Llama and Lamb

Money is one of the greatest causes (more specifically greatest symptom) for divorce. At the pre-marital counseling with our pastor, he asked my fiance and I to create a monthly budget. I recommend that you have a budget and revise that budget annually. I’ve created a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet that you can use to “run the numbers.” If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Download the Free Household Budget Spreadsheet Template (Excel 2000, .xls)

I have tried to differentiate expenses that could be paid on a credit card and expenses that can generally only be paid from a checking account. I receive a few hundred dollars worth of credit card rebates annually and thus try to pay with credit as much as possible. If you already have major credit card debt, it may be best to stop buying on credit and use an envelope system. There are five columns on the budget worksheet:

• Weekly
• Bi-Weekly
• Monthly
• Six Months
• Annual

The numbers in black are all the numbers derived from the numbers in red; so only change numbers in red. Behind the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìBudget?¢‚Ǩ¬ù worksheet is the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìSalary?¢‚Ǩ¬ù worksheet that computes taxes and net pay. You will need to place the Net Bi-Weekly field on the Salary worksheet into the Budget worksheet to compute the budget. I did not leave this to automation, since you can get your net pay straight from your paycheck.

Errata on debt:

• There are no easy, painless ways to get out of debt. As Dave Ramsey (free podcast) says, “act your wage.” Lower your consumption.
• Interest rates probably don’t matter if you are planning on paying your debt off in under a few years.
• Getting out of debt is usually more about self-discipline and behavioral modification and less about crunching the numbers. Sticking to a budget will help you stay out of debt.
• Don’t borrow in order to pay off the first debt. This only switches the burden to a later time and adds finance charges. Banks always make money on refinancing–you alleviate in the short term and pay more in the long term.
• Don’t cash out your retirement if there are penalties associated with it.

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