Notional Budget With Spreadsheet

Initial comment: 

At some points in your life, when there are a lot of changes, maintaining a budget is very, very difficult. 

Example: in the USAF, whenever we moved to a new location it generally took me two years to get back to where I was financially before the move. 

Transitions make budget-keeping difficult. In many cases, the best you can do is keep track of your expenses which will help you in many ways going forward. Examples when budget keeping is very, very difficult:

• each year in college; summer jobs change; moving in and out of new dorms; books; lab fees;
• transitioning from college to first job;
• moving in with a new longer roommate (significant other)
• moving from one job to a new job;
• a major life change: marriage or marriage-equivalency; birth of a child;

Items missing from the notional spreadsheet below:

• subscriptions to newspapers, magazines, etc
• recurring annual fees for apps
• some apps exist that make it easy to cancel subscriptions (e.g., Roadrunner) 

The notional filing system associated with this spreadsheet is linked here.

Notional Budget spreadsheet:

NOTIONAL BUDGET	NOTIONAL BUDGET	%	%	%	%
Income		100
	Source 1
	Source 2
	Source 3
Must-Pays			40
(Not all inclusive)
	Taxes
	Rent
	Medical
	Utilities
	Groceries
	Transportation
	Insurance
	Basic cable
Nice-to-have			20
(Not all inclusive)
	Hulu
	Amazon Prime
	Garage / storage
	Cosco Card
	Magazines
Absolutely don’t need			5
(Not all inclusive)
	Vacation
	Lego
	New iPhone
	New computer
	Dining out
	Alcohol
	Books
Discretionary			Equals income - expenses above	35
	Personal investment				0
	Arianna				7
	Olivia				7
	Sophia				7
	Judah				7
	Levi				7