, where you can control your finances in a simple and efficient way.
It should contain data about your income and also your expenses, so you can see where your money is going.
One monthly expense spreadsheet helps you to add up and analyze your finances, enabling you to make decisions to improve your financial health.
Once you create your first spreadsheet, it will become a financial habit that will make all the difference to your finances.
This is because it is part of a good financial education that is, by far, essential for any citizen.
The spreadsheet is used to help you understand your money flow, reduce costs, invest more and achieve goals.
How important is financial education in a citizen's life?
Having financial education means understanding financial concepts and products so that we can always make the best choices.
Furthermore, it is about knowing how to take advantage of opportunities and assess risks when choosing financial products, solutions and services.
An educated person reaps the benefits of this practice in their financial and personal life, and in addition, they contribute positively to society, as they become more responsible and committed to the future.
See below the main fruits of financial education:
- Conscious and responsible consumption;
- Ability to always make the best choices;
- Knows how to assess risks;
- Ease of detecting opportunities;
- Balanced financial life;
- Better quality of life;
- Learn to save to have and not to acquire debt to have;
- Learn the importance of saving, economizing and investing;
- Make money work for you;
- Knows how to give more value to money;
- Financial control;
- Planning;
- Discipline.
The main objective of financial education is not to make you rich, but rather to teach you how to take care of your money and have a healthy and balanced financial life.
A person can be lucky enough to become rich without even having the basics of financial education.
However, this concept is synonymous with financial intelligence, so this person will not have a balanced and healthy financial life, and will find it very difficult to stay rich.
Being financially educated is essential to knowing how to deal with money and planning a lighter and more enjoyable future.
Financial planning is one of the pillars of financial education, and a monthly expense spreadsheet is part of any financial planning.
How can a monthly expense spreadsheet help?
When the end of the month comes, you get that feeling of: gosh, what did I do with my money?
This shows that you don't know where your money is going or even exactly how you are spending it.
With a monthly expense spreadsheet, this will no longer be a problem. You will be in control of your finances.
However, to do this, it is important to have discipline and write down all expenses, even the most superfluous ones, for example, the R$$6.50 for Uber that you spent on Tuesday afternoon.
By having all your expenses and income written down, you know exactly what needs to be improved and what needs to be cut to have more money left over at the end of the month.
Furthermore, where you can't cut back, you can make smarter changes and adopt strategies to save money.
For example, your spreadsheet showed a monthly expense of around R$$300.00 on private urban transport applications.
How can you change this situation without cutting it from your budget?
Firstly, you can alternate between other cheaper transport alternatives or even safe carpooling.
In addition, you can take advantage of discount coupons. There are many websites and apps where you can get discounts on Uber, 99 and other transportation apps.
In fact, even digital accounts offer these discounts, for example, PicPay.
To conclude this topic, we could not fail to highlight that adopting the habit of creating a spreadsheet of your expenses every month will encourage conscious consumption.
You will have more discipline when spending, more control over your expenses and you will also think carefully before compromising your budget.
What can't be missing from a monthly financial spreadsheet?
All your expenses, earnings and also extra expenses that may arise during the month.
You can also add extra earnings that you may have during the month.
You only need to put specific fields for planned expenses and earnings and also the actual earnings and expenses, in case there are variations in fixed expenses and earnings.
How to create a monthly expense spreadsheet?
The first step to creating a messiah expense spreadsheet is to be organized. It is necessary to organize and categorize the data in the spreadsheet.
Check out a step-by-step guide below to create yours efficiently!
1. Choose the platform
Your spreadsheet needs to be efficient and easy to use, so find out which platform is best for you.
One of the best alternatives on the market is Excel or Google Doc. However, there are still other cool and simple alternatives on the market, for example, Canva and Word itself.
If you have difficulty creating a monthly expense spreadsheet using these tools, you can create yours in a traditional way: with pencil, pen, ruler and paper.
The important thing is not to stop doing it, to have discipline and to correctly record the data.
In addition, you can also download ready-made templates from the internet to use. At the end of this text you will find our suggestions.
2. Add the number of days in the month
As this is a monthly spreadsheet, the ideal is that you list the days of the week until you have totaled all the days of the month.
This way, you can keep track of your expenses on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. However, if you find it easier, just include a summary of your monthly expenses, without mentioning the day on which they occurred.
3. List your expenses
This step is very important, you should not leave out any expenses. Start with the essential expenses, listing them according to their degree of importance.
Don’t forget to separate a field to list extra expenses and also for “savings”, even if you haven’t started saving yet.
4. Map your expenses
When you go to the supermarket or use your card, be sure to save all the receipts to transfer the amounts spent to the spreadsheet.
This way, you can map your expenses and every penny spent on a daily basis, and consequently, on a monthly basis.
5. Add and analyze
Add up your monthly expenses and see how much you spent that month. Was it more than your salary? Was it enough to pay off all your debts? Do you have any money left over to save?
Based on the analysis, see what you can change in your spreadsheet to have more money left over the following month.
6. Set goals
Be sure to update your spreadsheet daily and keep a close eye on your spending. In addition, it is essential to set goals for your monthly expense spreadsheet.
Set values for your expenses and try to close the month with a positive balance. Keep an eye on each expense and see where you can save to have money left over each month.
You can set different financial goals for your spreadsheet, all with the purpose of saving, seeing your money go to waste and staying out of debt.
The money saved should be used wisely, for example, to create your emergency fund.
What is the best free expense spreadsheet?
In this topic you will find some spreadsheet templates to download for free. Follow along!
- Monthly Personal Budget Spreadsheet – Microsoft.
- Family monthly budget – Microsoft.
- Personal expense control spreadsheet – Mobilis.
- Free monthly expense spreadsheet – Neon.
Without a doubt, Excel is one of the best software for creating your spreadsheet. In addition to being simple to use, it has many useful and practical tools.
However, if you have difficulty using computers, we have created a spreadsheet to help you.
Download the file and print!
Conclusion
One monthly expense spreadsheet is a useful tool for organizing and controlling your finances.
Although simple, it brings many advantages to your financial life.
So, be sure to start using it today! Find out which platform is easiest to use, as it needs to be efficient to bring results.
If you encounter any difficulties, print our template and start using it!
