Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
Using the MMC Personal Budget Spreadsheet
Version: 22nd January 2015
Contents:
1.
Overview ........................................................................................................................ 1
2.
About the BUDGET sheet ............................................................................................... 2
3.
About the DEBT sheet .................................................................................................... 3
4.
About the SAVINGS sheet .............................................................................................. 4
About the BANK and ANNUAL PAYMENT ACCOUNT sheet ................................................... 4
5.
Setting your budget - use the BUDGET sheet ................................................................ 5
6.
Monitoring your budget:................................................................................................ 6
7.
Extending the budget: .................................................................................................... 6
1.
Overview
The spreadsheet is part of the Make Money Count course (www.makemoneycount.org.uk)
and is designed to help individuals and families to help manage their financial affairs.
The sheet assumes that there are 3 bank accounts:
-
-
Current account where all income comes in and monthly expenses are
paid from.
Savings account which has money transferred into it from the current
account.
Annual payments account which has money transferred from the current
account that is then used to pay for annual or infrequent bills.
The budget spreadsheet consists of 4 pages or tabs:
Budget - this is where you set up and monitor your budget.
Debt - this is where you record any outstanding debts and see how long it
will take to pay them off.
Savings - this is where details of any savings are held.
Bank and Annual Payment Account - this is where balances for your
main bank current account and savings for annual payments are kept.
These sheets and how they are used will now be covered in more detail.
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Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
2.
About the BUDGET sheet
The budget sheet has 4 sections that are shown as rows in the spreadsheet.
Income - this is where you enter all monies that you and your partner
receive each month. It is assumed that they are paid into your main
current bank account.
Monthly Direct Debits - this is where money leaves the main bank
account as a regular direct debit, e.g. mortgage payments, monthly gas
account, council tax, etc.
Monthly cash payments - this is where cash or a bank card is used to
pay for monthly living expenses that are not paid by Direct Debt such as
food, petrol, etc.
Amounts saved for annual bills - this is where money is saved to pay
for bills that either occur annually such as insurances, or infrequently such
as birthday presents or car breakdowns. It also includes savings for
'emergencies' - i.e. those things you can't predict in advance.
Debt repayments - this is where money is used to repay credit cards and
other types of loan
Savings - this is where money is put aside that has not been designated
elsewhere
If some of the expenditure items are in the wrong category - for example, an
insurance is paid monthly rather than annually, then move that row using 'cut'
and 'insert' options within the spreadsheet. You can also delete rows you don't
need as well as insert additional items.
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Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
3.
About the DEBT sheet
The DEBT sheet can be used to record all outstanding debts such as bank loans,
credit cards and hire purchases. The areas in yellow is where you can enter the
relevant information:
Debt name - simply type in the name of the debt - e.g. Nat West
Mastercard
APR% - enter the current APR amount from which interest is calculated.
This should be clearly shown on your loan/credit card statements.
Remember the spreadsheet needs the annual rate - not the monthly rate.
If you are unsure what this is, ask the person who has provided the loan.
Current balance - enter the amount that is currently owed and not what
the original loan amount
Amount repaid per month - enter the monthly amount you want to pay
or are contracted to pay.
From the above information, the spreadsheet will calculate the following for you
for each loan:
No. of months to pay off - i.e. how long it will take in months to pay off
the loan at the entered monthly payment rate
Interest paid - how much interest you will pay over that time
Total amount paid - i.e. how much you will pay back to the lender
You can use this sheet to play around with repayment amounts as well as to
determine how much something would cost depending on the APR rate and
monthly repayments you can afford.
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Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
4.
About the SAVINGS sheet
The SAVINGS sheet is used to display the amount of money accumulated in any
month. The row 'amount transferred in this month' is automatically populated
from the budgeted savings row. Should any savings be taken out then enter the
amount into the row 'Amount taken out this month' for the appropriate month.
Should the row 'amount bought forward this month' be wrong, simply type in the
correct balance for that month.
About the BANK and ANNUAL PAYMENT ACCOUNT sheet
The top part of the sheet is used to keep track of the amount of money in the
current bank account after all income, expenses, monthly direct debts, and
savings are taken out. The 'surplus/deficit' row is automatically updated from the
budget sheet.
The sheet also contains an area to keep track of amounts saved for annual
payments. It is assumed that these go into a separate account. The 'amount
transferred in this month' row is automatically updated from the budget sheet.
As with the bank account, should the row 'amount bought forward this month' be
wrong, simply type in the correct balance for that month.
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Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
5.
Setting your budget - use the BUDGET sheet
The areas for you to complete are marked in yellow; the total cells that are in
white will be automatically calculated for you.
Start planning your budget by entering figures for what you currently spend in
the CURRENT POSITION column. You should enter these as monthly amounts.
Where expenditure takes place annually or infrequently, divide the total amount
by 12 to give a monthly amount.
Once you have completed the current position, you should look through the
numbers and decide what amounts are to go into your budget. You may choose
to reduce or increase some of the amounts with the aim of making sure you don't
spend more than you receive.
As you enter each amount in the 'Planned Budget' column, the data will be
replicated across the months to the right. These can then be manually amended
if required.
When it comes to debt repayments, you can use the DEBT sheet to work out how
much to pay in order to reduce the amount of interest paid.
When the budget is complete, arrange to transfer the total savings and annual
payment amounts each month into the appropriate accounts. Some people also
draw out the monthly cash amount into pots that are then used throughout the
month.
When an annual or infrequent payment comes up, then pay it from the annual
bank account, or transfer the amount into the current account and pay it from
there.
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Using the MMC Budget Spreadsheet
6.
Monitoring your budget:
At the end of each month, enter the actual figures for each item into the
appropriate month in the 'Budget' sheet for direct debits, cash payments, debt
repayments and savings.
The opening bank balances for the current, savings and annual payments should
be checked and overwritten with what is actually in the those accounts. Also do
this for any debt balances.
Look ahead into future months and update any budget items that are not correct
or where you can make extra savings
Look at annual amounts and check that the budgeted amount is enough for the
next time this comes around.
7.
Extending the budget:
You can add to the number of periods in the budget by selecting all the cells in
the last column and then 'dragging' them into future columns. The system should
automatically copy the formula correctly.
You can add and insert rows into each category providing they are inserted after
the start and before the total of the category. This will then preserve the total
calculations.
The column titles for month and year can be adjusted to suit the month from
which the budget is to start.
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