High School/College Student Budget Worksheet

Hey everyone!

Recently I decided to try my hand at creating a budget. I searched online for sample worksheets, but nothing had everything I needed and some had a little too much. Being a commuting college student still living at home, I didn't need everything that most budget worksheets come with. So I created this simple and personalize-able budget worksheet for the high school or college student that maybe only works part time and isn't really paying lots of bills yet. I'm starting to transition into a monthly and more long term budgeting system with Charlie and I getting married next year, but this has worked really well for me. I'll go step by step through the worksheet and include a printable one for you to try.

Let's get started!

Here's what my Budget Sheet looks like:

It's divided into different groups. For each group I have an envelope with it's title and the money that I'm allowing for each item inside, separated by paper clips and/or sticky notes. Let's start from the top and work our way down :)

Here I included a line titled "Pay Period". This is where I put the dates of each pay check. This is on a bi-weekly pay period and to start out with, it is easier for me to make a bi-weekly budget instead of trying to think a month in advance. Most places I've worked, you don't even get your work schedule a month in advance. Then in the Budget line I would fill in with the dates of the NEXT two weeks since this was the money that was lasting me until my next pay check.

I also included a box for the starting balance in my checking and savings to keep track of how much I had in the bank.

The income boxes were just a way for me to write down exactly how much I earned in the pay period, both gross (before taxes) and net (after taxes) which was all found on my pay stub. I included my tithe (about 10%) here, which for convenience, I normally round up to the nearest number divisible by 5. For example in the following sample budget the gross amount was $290 (based off a minimum wage job working 20 hours a week) so I rounded the tithe up to $30. It's easier to put in the offering plate than a bunch of $1 bills. Then I put in the amount I would like to save, which fluctuates from paycheck to paycheck. I try to save at least 1/3 of my net income which was about $85 here, but I understand that things come up and us students can barely break even some months, so try to save as much as you can. It's a hard habit to learn, especially when new movies come out and friends want to go see them or you really NEED a new pair of jeans, but try to really focus on saving, even if it means having to say no to some things. You'll thank yourself later.

So here's what things would look like filled in. *NOTE: these are example numbers for you to get an idea of how this would work.

Now to me, I take out my savings and tithe and just focus on what's left over (in this case $250-$30-$80= $135). This is what I would work with and budget with.

Moving on we have the Bills, Debts, and Car category.

As a high school student, I didn't have that many bills. I did pay my phone bill which was $50 a month to my parents. Because of the bi-weekly budget, I would take just $25 out of each check and hold onto it until it was time to pay my bill at the first of the next month.

Also, I do not have a credit card yet, but if you do and have an amount to pay off, it would go in the Debt Payments: Credit Card category. You could even add rows with specific credit cards if you wanted to. The other category can be for any "I owe you"s and such. For example, I do however owe my parents money towards my Pharmacy Technician class I took last semester and my textbooks that I bought this semester, so that went in the Other category. I listed how much I paid and what remainder I had left to pay which helps keep track of how I'm doing.

Next is the car. If you have a car or at least a vehicle you drive, you most likely have to put some money into it. I put places for Gas, Insurance (which right now my parents are generously paying and I try to help them by keeping the rates low and driving safe :) ), Maintenance (like the periodical oil change), and Tolls. In this category there is a place for the budget amount that you set for yourself and then places to later record the actual amount you spent and the difference of the two to see if there is a need to adjust. I budgeted $30 for gas but if I only used $20 then I'll know that I can adjust the amount I'm budgeting and put that money somewhere else next time.

Continuing on the rest of the category's are pretty self explanatory:

Again, you fill in your budgeted amount for each item and then after the end of your budgeting period you go back and fill in how much you actually spent to see if you can adjust things. This can be tricky if you just use cash like I do and can't remember how much things were. I've also included an expense sheet that I made to help with that too. It's almost like a check book registry to record what you buy and how much it was.

Then at the end you can record your ending balance in your accounts and (hopefully) it'll be greater than when you started!

I've included the Word documents for each sheet and you can personalize your budget and expense sheet to fit you and what you pay for! Just add or delete rows in each category to make it your own!

So what do you think? Anything I should add or take off? What works for you? Leave a comment and let me know!

With this link you can access the two files available for download. Have fun!

Budget & Expense Worksheets