![]() Investments and savings are easy to tally up, but you need to go through your fixed costs and guilt-free spending categories to see whether you’re overspending. When you can pinpoint what belongs where, you’ll quickly start to understand where the gaps in your financial plan are.įor instance, if you’re spending $500 per month on guilt-free items and nothing on savings or investments, is it really guilt-free spending? Or, if you have a fixed costs bill of $5,000, but your net income is $5,000, you might have a lifestyle you can’t afford. ![]() Now, you’re going to see me talk about these four categories a lot because all your expenses are contained in these categories. It’s time to sit down and categorize your spending into four buckets. When there is simply too much a month for your paycheck, there’s a good chance you’re not aware of what your lifestyle actually costs. You know your money matters are out of whack when it feels like you’re starring in Macklemore’s Thrift Shop music video. This is going to be the foundation of your Conscious Spending Plan. I’m going to help you redirect it to the places you choose, like investing, saving, and even spending more on the things you love (but less on the things you don’t). Instead, we’re going to create a new, simple way of spending. Who wants to track their spending? The few people who actually try it find that their budgets completely fail after two days because tracking every penny is overwhelming. The main issue with it is simple: Human willpower. This is unconscious spending (aka spreadsheet budgeting). How often do you feel guilty about buying something but do it anyway? How many times have you opened your bills, winced, then shrugged and said, I guess I spent that much? That might have worked for them, but it doesn’t work now. "And I got to talking to you, I realized that it definitely changed my life, so I don't know why that wouldn't extend to other people.When people think budgeting, images of their parents studiously going over receipts, writing down expenses in a notebook, and screaming, “WHY DID WE SPEND SO MUCH ON GAS LAST WEEK?” come to mind. "I don't think I ever really thought that something as stupid as an Excel spreadsheet could change anyone's life," Celes said. People have reached out to say it helped them get out of credit-card debt, save for a house, and cultivate a healthier mindset around money. Others who found the spreadsheet through Reddit have also made financial strides. Her credit score has also improved and her spending anxiety has lessened, she said. And honestly, that to me is the most meaningful thing." "That kind of security and that feeling of safety is something that I had never had up until this point. "We recently had some emergencies come up and I was able to comfortably afford everything without fearing that suddenly I would be left with nothing," Celes said. Over the last four years, she built a $10,000 savings cushion. "I realized that I wanted the savings to be kind of like an expense, so I added it in a weird way so it would almost hide my savings from me. The spreadsheet includes a separate tab for factoring in big-ticket items. At the very top of the spreadsheet: how much you have left to spend for the day, week, or month. There are separate calculators for big-ticket purchases and regular savings, plus a goal tracker to log savings progress and setbacks. Savings takes center stage in the current budget template, which Celes shared on the r/personalfinance Reddit channel, a community with 14.6 million members, in May. "I kind of realized that I needed to be more responsible with how I was working on the spreadsheet and adding things to it and making sure to kind of keep that initial goal of keeping it simple, but also taking the time to help teach people responsible financial practices." A better budget led to more savings and less anxiety "One of the things that I really wanted to focus on when I was making it was it for someone who didn't know anything about money," she said. There wasn't a section in the budget for credit-card payments or savings for big purchases, but as Celes expanded her financial knowledge, she enhanced the spreadsheet, too. She shared the first iteration of her spreadsheet on Reddit three years ago. ![]() There's a daily "spendable" amount at the top of the budget that's customizable. ![]()
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