Works For Me Wednesday – Savings Spreadsheet

My husband and I took a Financial Peace University class this spring at our church. We do fairly well with managing our money, but were hoping to get some additional tips to improve even more. After hearing all of Dave Ramsey’s tips for money management, we modified some of his principles to work for our family. One way was to set up a savings spreadsheet. Here is an example of ours, with modified numbers.

I have it set up by month and fund. The first two funds are:

  • emergency fund ($1000)
  • 3-6 months of living expenses (not there yet)

We also put money in our savings every month for infrequent expenses:

  • insurance
  • car tags
  • homeowners dues
  • auto repair/maintenance
  • clothing
  • gifts
  • home improvements
  • school tuition/expenses
  • vacation

Additional funds are added as we feel they are needed. We put money into our savings every paycheck for the second emergency fund (3-6 months) and our infrequent expenses and specific items we are saving for (a new computer or a vacation). When a bill is due or we have made a purchase from one of the infrequent purchase categories, we know the money is there. The money is then deducted from whatever the specific category is. For instance, we recently had an unexpected car repair and we were able to use the money in our emergency fund to pay for it.

This is still a work in progress for our family and we hope for it to improve over time. We have only been using this for about 6 months, but have already seen an improvement in how our money is managed.

Go read more Works For Me Wednesday tips at Rocks in My Dryer.

Tags: , ,

September 6, 2006 | Filed Under Finances, Works For Me Wednesday 

Comments

9 Responses to “Works For Me Wednesday – Savings Spreadsheet”

  1. Lindsey on September 6th, 2006 12:23 pm

    Thanks for the great list! I’m working on my personal finances pretty actively at the moment, so these are some great categories for dealing with my savings!!!

  2. Kel on September 6th, 2006 12:50 pm

    We just started the Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I like the spreadsheet.

  3. Homeschool Mama on September 6th, 2006 1:55 pm

    Before we moved (who am I kidding-over a year before we moved) I bought the kit to take the Financial Peace class at church and never did.
    I still have and and you’ve inspired me to pull it out and listen to the CDs. Maybe hubby and I will work nightly on the series.
    Thanks!!!

  4. MamaDuck on September 6th, 2006 2:01 pm

    Great idea! Happy Wednesday – our tip is up as well!

  5. Laurel Wreath on September 6th, 2006 3:44 pm

    I love Dave Ramsey. Great tip.

  6. Kaci on September 6th, 2006 4:40 pm

    So do you put all the funds in one account & simply split them in “theory,” or do you have actual separate accounts for each?

  7. Overwhelmed! on September 6th, 2006 4:48 pm

    Wow! I’m so impressed with how organized and focused you are. Good for you! Thanks for sharing your method.

    I’ve posted a WFMW baptism gift tip. Stop by and take a peek. :)

  8. Welcome to Parenthood on September 6th, 2006 5:53 pm

    I have one savings account at our bank and use the spreadsheet as a tool to keep track of what money is in which fund. For instance, $2000 in our savings account. On the spreadsheet, I put $1000 in emergency fund, $500 in clothing, $500 in insurance. Hope this helps.

  9. Leah Soltis on March 20th, 2008 3:16 pm

    I was looking for a savings spreadsheet online and stumbled upon your awesome website! We are about halfway through FPU and it has truly changed our lives! I was wondering if there is somewhere on this site where I can download your spreadsheet? I don’t have a lot of experience with Excel and can’t figure out how to make one work! Thanks!

Got something to say?