What budget template do you use?

[FIREin2018]

im trying to figure out what categories to use to create a new budget in Excel.
my old budget only had:
mortgage, insurances (house/car/umbrella), property taxes, utils, gas (car), grocery, restaurants, entertainment.

using  that, i over spent $300/month for 2017:
https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/easy-way-to-figure-out-why-im-$300month-over-budget-for-2017/

so am looking for a better template.
what does your budget template look like?

[Michael in ABQ]

I've been using a spreadsheet I built a few years ago and have modified slightly since then. We use the envelope system with cash for most discretionary purchases (indicated by an *) or predictable things that we can set aside money each month for, like auto insurance every six months. Things like utilities are just paid automatically as an ACH transfer. Bold items are totals of various categories (utilities, insurance, etc.). I prefer more detail over less so I can zero in on exactly where we're spending money.

Rent
   Water/Sewer/Trash
   Electricity
   Natural Gas
   Internet
   Phone
Utilities
   Health
   Life
   Auto*
   Renter's*
Insurance
   USAA
   Student Loans
   Visa
   American Express
Loans - Won't need this category next year since we became debt free back in February.
Groceries*
Gasoline
Auto*
Savings
Medical*
Homeschool*
Activities & Classes
Clothing & Shoes*
Church/Charity
   Netflix
   Amazon Prime
   Movies and Books
Entertainment*
Household*
Personal*
Gifts*
Restaurants*
Beer & Wine*
Military*
Moving*
Christmas*
Miscellaneous

Some of these like moving only get used once every couple of years but if we know a move is coming up we'll start setting aside some cash every month for at least a few months before to save up for it.

[FIREin2018]

i found this retirement-expense-worksheet:
https://www.blackrock.com/investing/literature/investor-education/retirement-expense-worksheet-va-us.pdf

[MDM]

Quicken to track spending, then export 12 months worth of categorized spending to Excel.  Use the previous 12 months actual, combined with some judgment about how that might change, to establish a budget for the next 12 months.  Budget includes amounts going to pre-tax and other investments.

Then, we "pay ourselves first" by establishing payroll deductions to 401k and ESPP, and regular contributions to other savings.  Keep several months spending in cash - as long as the cash balance stays "reasonably constant", all is well.  If it drops too low we could cut back; if it goes up we could put more to savings.

See also Household budgeting - Bogleheads and Budget models of retirement spending - Bogleheads for ideas.

There are many ways to approach budgeting.  Some ways work better for some people, other ways work better for other people.

ETA: Just noticed this post at Bogleheads.  Looks much like what we do.

[Thegoblinchief]

I personally never found a spreadsheet approach that worked for me. I use YNAB, really like how future focused it is. With the new higher price point they chose this year, it’s a much harder recommendation.

Good Budget is a similar system, free if you only have 10 categories. There was a developer creating a free clone of YNAB 4 as a web app (instead of the changes put in YNAB now) but development stopped quite awhile ago, so not sure if it works or not. The site is still up. Can’t remember the name offhand.

The original YNAB was an Excel template, though. You might see if that’s still floating around.

[andy85]

Not really a budget template...more of just a spending tracker, although i do have a rough budget in the far right column.