does anyone know how to use spead sheets to make a home budget im reading the instructions but its not sinking in lol.

does it work at sticking to budget

Hi,

I think there are a few people here that use a spreadsheet for budgeting so I hope they can help you set your up. They don't work for me, I'm a pen and paper girl, but my DH uses a spreadsheet for his copy of the budget and he likes it alot. He just has a basic exel spreadsheet rather than using Money or any specific budget software.

Sorry, that was of no use, I just wanted to say hi!

Hi

I used to do a budget on spreadsheets.  I used to have a summary sheet that had the months total budget - total spend = variance +/- then I had a tab for each month.  The top half of the spreadsheet had all the uncontrollable costs that are the same each month such as rent/mortgage, council tax, telephone, utilities etc as these stay the same each month and are usually set by the companies.

The bottom of the spreadsheet I would put all the additional or controllable costs such as shopping, petrol, bus fares etc.  I would budget what I thought we would spend and adjusted the budget after a few months to a more realistic one.  The summary sheet would be linked to the individual ones so at a glance you could see a years worth spend verses budget.  I also had a separate savings spreadsheet to split down what we have saved and where and for what.

I found it really helpful to analyse your spend but you could do one almost as good with a pen and paper using accountant paper that has two sides ins and outs and two columns budget and actual.

Hope I haven't been too confusing.  If you wanted I could try and build you one and email it if you get stuck. 

Kaz x