There are budget templates available for a variety of uses, covering budgets for your household, wedding, business, events, and college. A family budgeting template can track monthly income, expenses, and cash flow and present the information visually. Alternatively, you can use a household budget template in Excel. Good budget planning involves knowing and managing your cash flow so you know your spending limits and you can budget on basic necessities like food, shelter, and transportation instead of spending it on gadgets that depreciate in value over time. Use our budget planner template to help manage your costs and income. Free Monthly Budget Planner.
If you find yourself in debt, you need to put together a budget and debt management plan. This will help you get more control over your finances.
As you are working through getting your finances under control, all the people you speak to – financial counsellors, advisers, banks, creditors and agencies – will need to know details about your income and expenses so they can help. So choose your own way to do it, but make sure you have something in writing that represents your current financial situation.
The Budget Planner below can help you work out your income and expenses. Use it as a checklist to make sure you don’t overlook any expenses.
Home inventory 3 2 1 – easily inventory your possessions. You can access and work with the calculator in a number of ways:
- Online & Printable Budget Planner Work out a budget right now in your web browser.
- Excel Budget Planner Complete your budget with an excel spreadsheet. This requires Microsoft ExcelUse this budget planner
This budget planner is provided by the MoneySmart website developed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC is the consumer protection regulator for financial services.
If you need further help working out your expenses and income you may benefit from speaking with a MoneyHelp financial counsellor.
The MoneySmart website has other calculators that you might find useful in working out your current financial situation. These include:
Why prepare a budget?
Having a budget that details your income and expenditure will help you to maintain control of your finances and, if necessary, help to illustrate the problems you may be having with your creditors. It’s true that your debt problems won’t be solved by the fact that you have a budget alone. But beginning with this basic information about the reality of your current situation is essential.
When assessing how much time you have before your cash reserves run out, assume you’ll have no income for the first few weeks.
If you have lost your job and have very little cash on hand and didn’t receive a redundancy or termination payment you may need to get emergency relief immediately to ensure you have some cash for basics like food and shelter.
It is also important to contact Centrelink to find out if you are entitled to any Government assistance.
In preparing a budget you should consider any benefits you may be eligible to claim such as:
- Net medical expenss tax offset – this is being phased out for most, but not all, taxpayers See ATO website for details.
Debt management plan
Free Budget Planner Online
Your budget will assist you to prepare a debt management plan. A debt management plan allows you to work out how much money is left after you pay your highest priority debts each fortnight or month. You will then be in a position to determine how to allocate the money and make affordable payments off your lower priority debts.
Even preparing a simple debt management plan using figures from your budget will give you a better idea of whether you are able to handle your debt situation.
More information about preparing a debt management plan.
Chase Budget Planner Online
You can ask a MoneyHelp financial counsellor to help you prepare your debt management plan.
You can also pay for professional help to prepare a debt management plan.
Review your budget regularly
Free Monthly Budget Planner Printable
It’s important you review your budget plan regularly. This will help you make sure you’re sticking to your debt recovery plan and enable you to identify when your budget is no longer meeting your needs.
Events such as a change in your income or accommodation arrangements, a new addition to the family or consolidating your loans all impact on your finances. Your budget will need to change in order to accommodate them.