Fight Interest

Now we put it all together. By now you have a good idea of how you spend money from Part 1 and you’ve organized your expenses into a month with Part 2. Now you can plan the next four months. Why four months? First, it is easier to plan four months than a full year. Second, we expect to see improvement and with a bite-sized plan we can continue to push for each period to be better than the last. Finally, four months prints out nicely on a single page.

I have created this Budget Spreadsheet for you. Don’t have Microsoft Excel? Download OpenOffice, it’s free. On the spreadsheet, I’ve included an example budget.  You can see where I’ve kept it up-to-date with the actual expenses.  You should also see how I can understand where I am overspending.  This is valuable data for us to consider as we go forward.

I encourage you to ask me any questions you may have about the spreadsheet in the comments below.  I’ll be sure to respond to all of them.