personal budget

Math 101 Budget Assignment You may consult budgeting websites (see below for examples) for help. 1. Create and save a spreadsheet in Excel (or other spreadsheet or budgeting software) with three sections (Income, Expenditures, Cash Flow). You may do this all on one worksheet or three separate worksheets (for more complicated budgets and for those who are quite skilled with Excel). You will need to have a header with your name and any other info you wish. 2. Under Income, list ALL income from any source. Be sure to prorate each amount by the month. You can do this as a formula in the cell. For example, if you receive $3600 a year in scholarships, you would enter: =3600/12 and the resulting number in the screen should be $300. Be sure to indicate the source of each item. At the end of your list, you should have a monthly total for income. Under Expenditure, list ALL expenses, including prorated amounts as done with the Income section of the budget. Label each expense. Some expenses will need to be estimates at this time (such as groceries or gas), but just ballpark it for now. At the end of your expense list, you should have a monthly total for expenditures. Under Cash Flow, subtract your total expenses from your total income. The idea, ultimately, is for this number to be zero. If you have a deficit, you will need to make adjustments to decrease spending, increase earnings, use savings, or borrow. If you have a surplus, you may choose how you wish to distribute the money–it is recommended to put your surplus into savings for now, but you have many options. Make adjustments as necessary. After several months, you should have a pretty good working budget that is fairly accurate each month. Submit your budget as a PDF. Budgeting Websites–There are many, many free sites with tips and worksheets to help in creating a budget. For now, you may find some of these sites helpful in that they may reveal a category you overlooked in your budget. In the future, you may wish to explore some of these (or other) sites in more detail. OR Google it!