The 2023 Budget Binder, based off of Dave Ramsey’s financial principles, will help you budget by paycheck, build your savings, pay off debt, and give yourself permission to spend!

After many hours and late nights hard at work on my computer, the 2023 Budget Binder is finally ready for YOU! After a year filled with so much stress and uncertainty, 2023 is YOUR year. We can’t control inflation, but we can control how we spend the money that comes into our hands each day, week, and month. It’s time to take control of your finances, budget your money in a way that actually makes sense, pay off debt, build your savings, invest for retirement, and so much more. The 2023 Budget Binder is here to help you do just that!

Whether you’re a long-time reader or just clicked over here from Pinterest, I’m so glad you’re here! It means you are ready to simplify your finances and finally get on a written budget. That’s amazing! I’m so excited for you to take this step. The 2023 Budget Binder is the perfect place to start.

This year I’m continuing to offer the 2023 Budget Binder in a digital format. I’ve updated and revised the budget template from last year to include percentages, more spending trackers, a separate sinking fund tracker, a net worth spreadsheet, and a debt tracking spreadsheet. The DIGITAL BUDGET TEMPLATE also utilizes the “budget by paycheck” method so it will work for you and your family no matter how you are paid each month.

If you’ve struggled to budget because you aren’t paid on a monthly basis, then I know you will find this way of budgeting so helpful! The 2023 Budget Template is the perfect way for you to keep your budget with you on the go. This Google Sheets template can be downloaded on any of your devices, will allow you to see a snapshot of your budget for 6-12 months, and will really help you save more, spend less, and pay off debt faster. You can see how this budgeting template is setup plus how to utilize all of its features by clicking here to view the How to Use the 2023 Budgeting Template video.

If you want to grab the 2023 Budget Template, you can check out all of our bundle options by clicking the link below!!

2023 Budget Binder

This year’s budget binder contains almost 300 printables to help you finally take control of your finances once and for all. The sheer size of this kit can seem overwhelming! But don’t worry, I’ve included an entire section on how to setup and print your binder kit at the very beginning! Plus, I’ve added individual monthly downloads within the kit so you can easily get to what you’re looking for.

Plus, I’ve created a YouTube video tutorial to help you get your 2022 Budget Binder setup for the upcoming year!

Use your 2023 Budget Binder to set both short term and long-term goals as well as plan ahead for future expenses. Plus, track your emergency fund, pay down debt quickly, and keep a running checklist of your bills paid so you never have to pay those annoying late fees again!

Each month contains 13 optional budgeting forms for you to use to keep your finances organized. You definitely won’t need all of them! The goal is for you to pick what will work for you and leave the rest! The great thing about the 2022 Budget Binder is that it’s so customizable to you, your family, and your budgeting needs.

Monthly Calendar

You will have the option of printing one of our 3 monthly calendars to go along with your budget each month. Plus, you’ll have the opportunity to set monthly financial goals on each calendar. You can use these calendars to track monthly bills, due dates, pay days, and other monthly budget planning!

Budget Forms

This year there are now 4 optional budgeting forms to choose from. The 1st option you will see is the standard monthly form. If you are paid monthly, you will use this form. Also, if you are a family who is one month ahead on your bills, this is likely the form you will want to use.

Monthly Budget Form

To work this budget form, you’ll calculate your total income for the month in the top left section. Then you’ll calculate your “Off the Top” total. This includes the most important things like giving, savings, and investing. After that, move over the right hand column and total up your bills and expenses for the month. This will include everything from your mortgage or rent to utilities to personal spending! Write it all down! Finally, move back over to the bottom left section to do your final calculations. Add up your off the top and bills totals. Then subtract that number from your total income. You’re answer here should be zero. This is very unlikely to happen without some adjustments. That’s okay! Just go back over to make whatever adjustments need to be made. This is a zero-based budget.

Bi-Weekly or Twice Monthly Budget Form

If you are paid bi-weekly or twice a month, you may choose to use this form. It functions in the same way as the monthly budget form except that you can separate your bills based on when you get paid. This allows you to align your income and expenses out so that you aren’t spending more money at the beginning of the month only to find out that you have more month at the end of your money. Yep, we’ve all been there! If you make $1500 twice a month, then you’ll want to separate out your bills and spending so that you aren’t spending $3000 before your second paycheck even comes in.

