The most helpful, easy to use printable budget planner available today. Keeping a budgeting binder is what helped us finally become debt free! We love to look back at our old ones and see the progress we’ve made over the years.
We’ve been budgeting for a long time (twenty years!) and now we’ve created a brand newprintable budget planner for you that we think is the most helpful, easy to use budgeting planner available today. It’s literally changed our life!
It provides you with the tools you need to succeed at paying off debt and becoming financially free — and the budgeting principles that helped us get to what Dave Ramsey calls “baby step 7.”
When we first began budgeting, pretty budgeting printables like these weren’t available. Instead, we used plain spiral notebooks and an old workbook that our financial coaches gave to us.
Now, we continue to manage our money using several of the worksheets in this printable budget planner “toolkit” we created. We’ve simplified the system through the years, and now we teach other families how to use it, too.
This system has worked for us through hard times and good times, through the recession and job losses, and through our current debt free journey. It really works!
Related: We’re Debt Free! Our Story Of How We Paid Off Our House
Unlike some other budget planners, we designed this one to be surprisingly simple to begin using, but also beautiful. We don’t want it to feel overwhelming to you as you began your debt free journey. We want it to be inspiring and actually help you WIN with money!
Table of Contents
What is a printable budget planner?
Great question! A printable budget planner makes creating a personal household budget as simple as possible.
Since it’s printable, you can print the budget worksheets you use as often as you want. You don’t need to print the pages that you don’t use. You’re in complete control!
Once you’ve printed the budgeting worksheets you want to use, you can begin using them to create a budget planner that’s personalized and just for you.
What are the benefits of using a printable budget planner?
Using a printable budget planner has many benefits, such as helping you set (and reach!) your financial goals, track your spending, measure your monthly progress, and pay off your debt.
One of the biggest benefits is that you won’t feel as much money stress, because you’ll have a plan for your money and know how to work it.
Since it’s printable, you can just print the pages YOU need, and you won’t have to feel overwhelmed with a bunch of pages you won’t use. It’s truly customizable for where you are in your financial journey!
What supplies do you need after buying the printable budget planner?
We printed our pages and then used a three-hole punch to insert them into a 1″ binder. We bought ours at Target, but Amazon has some good quality binders, too. I like this one.
Of course, it’s always fun to have an assortment of colorful markers, pens, and highlighters available to use, too. This assortment of Prismacolor markers is top notch!
What’s included in the printable budget planner?
These are the pages/worksheets included in your purchase:
- Cover page
- Monthly budget worksheet
- Income allocation worksheet
- Irregular expenses tracker
- List of debts tracker
- Checkbook register
- Budget category register
- Spending journal pages
- Snowball calculator worksheet
- Net worth worksheet
- Personal savings rate worksheet
- Cash envelope template
- Banking sheets
- Weekly meal planner
How to assemble the printable budget planner
After your purchase, go through and look at all the pages. Find the ones you want to use. You don’t have to use all the pages! They’re just there in case you need them at some point.
If you have a printer at home, great! Send those pages to your home printer. Some of the pages you might want to make more than one copy — like the cash envelopes, or the category registers if you’re using them.
If you don’t have access to a printer at home, you can still contact a local print shop. For example, our local print shop will let us email them the file, and then they’ll print it for us. We simply go and pick it up.
If you want to conserve ink, or pay less at your local print shop, then you can also print in black-and-white instead of full color. It’s up to you!
How do you use the printable budget planner?
Here are instructions for using each page in the budgeting binder:
1. Cover page
Simply place it in the front cover area of your three ring binder.
2. Monthly budget planner worksheet
The monthly budget planner printable is one of our favorite pages in the toolkit. This is where you write out what you think your budget should be for the upcoming month, based on past spending.
Basically, you write down your monthly take home pay, then subtract your category totals (like giving, housing, food, etc). Anything left at the end of the month goes to your debt snowball or increasing your savings.
3. Income allocation worksheet
Write out how much income should be allocated to each budget category every month, then how much from each income source / paycheck is being allocated to each budget category.
