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Well, Hello.
Last year when Shane and I were planning to sell our apartment and saving our down payment, I spent a lot of time budgeting and trying to find the easiest way to manage our finances. I tried super detailed spreadsheets, tracking spending by receipts, and everything in between. I realized I don’t want to look at boring spreadsheets and crumpled receipts. I am more likely to sit down and work on something a little bit pretty. Such a girl, right?
So I made my own spreadsheets with patterns and fun fonts, which worked for a time. What I struggled with (because I’m no accountant, expert budgeter, or even good at math) is that getting paid every two weeks, having bills on certain days, and some bills that came out the first Monday of the month, meant that some paychecks were gone in a day. Other paychecks had no bills, so I would do a big grocery shop, pay a bunch towards debt and then when all the bills fell in the next paycheck period, there was nothing left in the account. Budgeting for the month at one time didn’t work for us, since some months had an extra pay-period, or extra bills (that were on a two week cycle).
A budget calendar has been a life-saver for me, as I can see when things are coming out of the account and schedule voluntary payments (like to savings, or vacation funds) accordingly. In November last year, I found a calender laid out like this one I’ve put together. It made it so much easier to see what bills are coming off which paycheck at a glance. I didn’t see any I liked this year on the web for free, so I put my own together. I thought I’d offer it up for you, better late than never!
I think it’s cute enough to use for anything… not just budgets!
I use it by drawing a line down to separate income and bills (like a ledger with debits and credits). And I write all our incomes on the left, and every bill on the date it will come out of our account on the right. Then I can see what I’ll need to carry over to pay bills next week… and what I have left for groceries, gas, savings… or fun money!
Grab the calendar here in PDF: January-February / March-April / May-June / July-August / September-October / November-December
What tools have you found that help you manage your finances? I always love hearing how others got their finances in order!
XO -C
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So smart! We use a program called YNAB (You Need a Budget) that really helps us keep everything together, but it is not nearly as pretty!
I’ve heard of that! I love hearing how other people budget- everyone is so different in what works for them!
Im finishing work soon to have our first baby. First time ever in my life I havent worked so a bit freaked about our budget . So thanks alot for this. Plus im a designer and yes sorry people it has to look good or I wont use it. Thanks again!
I’m feeling the budget ‘freak’ this time of the year too Joy! I’m just working on my 2015 calendar and will have it ready SO soon for ya :)
PS. Congratulations you mama-to-be! Enjoy this time- it’s the last moments you’ll truly have to yourself in a while so try enjoy them worry-free :)
Thanks Colleen :)
Of course! If you’d like the 2015 version- I just posted about it yesterday :)
Cute!!! i love this. I just stumbled on your site when I googled “free simple printable calendar.” LOVE your style :) about to print all your calendars! haha #toofar ? Anyway, I wish I would have thought of this – for years I’ve just written out the pay cycle every month on a scratch piece of paper. Now we use EveryDollar budgeting app, which still doesn’t help with the timing as much but we try to be one pay cycle “ahead” so we’re not waiting on it to come in to pay stuff out, if that makes sense… anyway, thanks for sharing! now to run and grab all these fun new calendars out of my printer! :)
Thanks so much Renee! I printed them all (why do you think I made 3!!) haha, you’re making my day. I’d love to see a snap of them all printed!
hi where can i get the digital version that i can print myself?
Hi Natalie, are you looking for the current year? You can find all the information on it right here.
Merci beaucoup pour ce joli calendrier….