{In this post, we’ll walk you through how to use the Budget Blueprints Budget Planner to mindfully manage your money, set financial goals, and keep track of your financial life.}
Over the many years of working one-on-one with clients to craft new budget routines, I am no stranger to the many different money management tools out there. In fact, most people utilize a hodgepodge of tools to budget, monitor their spending, and track goals. I was no different. However, after a few years, I found myself wondering if there was a tool that could encompass ALL of my favorite created and curated money management tools. After searching for what seemed to be a budgeting unicorn, I decided to take matters into my own hands by creating my own budget planner! Thus, the Budget Blueprints Budget Planner was born.
The Budget Blueprints Budget Planner is designed to help you take control of your money in an intentional way that is simple and sustainable. Whether you’re new to budgeting or looking for a better way to manage your finances, this planner is a great resource to help you stay on track and achieve financial goals.
What is the Budget Blueprints Budget Planner?
The Budget Blueprints Budget Planner is a tool designed to help you intentionally organize your finances, track your spending, and create a sustainable budget that is centered around your goals. Paired with mindfulness prompts along the way, the budget planner encourages YOU to be the focus in your money management system, which helps you stick to your budget long-term as you integrate it seamlessly into your life.
The planner provides a comprehensive look at multiple areas of your personal finances. As such, the planner is designed to start broadly with overarching financial goals, then narrow your focus with monthly budget planning and weekly expense tracking.
Are you ready to get started?! Use this post as a guide to help you make the most of your Budget Blueprints Budget Planner!
Getting Started: Download Your Budget Planner
The first step is to download your budget planner, which you can then print or utilize digitally on a tablet. (It works great with the Goodnotes app!) Whether you use the digital version or decide to put pen to paper, this is where your budgeting journey begins! Once you have your budget planner in hand, you’re ready to dive into the how-to sections below!
Tip: I like to print my budget planner out at home, then head over to Staples to have it spiral bound for under $10!
Section 1: Outline Financial Goals
Mindfulness starts on page one (well, technically page six) of this planner. When you first dig in, you’ll start by visualizing and outlining your financial goals, the foundation of any money management system. When we have clearly defined financial goals, we can more effectively align our income and expenses toward achieving those goals.
How to Set Goals in the Budget Planner
Goals help you broadly prioritize what is important throughout the year, before you get into the fine details of managing day-to-day expenses. To get started, take a moment to brainstorm both short- and long-term goals.
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- Short-term goals are typically achieved in less than one year and are smaller items such as saving for an upcoming trip or paying off a small credit card balance.
- Long-term goals are larger targets that take more time to achieve, like savings for a down payment or paying off student loans.
Start by spending spend 10–15 minutes thinking about where you want to be, write down whatever comes to mind, then hone in on what could become short-term goals and long-term goals. Once you’ve brainstormed a few goals, utilize the Annual Goal Planner to work through your goals for this year, and determine why they are important. Then, break down your goals to small, actionable steps you can take each month with the Monthly Money Moves worksheet.
Tip for Monthly Money Moves: Try thinking outside the box! Could you take a No Spend Challenge in May? Walk to work on Wednesdays in August? These moves are fun and can help you make even more progress toward your goal.
Tracking and Logging Goals in the Budget Planner
The budget planner also makes it easy {and fun!} to track your savings. Use the visual savings tracker to color in your progress toward achieving a savings goal or paying down debt. And because coloring doesn’t show the actual dollars saved or paid off, there’s a spot to log your specific contributions as well. 😉
Finally, the Debt and Savings Snapshot helps you visualize your progress as the year goes on. Record your total saved and amount paid off each month.
Section 2: Income and Expense Planning
Next, it’s time to get organized! You’ll start by looking at your expenses throughout the year, then taking note of your financial account login information.
Organize Your Bills
The Irregular Spending, Annual Bill, and Subscription Trackers tackle all of those “out of sight, out of mind” expenses. These are expenses that are present throughout the year but may not be regularly occurring or are easy-to-miss automatic payments. Don’t forget to revisit any monthly amounts and incorporate them into your budget when you outline your monthly spending plan in Section 3!
Organize Your Cash Flow
Ever wanted to take a look back over your year to see exactly how much income you made and what you spent it on? The Cash Flow Snapshot does just that! Record your monthly cash inflow and outflow totals on this page.
Organize Your Accounts
“What’s my login to my electric company bill portal?” Never utter those words again! Organize your account login credentials with the Accounts Organizer.
Tip: Throwing this reminder in here because protecting your financial data is important! Set. Strong. Passwords. Do not use the same login for each account, especially bank accounts. I love the password sandwich method to create strong and unique passwords!
Section 3: Monthly Budgets
Now, let’s zoom in a little further and plan your spending each month using the Monthly Budget pages. This section has multiple page components per month to help you intentionally organize your bills, plan your budget, track expenses, and monitor progress along the way. In the following 12 months, you will repeat the below steps each month.
Note: I know it seems like a lot of steps, but I promise that the more you do it, the more automatic it will become! Eventually you will be able to easily clone most of the previous month’s information in steps 2 and 3 with each new month!
