A Comprehensive Guide to Digital Budgeting

Anyone can save time and money by switching to digital budgeting. Whether you’re tired of getting paper bills or want a more convenient way to track your expenses, digital budgeting is a great way to manage your finances. How do you get started? What do you need to create a digital budget? 

Digital Budgeting Tools

The first step to budget completely digitally is compiling your digital budgeting tools. This includes the device you’ll mainly be budgeting on as well as some helpful apps and websites.  

Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are a staple of digital budgeting, whether you’re using Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or a similar spreadsheet program. You don’t have to use spreadsheets to create a digital budget, but they can be extremely effective. 

Since spreadsheets are so popular for digital budgeting, there are plenty of guides for creating a budget spreadsheet. Templates and tutorials are a great way to get started if you’re not adept at creating Excel formulas. 

Apps

There are hundreds of budgeting apps out there today for phones, tablets, and computers alike. These purpose-built apps can be an easy way to budget completely digitally for some people. If you find one that you like, it may even be a one-stop-shop for your digital budget. 

Some budgeting apps are free while others require an annual or monthly subscription. The benefit of using a mobile app specifically is convenience. You can pull out your phone and update your expenses anytime you make a purchase, even if you’re not at your computer. 

Tablet, Phone, or Computer

Your tablet, phone or computer will be the main device you manage your digital budget on. Choosing the best device for budgeting depends on how you prefer to keep track of your expenses. 

A tablet and digital pen is good for people who want maximum flexibility for their budget’s layout. You can use a journaling app, such as Goodnotes, to keep a digital handwritten budget. This method strikes a balance between conventional paper budgeting and efficient digital budgeting. 

Your phone is the best digital budgeting device if you want maximum convenience or have trouble sticking to habits. Since you likely have your phone with you all the time, it is easy to keep your expenses updated throughout the day. 

The most robust device for managing a digital budget is a laptop or PC. This is the easiest device to work with a spreadsheet on. Plus, digital banking and credit card websites tend to work best on desktop rather than mobile devices. 

Digital Banking

A key piece of digital budgeting is digital banking. Switching to fully paperless banking keeps all of your bills, statements, and expenses collected on digital platforms. This will simplify and streamline your digital budgeting. 

Digital banking is important for managing a digital budget since it allows you to move a few key processes online. For example, you can set up automatic transfers for fixed expenses and schedule bills ahead of time. By setting up direct deposit, as well, you can go completely paperless. Your digital banking platform will record everything in one place. 

It is a good idea to download the official apps for your credit card provider and bank. If you don’t want to use mobile apps, make sure to bookmark your credit card and banking providers’ digital banking websites instead. 

Creating and Maintaining a Digital Budget

Once you have all of your digital budgeting tools collected, it’s time to set up a budgeting process for yourself. 

Set Up Your Digital Budget Hub

The first step to creating your digital budget is choosing where your “hub” will be. This is the primary platform you will use to create and manage your budget, such as Microsoft Excel or a mobile budgeting app. 

If you are using a laptop or desktop computer as your main device, a spreadsheet program is usually the best option for your budgeting hub. Google Sheets is a great free alternative to Microsoft Excel if you are trying to save money. Google even has some free, ready to use budget templates you can get started with. 

Get your hub organized to manage all of your monthly expenses. Include your necessities, such as rent and utilities, as well as food, insurance, debt or savings, subscriptions, entertainment and your monthly income. Remember to leave space for variable expenses, like grocery bills. Once your hub is set up, create a copy of it. This way you have a blank template set up exactly the way you want that you can copy monthly or as needed. 

Automate Recurring and Fixed Expenses

One of the best benefits of digital budgeting is automation. When you switch to digital banking, you can automate certain expenses you know you have to pay every month, such as rent or loan payments. Automating these ensures that you don’t accidentally forget to pay a bill. 

Take a look at your budget and identify recurring charges that you could automate. You may need to set some charges to auto-renew on the merchant’s website. For example, you might need to go into your account on your building manager or realtor’s website to enable automatic rent payments. 

Create a Schedule

Finally, create a schedule for updating your digital budget. It can be easy to forget about your budget when it’s hidden away on your laptop or phone. Set a reminder to update your budget daily, weekly or monthly. 

Easy Digital Budgeting

Digital budgeting is often easier and more efficient than paper budgeting. It allows you to go paperless, keep track of all your expenses in one place and automate recurring expenses. Getting started with digital budgeting is all about finding the budgeting tool that works for you, whether that’s Microsoft Excel, a budgeting app or even a digital notebook. Once you have your digital budget hub set up, create a schedule for updating your budget and stick to it.