I‘ve created a new Excel zero-based budgeting spreadsheet that’s very similar to the original spreadsheet found here that’s been very popular. The main difference is that it now sports integration with a simple business budget. This allows you to get a more complete picture of your finances from month to month while keeping your personal and business budgets separate.
The business portion of the budget is not a zero-based budget but a more conventional one with the ability to indentify and predict multiple income types. To make things easier for you I recorded a screencast that takes you through the basics of how to use it.
It is not a fancy spreadsheet by any means. It is a simple and straightforward way to keep track of what you hope to achieve. I have found that despite all the fancy budgeting solutions available today I keep coming back to my tried and true Excel spreadsheets.
The hardware store window, a young boy and a bright red bike with chrome shining brightly in the sun.
Wide eyes stare and the boy wonders how he can possibly posses this marvelous “machine”.
A talk with the owner of the store and the boy has his solution. He becomes a very young employee, sweeping floors, hauling out garbage and doing any other odd job that is available.
It is with great joy and pride when he finally wheels that bike out of the shop…paid in full!
We have become a society of instant gratification. It is so easy to get “our wanna/gotta haves”. A drive to the mall, our credit card given to the salesperson and away we go with our purchases. What if we were to actually save for what we want? Is it possible to contemplate anticipation being half the fun? Maybe it is the idea of how badly we want something we absolutely need! Would it be worth brewing coffee at home instead of a morning and afternoon latte for a few weeks or even months? How about taking lunch from home instead of that deli purchase?
And on a more radical level, perhaps we don’t need so much stuff! Ok, that is just dumb right? What would we put into our storage units? There are always exception to any rule, but honestly, don’t most of us just have too many things?
I would like to suggest that we do a major scale down. Let’s build smaller homes, repair those items that break instead of replacing with new ones and spend our resources on the simple things in life. Parks are free as are walks on the beach (my personal favorite), our libraries contain a world of knowledge just waiting to be read, the list could go on and on.
And following the boy with the bike example, let’s encourage our stores to reinstate the layaway plan. There are a select few stores that have already decided to bring back this great idea. I appreciated this way of purchasing when my children were getting ready to go back to school. No interest rate to pay!
It is my belief that if we decide to “save up” for our purchases, follow the rule “Can we live 3 days without it?”, and look for simple ways to enjoy life, we will have a less stressful life and enjoy all that we have now.
So….
Don’t buy anything on credit if it can be helped.
Spend less money on things and enjoy what’s free and simple.
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