Track your college expenses with a spreadsheet.
College has become much more expensive in recent years, with no signs of slowing down. Now, more than ever, there are a great many expenses that you must track. If you aren't careful, you can easily lose track of your expenses and end up in serious debt. One effective way to stay out of the debt is to organize your college expenses with a spreadsheet. This way, you can set a budget and stick to it.
Instructions
1. Open up your spreadsheet program on the computer before you start your college experience. Create columns for "Item", "Budget," "Actual" and "Variance." Copy this spreadsheet so you have one for each semester (you will most likely need at least 8 separate copies)
2. Spend money for your first semester. Keep track of all your college-related expenses (enter them in the "Item" and the "Actual" areas of the spreadsheet). Total them to see what you spent at the end of the semester.
3. Decide on how much you can spend based on what you spent the previous semester (If you overspent, you will need to lower your total budget, if you have money left over, you may be able to increase your spending). List all of your projected expenses in the "Item" column of the second semester.
4. List the amount of money you are budgeting for the second semester's items in the "Budget" column next to each of the items. Double-check the sum of your budget to make sure it equals the total expenses you decided on in Step 3.
5. Type a variance formula in each spreadsheet cell in the "Variance" formula throughout the entire budget. For example, if you start your budget with the "Books" item, Cell A2 of your spreadsheet may read "Books," Cell B2 would have the budgeted amount, cell C2 would be blank (this is the "Actual Cost" column), and cell D2 would have an equation like "=c2-b2". This will show the difference of the value in the "Actual Cost" column to the "Budget" column and will give you and indication of how close to your budget you are.
6. Spend money as you would through your second semester, entering in your receipts into the "Actual Cost" column of the spreadsheet for each item. Try to stay within the guidelines you have set for yourself. At the end of the semester, re-adjust your budget for the third semester and continue in this manner until you reach the end of college.
Tags: your budget, Actual Cost, Actual Cost column, Cost column, second semester, your college, Budget column