4. Irregular expenses tracker
Use this to calculate how much to put away each month for your irregular expenses (ones that don’t come every month). For example, maybe you’d like to plan for a family vacation, and you estimate that you’ll need to save $1200 over the course of a year. Take the $1200 and divide it by 12 months in the year, and you’ll see that you need to save $100 every month to reach your goal.
The same math applies to other irregular expenses, such as auto insurance that you might pay every six months, kids’ clothing purchases that happen during the back-to-school season, etc.
5. List of debts tracker
Record your debts, payoff amounts, how many payments you have left, and more.
6. Checkbook register
This works like the checkbook register that arrives with a new order of checks, but you should use it to track EVERYTHING coming in and out of your checking account, whether you’ve paid by check, debit card, or cash. You should be able to glance at your register and know exactly what’s been happening in your account and where your money is coming from and going to.
7. Budget category register
This is where you can super detailed and track spending by each budget category. For example, one category in your budget is housing, so at the top of one of your Category Register pages you’d write “Housing” on the account category line. If you really want to drill down, create a page for each sub-category; so Housing would have multiple pages, one for mortgage/rent, another for homeowner’s/renter’s insurance, another for property taxes (if you pay them apart from your mortgage payment), one for utilities, and so on.
8. Spending journal pages
These work best if you print them right away and keep them with you, either in your purse or car. You’ll want to write down EVERYTHING you spend for the first few weeks of your new budget, even the $1 sweet tea you grab at the drive thru! Doing this will help reveal any holes in your budget and help you get a better grasp on your spending habits.
9. Snowball calculator worksheet
Use this worksheet to track each individual debt, how much you’re paying to each one, and how much extra you can pay. Typically, I think it’s best to follow Dave Ramsey’s advice and pay them off smallest to largest. So, if you have three credit card debts, and they are $500, $825, and $1500, then I’d make minimum payments on the $825 and $1500 balances but snowball all my extra money to the card with the $500 balance.
10. Net worth worksheet
This will help you get a picture of your net worth. Take all your assets (equity in your house, cash in your savings accounts, investments you own, etc) and then subtract all your liabilities (car loans, credit card debt, student loans, etc). The remaining balance is your net worth.
If your net worth is a negative number, don’t worry. You’re just starting out, and now you’re coming up with a plan for success! You’ve got this! Just stick to a workable budget.
11. Personal savings rate worksheet
I love this worksheet! It’s a new one for me this year. Use this to track how much of your income is going to pay off debt and/or going to savings.
As you get better at budgeting and being smart with your money, you’ll see this number change and it’s really inspiring to look back and see how your savings rate has come. It means you’re not spending as much money, and now you’re using your money to increase your net worth. It basically measures how much disposable income you have vs how much you are saving for the future you.
12. Cash envelope template
Print as many of these as you like and use them for your cash spending. They hold together well if you use clear packing tape on the seams.
Personally, I use these for three budget categories: groceries, eating out, and what I call my “pocket money.” Once the money is gone from each envelope, it doesn’t get refilled until the next pay period.
Use them for whatever budget categories you tend to overspend on — they are great for keeping you accountable!
13. Banking sheets
When you withdraw the money to put into your cash envelopes, you may prefer them in certain denominations so they’re easier to divvy up between envelopes. Use these pretty banking slips to do that!
14. Weekly meal planner
One of the budget categories you have the most control over is your food budget. Having a meal plan for each week is key! Use this weekly meal planner printable to plan your meals and grocery list for each week.
Is the printable budget planner PDF format?
Yes! This makes it easy for you to print out and use in a three ring binder.
How do you print the printable budget planner worksheets?
You can send it to your home printer, or email it to a local print shop so they can print it for you. Print as many (or as few!) of the sheets as you like — it’s up to you! Customize it to work for your family.
Where can I get my copy of the printable budget planner?
Get your copy at my Bubbling Brook Shop — simply add it to your cart and then you can easily pay via PayPal. If you don’t have PayPal, you can still quickly and easily pay with a debit card or any VISA card through the PayPal interface.
You can get your money under control and have your own debt free story to share. Grab your printable budget planner today! I can’t wait to hear your success story soon.
You’ve got this, friend. I’m happy to help!
Much love to you,
>> Click here to get your copy of our Printable Budget Planner <<
