It’s hard to beat an excel spreadsheet for quickly shifting between a granular and top-level view of your personal finance situation. Here’s reader Lauren’s account balance spreadsheet she made to keep track of her expenditures, past, present, and future, and itemize her budget.

Download Lauren’s Budgeter (XLS)

1. Scroll to the current month.
2. Enter your current balance in the “Starting Balance” box at the top left.
3. Enter your credits and debits on the appropriate dates they will hit your account. Use positive numbers for money getting added credits, and negative numbers for when it’s getting taken away.
4. The green “Total” will change to reflect your total overall balance.

Use it as is, compare it to your own, or mod to fit your own needs.

Lauren says it’s “quite nifty,” and also uses it as a calendar.

Here’s the excel code for the totaler for those who like to look under the hood:

TODAY();_8_10)
+SUMIF(_9_10d;”<="&TODAY();_9_10)
+SUMIF(_10_10d;”<="&TODAY();_10_10)
+SUMIF(_11_10d;”<="&TODAY();_11_10)
+SUMIF(_12_10d;”<="&TODAY();_12_10)
+SUMIF(_1_11d;”<="&TODAY();_1_11)
+SUMIF(_2_11d;”<="&TODAY();_2_11)
+SUMIF(_3_11d;”<="&TODAY();_3_11)
+SUMIF(_4_11d;”<="&TODAY();_4_11)
+SUMIF(_5_11d;”<="&TODAY();_5_11)
+SUMIF(_6_11d;”<="&TODAY();_6_11)
+SUMIF(_7_11d;”<="&TODAY();_7_11)
+SUMIF(_8_11d;”<="&TODAY();_8_11)
+SUMIF(_9_11d;”<="&TODAY();_9_11)
+SUMIF(_10_11d;”<="&TODAY();_10_11)
+SUMIF(_11_11d;”<="&TODAY();_11_11)
+SUMIF(_12_11d;”<="&TODAY();_12_11)

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