Free expense tracker printable how to#
Free expense tracker printable manual#
Free expense tracker printable software#

Mortgage/Rent: Ours also includes homeowners/renters insurance as well as property taxes, but you could separate these out to Taxes and Insurance if you want. Consider a monthly automatic transfer to a targeted savings account. Savings: At the top, because if you pay yourself first, you won’t be left at the end of the month with nothing for your long-term goals. Here is how you can use the categories to record your expenses: When my husband and I need to get more specific about an expense, we just scribble a key word next to the cost like “school donation” or “new glasses.” This helps us remember larger expenses at the end-of-the-month reckoning. This printable chart has enough categories to encompass most any expense, yet not too many to make it overwhelming.

Free expense tracker printable how to#

How to Use the Chart, Category by Category

But I’ve tried digital programs like the free, and even though I like the colorful pie charts, categorizing expenses is clunky and onerous. Once you experience the overall concept and understand how day-to-day spending fits into the big picture, then transitioning to an electronic system is fine if you want to. “As you physically write down the numbers and visually note them and the surrounding information, there is a special sensory awareness and understanding that occurs.”

Free expense tracker printable manual#

See the whole month at a glance without scrolling through confusing screens of graphs and tablesĮven personal finance experts, like Judy Lawrence of The Budget Kit, agree that the manual approach is part of the learning experience:.

Remember to do it, because your chart is posted in a prominent place.

Reduce clutter, since you don’t have to go through receipts or get distracted by windows popping up on your computer.

No procrastinating - all you have to do is jot down a number or two.

Free expense tracker printable software#

Get started immediately, without having to wade through and learn a bunch of software options.You can buy software or subscribe to online budgeting programs, but I think there is a lot to love about this simple pencil-and-paper method: Even adding everything up with a calculator at the end of the month is an exciting little moment: how much did we spend? I guess writing in those tiny numbers satisfies a craving for organization. (Carry over last month’s balance if you want.) Figure out where you stand in the Summary table: earnings – spending = balance.Every day when you get home, write down anything you’ve spent.

Hang one each month in a central place, like your fridge.

It’s fascinating to see our pennies roll into the little compartments, and it has changed the way we think and behave about spending. We have been tracking our daily spending for ten twelve years. But he got used to it, and now he reminds me! When we first started, I had to keep reminding my husband to write down anything he spent - from cappuccino to bus fare. I created a version of this chart in my first months of marriage when it seemed as if our money was being sucked into a black hole. With this low-tech but high-functioning chart, all you have to do is click print. But who wants to fiddle with devising a system or learning complicated software? Experts are always telling us that to get a handle on our spending we must our record our expenses.