Saving is one of the most popular financial goals for couples, whether young, married, or senior couples. This is because it strengthens your financial stability and provides a safety net for unprecedented events like huge medical bills, investments, or accidents. Considering the significance of savings, it is something you should budget for. Budgeting for savings requires you to take deliberate steps to make sure you set aside money from your income.
Having a spreadsheet template to organize your saving’s budget is an effective way of finding what works best for both of you, for example, how often you need to save and how much you need to save, based on your earning patterns. Once you are on the same page, you can determine how much financial flexibility or disposable income you both have at the end of the day.
How to use this Template Effectively
This ready-to-use template leverages Excel capabilities to make your budgeting process seamless. It adopts a comprehensive approach where you can track your and your spouse’s incomes and expenses and how much you should contribute to your savings.
Here is a guide on how to leverage this spreadsheet when budgeting as a couple:
Summary
The first section of the template provides a summary of your current financial position. This section highlights how much you saved the previous month, your joint income and expenses for the current month, and your savings so far. This is a quick way of glancing over your savings without analyzing the nitty-gritty of your budget.
Income and expenses
Income and expenses are the foundation of any budget as it dictates how much you are able to save as a couple. These components are recorded separately. Each component has two categories to list income and expenses from you and your spouse separately. Since income can be generated from multiple sources, use the rows to record all these sources, from salary to freelancing work.
Also, since expenses vary, make sure to list each in the rows under ‘expenses’ from accommodation, debt payments, and insurance to vacations. The total income is calculated automatically and recorded in Cell C18. Likewise, expenses are automatically calculated for each spouse, and the sum is recorded in Cell F6.
Savings contribution
Savings contributions indicate how much money you and your spouse agree to set aside for different purposes. In this section, you have various uses you can dedicate your savings toward, including an emergency fund, short/long-term goals, investments, loan repayments, and home repairs. You can customize and add a use to match your combined goals, such as retirement or vacation. The total savings are automatically calculated and recorded in cell I16.
Division of expenses and budget summary
Once you have established how much will be redirected toward savings, this figure is then automatically added as an expense over combined expenses and recorded in cell I24. This total expense is then automatically subtracted from the total income under the ‘budget summary’ to determine the disposable income in cell I28. This figure (disposable income) is then summed with ‘Previous savings’ (Cell C4) and ‘Total savings’ (Cell I16) to give you the ‘Savings’ (Cell I6) so far.
Pie charts
On the right side, this template offers you two pie charts to make it easier to visualize how different budget components like your combined income, expenses, and savings compare. The topmost pie chart compares total income, expenses, and savings.
This is a useful tool if you want to observe a specific saving formula such as the 50/30/20 rule (savings should not be less than 20% of your income) or the 70/20/10 rule (savings should be 20% of your earnings and 10% directed toward debt repayment). The second pie chart compares the ‘division of expenses’ section – spouse 1 expenses, spouse 2 expenses, and shared savings. This is an essential tool for making sure that expenses remain equitable between you as a couple.
Quick Points Worth Knowing When Budgeting as a Couple
Honesty about finances in a relationship goes a long way in achieving financial success as money is often a challenging conversation for most couples. Also, collaborating to budget for savings does not imply that you need one account, you can have separate accounts, joint accounts, or a combination of both and use them to manage your finances.
Lastly, everyone should be mindful of their spending habits and do a self-appraisal to determine which expenses are needs and wants so that you can come together and budget jointly. This template is where this couple’s budget spreadsheet template should come in; to record your financial plan.
