Formally keeping track of a monthly budget over time helps to keep clear on your spending patterns and your financial history. At worst, it means having to write costs that are frustrating to think about and plan for, but at best, it's a way to see yourself being more organized and responsible. Having an aesthetically pleasing simple monthly budget to repeat gives peace of mind for having a solid record of your finances. One step is to just keep track of what your income is and how much you are spending and where. Here, a clear and proper budget breakdown is available for download. There are a few notes on the method used for this spreadsheet.

Download Here. EPS Budget Sheet.

Download Here. EPS Budget Sheet.

One strong rule of budgeting for each month is a rule of thirds. In this method, your housing is within one third of your monthly income, your expenses are kept to less than a third of your budget, and this way the last third is potential savings and investment income. 

For housing, likely the most essential part of a monthly personal budget, having it only cost a third of your income insures that, if times are harder, there is still enough of the budget available to devote to your place of living. This way, the most important thing is more likely to be taken care of. When applying to apartments, for example, they might want applicants to make three times the money of whatever the rent would be. In many cases, finding a residence where the cost is only a third of the average person's monthly income is difficult. The times of a person's income being able to match that rule in the current day housing market is becoming rarer.  Still, it is a good rule to aim for. This is considering all forms of housing: renting a room, renting an apartment, having a mortgage, etc. Also in this consideration are expenses that come with the housing. For example, mandatory renter's insurance, HOA fees, attached trash billings, etc. Often, an evaluation of whether or not to move out of a parental home might be if someone makes at least twice what their housing cost will be. There are exceptions, such as unusually high housing areas. For example, if your expenses are a very small fraction compared to how much you make, and you can afford to allocate more of your budget to housing. Within the housing budget, I include any separate storage fees, cost of PO boxes, if necessary, etc., as well as the expectation of potentially increasing costs such raised rent or increased property taxes on a yearly basis.

Bills are categorized here as any regular bills and cost such as electric (as well as water, sewer, and trash if not separated from the housing bill), internet, cell phone costs, car payments, and more. It's an area I would charge to things like subscription services or gasoline as well. In this budget sheet, bills are separated out from other expenses such as groceries and personal care items to split the budget into four sections instead of three. Their ratios can be very different.

It leads to the last third or fourth of a person's budget to being used for miscellaneous fees, whereas much of that is possible can be used for savings, retirement and more. Even here, further breaking miscellaneous into a fractional budget can help. For example, a third going to savings, a third going to safe investment, and a third going to retirement funds. There is a lot of variation that can be done especially here. There will also probably be changes continuously over time. For example, 100% of it could go to savings until there are 2-3 months of expenses saved in case of an emergency. Then, maybe 75% goes to debt such as student loans and credit cards and 25% to retirement. Maybe 50% goes into a separate savings for a new car, or a condo down payment.

Here are a few notes about the spreadsheet:

• Have the google sheet set to 75% zoom to best see all the details in a quick glance.
• The grid lines are off. They can be turned back on to better see the cells by going to View->Show-> and then selecting grid lines.
• The font is cormarant garamond font with a default size of 12pt.