Monthly Budget Planner

For all of you who, like me, find it difficult to make a monthly budget, here is a sample budget sheet you can try out. You can print it and use it to track your monthly budget. A few tips before you start with your budget.

- Use it for few months before you decide if it really is useful.

- Overbudget household expenses initially.

- You may use the sheet along with ‘envelop method’ of budget planning.

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Do share your budgeting experience with me.

Am I Spending Too Much?

Ever since I started monthly budgeting, I felt that some parts of my expenses were bloated. I could see the opportunity of cutting the flab specially my phone/net bill, fuel expense and maybe grocery. But I could never manage to trim it down. My wife said that the grocery expense was already optimized. Infact I was warned against cutting it down any further. On the fuel front, I could cut it if I started using public transport. Though I must say that I have resisted it till now. Here is the breakup of my monthly expenses. The insurance entry includes all premiums as well as PPF. The buffer entry is what I keep in hand for any spikes in the expenses(believe me, they are rarely missing).