If you are ready to CRUSH your financial goals in 2024, then this is the free printable budget planner for you!
Today I’m sharing the 67-page budget planner I use to track everything money-related.
Let’s be real.
Managing your finances can be complicated and to be honest, not really a fun activity to have to do. But it’s crucial to achieving the freedom you need to live your life to the fullest.
It’s fairly common to put budget planning on the back burner, but it ultimately leads to feeling concerned or anxious about your current financial well-being. I definitely can relate to having experienced this feeling in my own life.
In the midst of my money woes, I became absolutely infatuated with money management. Sure, my financial situation at the time wasn’t dire, but I am the type of person who equates finances with security. Of course, money isn’t everything but it does allow for different opportunities. I’m a creative individual by nature so having extra money in my bank account gives me more freedom to pursue different hobbies and interests.
As I spiraled deep into the financial self-help world last year, I spent most of my free time reading books and listening to podcasts about money. At one point, my friends & fam started complaining about coming over to my place because I would constantly have the Dave Ramsey show playing in the background.
I started using budget planners but found many of them either too confusing or too simple but all of them had one thing in common: they were freakin’ ugly. So I designed a planner to my own liking. Something simple, smart, & minimal. But still tracked every penny going towards my debts, expenses, and savings accounts.
Flash forward to one year later & my planner has helped me accomplish the following:
- track every single daily and monthly expense
- optimized my spending – I reduced my overspending habit (this was major)
- save 70% of my annual income
- I stopped living paycheck-to-paycheck
- PAY OFF ALL OF MY DEBT 😳🤯😮
- spent less time worrying about money and more time enjoying my life.
THE BEST PART IS: you don’t have to be a financial specialist to manage a budget 😎
Why should I track my spending?
Do you spend more than you earn?
The ability to manage your cash flow and track your income and expense is vital. In the world of consumerism, it’s easy to spend a few bucks here and there to suddenly find out that you exceeded your daily, weekly or monthly budget. If you’re eating up your savings or building up debts, you’re likely to be overspending. Yet before you can address this, it’s important to get an accurate idea of the size and scale of the problem.
What can I afford to spend?
Once you know where you’re spending, you can start to alter and prioritize what you do with your money to enable you to stick within your means. Keeping track of your finances can play an important role in the pace you improve your savings account balance and save money for your dream vacation, house or car.
How do I start a budget planner?
Follow the steps below as you set up your personalized budget:
- Make a list of your values. Write down what matters to you and then put your values in order.
- Write down your goals. Think about what you want to accomplish financially in the next three months, the next year, and the next three years.
- Determine your income. Figure your available income (the amount of your take-home, or net, pay). Do not include overtime pay, because you shouldn’t rely on that as regular income.
- Determine your expenses. Where is your money really going? Don’t be tempted to guess or estimate. The success of a budget relies on accurate incomings and outgoings and the only way you can be 100% sure is by getting all your statements and bills in front of you. Also, while getting an idea of monthly spending is great, I recommend at least three months’ worth of bills and receipts so you can keep track of all your quarterly expenses. “Fixed expenses,” such as rent, auto, or student loan payments, are easy to determine. “Flexible expenses,” such as food, clothing, and entertainment, vary from month to month.
- Create your budget. Think of your budget as a “spending plan,” a way to be aware of how much money you have, where it needs to go, and how much, if any, is left over. Your budget should meet your “needs” first, then the “wants” that you can afford. Your expenses should be less than or equal to your total income. If your income is not enough to cover your expenses, adjust your budget (and your spending!) by deciding which expenses can be reduced.
- Check back periodically. Make sure to review your budget regularly. Does the plan still meet your needs and help you achieve your goals? If not, make some adjustments or create a new budget that better meets your needs.
Inside the planner:
Today I’m sharing the planner that helped me take back control over my money and get my life back on track.
My Budget Planner PDF is a free printable that is based on rock-solid budgeting theory, accurately mapping your incomings and outgoings over a year, then helping assess whether it balances.
Pages included:
- Cover
- Index
- Yearly Overview
- Bill Payment Tracker
- Savings Overview
- Savings Progress
- No Spend Challenge Worksheet
- Debt Overview
- Debt Payment Tracker
- Debt Snowball Tracker
- Monthly Calendar
- Monthly Budget
- Paycheck Budget
- Monthly Transactions
- Weekly Budget
- Credit Score Tracker
- Net Worth Worksheet
- 52-week Savings challenge
- Online Order Tracker
- Investment Tracker
- Tax Deduction Log
- Sinking Funds
- Variety of Notes Pages
Here’s your free budget planner printable
The Budget Planner comes as an INSTANT DIGITAL DOWNLOADABLE PDF FILE.
Use it with any application that allows you to write on PDFs or just print it out if that’s your thing.
The PDF file will open in a new window by clicking the DOWNLOAD button below
Please feel free to use this planner any way you’d like and if you could be so kind, leave a comment below on your experience using my planner.
Much love,
Joanna