parker_thomas•16d agoProlific Poster

Appreciation post for the 50/30/20 spreadsheet I finally finished

After years of just guessing my spending, I finally sat down with my bank statements from last year and built a proper 50/30/20 budget spreadsheet in Google Sheets. It took me about 4 hours one Saturday, but now I can see that I was spending way too much on takeout about $450 a month in Portland. Anyone else find that just seeing the numbers laid out makes it easier to cut back?

3 comments

3 Comments

uma_johnson16d ago

Oh man, I gotta say something about the "4 hours one Saturday" part. That is a LOT of time for a spreadsheet. I mean good for you for sticking with it, but you could have used a template from Vertex42 or even the free one from NerdWallet and been done in like 30 minutes tops. I learned this the hard way after spending three hours making a meal planner sheet that already existed online. That said, seeing the takeout spending at $450 a month in Portland is rough but not surprising - Portland food is amazing but pricey. I did the same thing with my Amazon history and nearly fell off my chair at the random crap I bought. It really does help to see those numbers in black and white though, makes you cut way back just from the shame of it.

bennett.noah16d ago

Used to think templates were just lazy shortcuts and wanted to build everything from scratch myself. Then I spent an entire Sunday coding a budget tracker in Google Sheets, only to find that the free one from Vertex42 had the exact same formulas I spent hours fighting with. Seeing that $450 number for takeout must have stung though, I had a similar moment when my monthly coffee shop total hit $200 and I realized that's basically a car payment for lattes. Did pulling up those numbers change what you actually do day to day, or just make you feel guilty for a week?

finleyf8816d agoMost Upvoted

For real, templates save your whole weekend. I learned that one the hard way too.