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In this post, I walk-through a budget tracking layout. Every year, since 2015, I’ve been making my own planners by hand. The biggest reason is because I could never find a planner that embodied everything I needed and wanted for the year.
In the beginning, my custom planners were inspired by and adapted from the Bullet Journal Method. If you love planners and pens and you haven’t gone down the Bullet Journal rabbit hole yet I highly recommend it! There are so many amazing people out there creating these amazing bullet journals every year.
Over the years, my planner has evolved into a flexible structure that I found incredibly supportive. I won’t lie, it’s super practical and NOT artist, but it’s helped me get shit done.
This is the 11th post in a series of videos in which I walk through how I create “the bones” or layout for each section of my custom, hand drawn planner. In the last video of this series, I will do a complete walk-through of the entire planner and talk a little more about how I use and adapt each section. If you create your own planners too, please feel free to cherry pick, adapt or improve upon my basic structure.
Note: I do use a XL Moleskine Classic Squared / Grid notebook (paid link) soft-cover (7.5” x 9.5”) for my planners. It is important to mention this because I have a system of counting dots or squares to make sure things turn out how I want them. If you were to follow along with a different kind of notebook your results may not be exactly the same or you may need to adjust.
In the video above, I show how I create my Budget Tracker Layout for my planner.
How I use this tracker
- Each section is dated for each paycheck that is received including the amount of the paycheck (or estimated).
- Expenses are plotted out and organized by pay date.
- This allows me to make sure a bill is paid by its due date (I am not caught off guard in lining up billing due dates with pay dates)
- Once bills are plotted and organized, I subtract the total expenses from the estimated income amount for each paycheck date. If there is a deficit or an imbalance in left over funds – I use this opportunity to adjust or move payments as needed.
- Once I know how much is left over after bills are accounted for, this allows me to decide where the rest of the money will go (e.g., groceries, savings for goals, debt, other expenses)
- I typically plan out my bill payment at least 3 months out
Other videos in this series
- CYOP Video 1 – Reflection & Inspiration Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 2 – Vision & Goal Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 3 – Year at Glance View – Link
- CYOP Video 4 – Future Log Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 5 – Quarterly Planning Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 6 – Monthly Goal Setting Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 7 – Monthly Calendar View – Link
- CYOP Video 8 – Mid-Year Review Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 9 – Another Future Log Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 10 – End of Year Reflection Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 11 – Budget Tracker Layout – This post
- CYOP Video 12 – Travel Log Layout – Link
- CYOP Video 13 – Complete Planner Walk-through – Link
In this video I am using the following items
- XL Moleskine Notebook (squared/grid) 7.5 x 9.5
- Morefone Calligraphy Pens (No bleed)
- Zebra M301 7mm Mechanical Pencil
- Phone Ring Light Overhead Mount
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