Step 1: Plan Your Month
Money mindfulness starts here! Starting with a positive outlook of our financial life before diving into the details, take a moment to note what you are grateful for from the past month. Next, brainstorm and anticipate any “needs” and “wants” that might arise this month. This helps you avoid any surprise budget-busters! A “need” could be an annual vet appointment cost, and a “want” could be a fun family outing. Neither of those may be a “regular” monthly expense, but they are important to account for when budgeting for this month.
Next, get organized! Flip back to your Monthly Money Moves page and jot down your monthly financial goal (and any other goals) to work toward. Finally, list any to-dos for that month. Do you need to file taxes? Update your bank account information for an autopay? List those items here.
Step 2: Organize Bills
On the next page, you will see a calendar with a bill pay list below. Start by noting your upcoming paydays on the calendar. You can also note any payments due on the calendar if you love a visual budget. Get creative here! Utilize stickers, highlighters, or different colored pens to circle the days you expect to see a paycheck or pay a bill.
List all bills, amounts due, and due dates on the bill pay checklist. Check them off as they are paid, and never forget a bill again! In the notes column, you can specify how this bill was paid, whether by debit or credit card, or automatic payment.
Step 3: Budget
Finally, we’ve reached the budgeting portion of the budget planner! On this page, plan all of your expected income and anticipated expenses for the month by using the “planned” columns. Then, throughout the month you will monitor spending and goal progress. At the end of the month, you will see if you stayed on budget by using the “actual” columns.
How to Record Your Income
Budgeting begins with listing your income for the month. List all income sources, such as employment wages, benefits or assistance amounts, and/or side hustles. If you have regular income, list that amount and the source on the left-hand side. If you have irregular income, be sure to use the average amount. (Read more on estimating irregular income here!) Then, as the paycheck is deposited into your bank account, you can record the actual amount on the right-hand side of the box.
How to Record Your Expenses
Once you have a clear picture of your income, the next step is estimating your expenses. In each expense category of the budget, list the amount you expect to spend on this expense in the “planned” column. Consider all fixed expenses (like the bills you listed on the previous page) and all variable expenses that change from month to month, such as groceries, savings amounts, and fun money allotments.
For these expense categories, you can either budget very specifically, such as a line item for every expense, or very broadly, such as a food category that encompasses all groceries plus eating out expenses.
You can even take it a step further and customize expense categories that are personal to you! For example, I have my “eating out” budget divided into two categories. One for “regular” grab-and-go purchases just for myself and another category for “social” eating out, done with friends or coworkers. In my brain, they are different categories, so I made them my own!
As you fill in each category, be thorough and honest about your spending. If you’re unsure about how much you typically spend on something, look at the average amount spent over the past few months on your bank statements.
The Bottom Line
Once you’ve estimated your total income and total expenses for the month, make sure you have not gone over budget! Add up all planned income and subtract all planned expenses in the “Budget Summary” box.
Note: We will revisit this summary box at the end of the month.
Step 4: Track Expenses
Now that you’ve created your budget, it’s important to know where your money is going! Monitor your spending to see if you are staying on budget throughout the month by using the provided Transaction pages. When you are tracking your spending, consider if what you purchased was a “want” or a “need” by circling the appropriate bubble. Take a moment at the end of the week to journal where your spending was on target or where improvements can be made. These two mindful steps will help your spending stay aligned with making progress toward your financial goals!
Step 5: Monitor Monthly Progress
Throughout the month, regularly check in with your budget. With the Monthly Progress page, you can tally your spending to easily see if you are staying within the planned amounts you laid out in step 2. If you notice you’re on track to overspend in certain categories, don’t panic! Identify those areas and make adjustments to the expense categories as needed.
Note: Overspending WILL happen! That’s okay! Your budget will not be perfect the first (or second or third…) month that you plan out your income and expenses. Just take note of where you fell short of budgeting and adjust for next month.
You can also record when you’ve made a contribution to your financial goal, like making a credit card payment or adding to your savings accounts. The “Notes” section is helpful to jot down any financial moves you made throughout the month so you can recall later! I’ve asked myself many times, “Um, why did I transfer that money?”
Step 6: Close the Budget
Our final step happens at the end of the month. Go back to your Monthly Budget and start recording the amount spent per category in the “actual” column. Summarize totals in the “Budget Summary” section.
How did you do? Did you stay within budget? If not, where do you need to adjust for next month? If you have leftover income, what are you going to do with those dollars? Repeat these budget steps each month.
Section 4: Check In and Adjust
Regularly check in on your income, expenses, savings, and goals to ensure you’re on track. It’s one of the most important aspects of successful budgeting! Don’t skip these steps! Set aside time each month to review your budget and progress toward your goals. Look at what’s working, where you can improve, and where you can make any adjustments. You’ll do this by flipping back to the Goals sectio, and utilizing the Monthly Progress pages we reviewed, but you’ll also take it a step further with Quarterly Check-Ins! This space will help you revisit your financial goals and prompt you to carefully consider where you are currently, and where you want to be next quarter!
Final Thoughts
Building a budget routine can be daunting, but you just have to take that first step! The Budget Blueprints Budget Planner is here to help you get organized and spend mindfully to take control of your finances and crush your goals!
Have you used the Budget Blueprints Budget Planner yet? Share your experience or ask any questions in the comments below!
