Basic Monthly Budget – Household Expenses List

Standard Family Budgeting Example & Free Excel Worksheet Template

Aug 19, 2009

Use list of household expenses to populate a basic monthly budget. See a standard family budgeting example & get a free Microsoft Excel monthly budget worksheet template.

Budgeting for household expenses is not a simple task, and every family incurs different expenses, which makes the process even more difficult to standardize.

Learn about a list of household expense allocations on the Crown Financial Ministries website and find out where to download a free Microsoft Excel monthly budgeting spreadsheet template.

Basic Monthly Budget

Crown Financial Ministries website attempts to make the budgeting process simple by providing an online budgeting calculator that suggests percentage allocations for major household expense categories. Users must simply input a household’s gross income, giving levels, and tax burden. Note: Anyone who does not tithe can simply enter zero in that box.

List of Household Expenses – Standard Family Budgeting Example

Below is the calculator’s list of household expense categories and suggested standard budget percentages for $45,000 annual gross income with a $7,000 tax bill.

Amounts Will Vary from Standard Monthly Budget Example

Based on this income scenario, the site indicates that 6% should go toward child care or school expenses if the household has children in school or day care. Since the percentages above add up to 100%, a household with children should reduce another category or combination of categories by 6% total to allow for child care.

How Lower Income & Higher Income Household Monthly Expenses May Differ

Households with substantially lower or higher incomes than the $45,000 indicated in the scenario above will need to adjust percentages accordingly. There are minimum cost levels in each category, and no matter how low an income goes, that minimum level will remain essentially the same. For instance, a one-bedroom apartment will have a base minimum price in each city; no matter what a person makes, that amount will not change unless the apartment is rent-controlled or subsidized in some way.

A lower income household may pay a larger percentage of income toward housing, food, auto, insurance, and medical bills; the same household may not have enough money leftover at the end of the month to invest, so that category may be zero percent. Conversely, a much higher income household may have more than 5% available for investing or may spend more money on recreation and miscellaneous expenditures.

Free Microsoft Excel Budget Worksheet Templates, Monthly Expense Spreadsheets

Some individuals may find it easier to start with a pre-populated personal budgeting spreadsheet template instead of analyzing hypothetical monthly expense percentages. The article Sample Monthly Expense Spreadsheet profiles a free Excel monthly budgeting worksheet available on the Microsoft Office website. For links to other simple monthly expense worksheet downloads, see the article Personal Budget Spreadsheets for Microsoft Excel.

The copyright of the article Basic Monthly Budget – Household Expenses List in Personal Budget Creation is owned by Lena Gott. Permission to republish Basic Monthly Budget – Household Expenses List in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.