Weekly Budget Form

The weekly budget form is very similar to the original two forms. The only difference is that this form allows you to separate your bills into four different weeks for the month. 

Paycheck Budget

Finally, the “Paycheck Budget” form is the newest form for 2023! This form is setup very similar to how our digital budget template is setup. 

You’ll want to print as many of these forms as you have pay periods for the month. The first step to get started is to find out what your checking account balance will be. This means you’ll subtracting any outstanding checks from whatever your balance currently is. If this is not something you are used to doing, this may take a few tries to get it right. That’s okay! Practice makes perfect. You’ll record your checking account balance in the first open box at the top.

Then you’ll calculate the income that’s coming in that pay period. For example, my husband and I are both paid on the same day every two weeks. So I would calculate both of our incomes in the top left section and add that to our checking account balance. The reason we keep track of our checking account balance is because we never what our checking account to be zero. Even though we want to run a zero based budget and give every dollar a name, we always want to have a buffer in our checking account. This buffer will be different for everyone. Some feel comfortable with $100. Others might want $500 to $1000 as a buffer. That’s completely up to you.

Your goal while working through this budget is to have that buffer amount in mind and to stop spending once you get to that buffer amount each pay period. The beautiful part of this way of budgeting is that you can look ahead a few pay periods to see if you have any “heavier” pay periods. For example, you may notice that the end of the month tends to have increased spending because you have more bills come out. By noticing this trend, you can begin to leave a heavier buffer in your checking during the first pay period to cover that heavier spending the second pay period.

Just as you’ve done with the other budget forms, you’ll record your “Off the Top” spending first. I’ve also included a section for your sinking funds. We will learn all about sinking funds in a few days. Just note right now that sinking funds are where you will be savings for larger expenses that don’t happen on a monthly basis. Think Christmas, annual insurance premiums, yearly maintenance tasks, etc. 

As you work your way down the budget form, you will subtract and calculate what your checking account balance will be once all of the expenses in each section are paid. If you aren’t covering a heavier pay period next, then your starting and ending checking account balance should be about the same.

Perfection isn’t the goal here. The goal is to keep it close. For example, if you start with $543.82 in your checking account and end with $514.19 in your checking account balance, you’re doing just fine!

Sinking Funds

The next form is your SINKING FUNDS spreadsheet. This is where you will budget in everything you need to save for throughout the year. Just a few examples of sinking funds include:

• Christmas
• Vacation
• Medical/Dental Expenses
• Kid’s Expenses
• Insurance Premiums
• Car Replacement Savings
• Car Registration Expenses
• Home Maintenance
• Car Maintenance

This list is going to be very different for every family. Sinking funds are one of the best things you can do for your budget. This will almost completely eliminate those months when you are stressing out over all the “extras” that somehow popped into your budget. Remember, if we know it’s coming then it’s not an emergency. Let’s all start planning ahead for large expenses!

You will add up all the “additions” you plan to make to each fund. That total will be placed in your main budget form on the “SINKING FUNDS” section.

Cash Envelopes

Using cash is one of the key ingredients to this budget. However, I know carrying around cash just isn’t for all of us. This year you’ll find 5 optional cash envelope forms. And for two of them, you DON’T even have to use cash!!

I recommend budgeting cash envelopes based on your pay periods. So you will have one cash envelope form to go along with every budgeting form. There are 3 cash envelope forms that will coincide with the budget form you choose based on how you are paid.

Monthly Spending Trackers

If you don’t plan to use cash and instead plan to use your debit card, you can still keep track of these expenses! Use the CASH ENVELOPE TRACKER form for this. 

There is room for two cash categories per form. You will need to print as many forms as you need for each PAY PERIOD depending on how many categories you need to track your spending. For example, if you plan to track 4 categories and are paid twice a month, you’ll need 2 CASH ENVELOPE TRACKERS for each of your 2 pay periods, or 4 total. 

List your category at the top along with how much you’ve budgeted in that category for the month. Then as you spend money in that category, list where you spent it, the amount you spent, and then figure out how much you have leftover. Do this by subtracting the amount you spent from your total budget. Then continue subtracting the amount you spend from what you have leftover. This will help you stay on track with your budget even if cash isn’t your thing!

If you choose this route to track your spending, I highly recommend reconciling your receipts at least once a week. If you wait any longer than this, you will be more likely to miss transactions and make errors in your budget.

