{"id":16259,"date":"2025-11-28T10:26:45","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:26:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/simple-budget-template-excel\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T10:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T10:26:45","slug":"simple-budget-template-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/simple-budget-template-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Budget Template Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Let me tell you \u2014 I used to think budgeting meant color-coding 27 expense categories while sipping a $7 Starbucks latte (irony fully intended). Then reality hit: my first attempt at &quot;adulting&quot; involved forgetting to budget for car registration fees and eating ramen for a week. Here&#8217;s what <em>actually<\/em> worked after 4 years of trial, error, and a mildly dramatic spreadsheet breakup with Mint\u2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>The &quot;Oh Crap&quot; Moment<\/strong><br \/>\nYou know that sinking feeling when your bank account looks like a rollercoaster chart? Mine came in 2020 after impulse-buying a pandemic kayak (don\u2019t ask). I downloaded every app, but they felt like overbearing robot accountants. Then I opened Excel \u2014 the digital equivalent of a beat-up notebook \u2014 and started fresh.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What I Learned the Hard Way:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Templates with 50 tabs are traps<\/strong>. Mine looked like a NASA spreadsheet until I realized I only needed 3 columns: &quot;Money In,&quot; &quot;Money Out,&quot; and &quot;Oh Right, I Forgot That Bill&quot; (okay, maybe label that last one &quot;Miscellaneous&quot;).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Auto-sum is your BFF<\/strong>. If you can type &quot;=SUM(B2:B10)&quot; without crying, you\u2019re golden. I still use it to track my Dunkin\u2019 runs vs. grocery spending.<\/li>\n<li><strong>&quot;Fun Money&quot; isn\u2019t optional<\/strong>. Without a $50 &quot;Target impulse buys&quot; buffer? You\u2019ll resent your budget by Week 2. Trust me \u2014 I once rage-quit over withholding a $4 clearance succulent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>My Dirt-Simple Setup<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Income Section<\/strong>: Just your paychecks + side hustle cash (RIP my 3-month Etsy sticker shop phase)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fixed Expenses<\/strong>: Rent, car payment, student loans \u2014 the soul-crushing stuff<\/li>\n<li><strong>Variables<\/strong>: Gas, groceries, and a &quot;Life Happens&quot; fund for vet bills\/Amazon Prime Day emergencies<\/li>\n<li><strong>Savings Goal Row<\/strong>: Mine currently says &quot;Taylor Swift Tickets or Retirement? (TBD)&quot;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Pro Tip<\/strong>: Highlight overspending in red. Nothing humbles you faster than seeing &quot;TAKEOUT&quot; glowing like a warning sign after a long workday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Real Game-Changer<\/strong><br \/>\nI stopped tracking every penny after 6 pm. Why? Because analyzing my Hulu subscription at midnight leads to existential crises. Now, I update my sheet every Sunday with coffee in hand \u2014 bonus points if you use the &quot;Comic Sans&quot; font for petty revenge against financial guilt.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Want My Template?<\/strong><br \/>\nGrab it [here], but hack it like a thrift store jacket. Delete the cringe-worthy &quot;Avocado Toast Audit&quot; tab I made in 2021. Add emojis, merge cells chaotically, make it yours. Budgeting shouldn\u2019t feel like filing taxes \u2014 it\u2019s just you and Excel, figuring it out one Target receipt at a time.<\/p>\n<p>(P.S. If you accidentally budget $0 for &quot;coffee&quot; like I did last February\u2026 just pretend you\u2019re doing a caffeine detox. We\u2019ve all been there.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let me tell you \u2014 I used to think budgeting meant color-coding 27 expense categories while sipping a $7 Starbucks latte (irony fully intended). Then reality hit: my first attempt at &quot;adulting&quot; involved forgetting to budget for car registration fees and eating ramen for a week. Here&#8217;s what actually worked after 4 years of trial,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-content"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oreateai.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}