Mrs Mo: Budget friendly in-training

For over a year now, Rob and I have been talking and talking that we need to tighten up and watch our spending. That effort would last a few days and then we'd get back into our habit of: "Oh do you want to grab some ice cream? Do you want Chinese tonight?" And then the whole theory of budgeting would be out the window.

Well, last week we hit the wall, mostly because of one of my high credit card bills (mostly full of food, gas, and assorted bills). That night, when we should have been cuddling up in our warm cozy bed, both of us got down to business planning out exactly how much we could spend a week. That meant, no more spontaneous trips to Wawa or Wegmans. No more weekly ice cream trips to visit Daddy in Cranbury (not that I need the calories, but it was fun family time). It is business now...for real this time....really.

For a few days, we kept record of our expenses by the paper/pen method. But, I channeled my former Computer Teacher self and put together a Weekly Expenses Spreadsheet, with SUM formula and all. And I KNOW that I'm not the only one who needs it, so it's available below to download into Excel.

The beauty of the SUM formula, is that as you type in expenses for Monday, for example, the total for the day will update automatically. And I've set up the SUM formula to find the total for the week per expense item. So, if you purchased groceries on Monday and then had to pick up a few more items on Wednesday, you will see the total grocery expenses for your week at the right.

You'll also notice enough weekly blocks pasted one 1 spreadsheet to cover a month. Simply fill in the "Week of" slot with the date.

I've also set it up so there is 1 worksheet per person. Since there are just 2 of us involved, you'll see 2 Sheets with our names labeled. To format the Sheet for you, simply double-click on our names and type yours. Very simple!

Of course, you can always email me if you have any questions (or find me on Twitter).

And for kicks, I threw in the Weekly Chores Chart for you to plan out what task you'll complete on a given day (i.e. Monday=clean the kitchen, Tuesday=laundry and dusting, etc)

Weekly Expenses Worksheet (.xls)
Weekly Chores Chart (pdf)