By Paycheck Spending Tracker

Finally, if you play to use the “Paycheck Budget” method, you may choose to use the spending tracker. This form is great if you are budgeting in spending categories that tend to have more than one transaction and are easy to overspend in. I’m thinking categories like groceries, gas, out to eat, and personal spending! 

With this form, you’ll record your “budgeted” amount for that category at the top. Then you’ll record every time you spend in that category. This works great if you are using a debit or credit card. Subtract that amount each time you spend so you have your new balance. Once you’ve reached $0 (or very close to it) stop spending in that category until you get paid again and create a new budget!

You can track up to 4 categories per form so print as many forms as you’ll need for each pay period.

Irregular Income

If you receive any kind of irregular income each month, then the IRREGULAR INCOME form will be perfect for you! This could include overtime, second job income, or bonuses you might receive. This is a great way to pre-plan for income you may or may not receive. Having a plan in place will help that money not slip through your fingers!

At the beginning of the month, you will fill out the bottom half of this form. Prioritize how you plan to spend the money. Keep a running total on the far right. Once the money comes in, record it on the top half of this form. Then use your plan at the bottom to allocate that money to different places.

Credit Card Trackers

While I’m always an advocate for using cash (or debit cards) as much as possible, I know cash just isn’t for everyone. If you do plan to use credit cards, I believe the most responsible way is to continue to track your spending on each card or in each category. This will help you pay your cards off each month so you avoid those annoying (and expensive) fees!

So you can use our optional Credit Card Spending Trackers. You have two options you can use to track your spending while using a credit card. You can choose to track your spending by CARD or by BUDGET CATEGORY. This is just based on your personal preference.

Tracking by budget category means you’ll be able to see how much you spend on groceries, personal spending, gasoline, clothing, or any other category you want to track. Tracking by credit card means you’ll be able to easily see your total spending on each card and know how much you will owe on that specific card next month.

Charitable Donations Tracker

If you give regularly to either your church, non-profit organizations, missionaries, or any other type of donation, then it’s important that you track those amounts. They can be deducted on your taxes so having those numbers readily available can be so helpful.

This year you will have two forms to help you track your charitable donations.  You can use the monthly Charitable Donations tracker form in each of the monthly packets to track your donations to multiple organizations. Then total up your monthly donations at the bottom.

You can then add your monthly totals to the annual Charitable Donations Tracker so you can have a full yearly overview of your donations. If you are someone who regular donates to organizations or tithes (giving 10% of your income) to your church, then I hope you find these forms helpful!

Debt Snowball Trackers

You’ll have two options to choose from to track your debt payoff. Both forms allow you to track up to 4 debts for the entire year on one page. I recommend listing them from smallest to largest and then rolling all that extra income into paying them off quickly!

Yearly Budget Planning

There are also multiple ways to plan your budget for the entire year! First, there is an annual calendar for 2023. You can use this to track pay days, due dates for monthly bills, birthdays, holidays, and anything else you may need to plan ahead for!

You will also have the option of setting an annual budget. This is a great way to figure up how much you plan to spend in different categories throughout the entire year based on your expected net income. Remember, this is a plan and plans can change or be altered slightly as life happens! But its always great to be prepared.

Another form you may want to use is our Yearly Spending Tracker. This form allows you to choose multiple categories in which you want to track your spending for the entire year. Fixed expenses are pretty easy to track. It’s those fluctuating expenses that can really be budget busters! By tracking those expenses we can get a good visual of how much we are spending. This can be eye opening so I highly recommend you give this a try next year!

Spending Trackers + Budget Planners

The final part of the 2023 Budget Binder kit includes several spending trackers and budget planners.

Spending trackers are a great way for you to keep track of your spending. They are also a great tool for figuring out how much you should put into certain sinking funds each month. By using these forms, you can see from year to year what you spend on things like medical and dental bills, home maintenance, car maintenance, and many more!

You will also find 2 budget planners included in the 2022 Budget Binder. These budget planners are specifically for CHRISTMAS and VACATION budget planning. It’s a great way to see how much you need to save.

The vacation budget planner is a great way for you to stay on track during your vacation.

The Christmas budget planner will help you create a plan, set a budget, and stick to it! Plus, it reminds you of all the extras we often forget.

And that’s it! I hope you found this overview of the 2023 Budget Binder helpful. Make sure to head to this link to learn even more and grab your copy so you can get your budget organized and your finances under control in 2023!

If you have any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]. 🙂