How To Make a DIY Budget Planner Book

By Rebecca Safier. January 13, 2025 · 9 minute read

This content may include information about products, features, and/or services that SoFi does not provide and is intended to be educational in nature.

How To Make a DIY Budget Planner Book

Making a DIY budget planner book can require just a bit of time and be a motivating way to take control of your finances. With your own budget planner, you can track your spending, save for big expenses, and come up with a plan to pay off debt. Plus, you can exercise your creativity as you design a book that works for you.

Read on to learn DIY budget planner ideas that can empower you to reach your financial goals.

Key Points

•   A DIY budget planner book helps track income and expenses, offering a tangible alternative to digital tools and aiding in achieving financial goals like saving or debt repayment.

•   Various budgeting methods, such as the 50/30/20 rule and zero-based budgeting, can be incorporated to allocate income effectively.

•   Customization with binders, dividers, and templates allows for personalized sections for income, expenses, and goal tracking, enhancing organization.

•   Regular updates and setting SMART goals are crucial for effective budgeting and maintaining motivation.

•   Creative decoration with markers, stickers, and illustrations personalizes the planner, making it engaging and functional.

Why Make a Budget Planner Book?

A budget planner book is an effective tool for tracking your income and expenses.

•   It gives you a big-picture overview of your cash flow while also helping you track your daily spending. That means you’ll likely gain a better understanding of the money flowing into and out of your checking account.

•   With a budget planner book, you can monitor your progress toward both short- and long-term financial goals. For instance, you might use a budget planner to save for a vacation or pay off credit card debt.

•   You can tailor the pages, rows, and columns to suit your particular lifestyle and financial situation. For instance, if you have a full-time job and also a side hustle, you can manage those two income streams and related expenses in a way that works just for you.

•   You’ll have a tangible budget tracker in your hands, which you might prefer to a digital tool such as a budgeting app. Rather than staring at numbers on a screen, you can play around with colorful dividers, stickers, and other materials that suit your tastes.

In these ways, a DIY budget planner book can be a highly useful tool to organize and manage your financial life.

Recommended: 7 Tips for Managing Your Money Better

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Review the Essentials of Budgeting

Although budgeting may sound tedious, it can actually be the key to financial freedom. Your earnings and expenses will no longer be a mysterious matter of guesswork. Instead, you’ll have a clear understanding of where your money is going each and every month.

Here are a few tips on how to make a budget that will help you build your planner.

1. Write Down Your Income

Your first step is to determine your monthly income. If you receive regular biweekly paychecks, write down the amount you get and when payday is. Calculate your take-home pay for the month. Note any additional income sources, such as a side hustle, freelance work, or a passive income stream.

2. Track Your Expenses

Next, figure out where your money is going each month.

•   Start by listing out fixed expenses, such as rent or your mortgage payment, subscriptions, and car insurance.

•   Then, estimate your spending on variable expenses, such as groceries, utilities, and transportation. You may need to adjust these amounts occasionally — for instance, your heating bill will probably be a lot higher in the winter than in the summer.

•   As you’re listing out expenses, look for hidden recurring costs, such as a streaming subscription you’re no longer using or a gym membership that’s going to waste. Review your bank account and credit card statements for regular expenses you might have forgotten about.

Along the way, you might identify areas where you’re overspending and can cut back.

3. Make Note of Your Debts

Write down all your debts and monthly bills, such as credit card, student loan, mortgage, or personal loan payments. If you’re motivated to pay off debt faster, you could start sending extra payments to the loan with the highest interest rate.

4. Set Financial Goals

Once you’ve recorded all your income and expenses, take some time to set financial goals. Maybe you want to build an emergency fund, pay off credit card debt, or save for a down payment for a home. If, say, you want to have $10,000 in an emergency fund in two years, you can divide that amount to see that you need to stash $416.67 a month to hit that goal (not including any interest gains). You could then figure out how to finance that: Could you have a staycation vs. a vacation this year? Or give up your gym membership for a while to help pump up that emergency fund?

You can list your goals within your DIY budget planner and track your progress toward them. You might also create some pages for self-reflection, where you can write about your progress and challenges along the way.

5. Choose a Budgeting Strategy

Next, you will probably want to pick a system to help you wrangle this financial information and your aspirations. Here are a few types of budgeting methods to consider as you make your DIY budget planner:

•   50/30/20 rule of budgeting: With this approach, you allocate 50% of your income toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% for savings and paying off debt.

•   Zero-based budgeting: With zero-based budgeting, you assign a purpose to every dollar you earn each month until you’re down to zero dollars. For instance, some dollars may go into savings, others may go into debt repayment, and others will go toward living expenses.

•   Envelope budget system: This strategy can be useful for people who prefer to spend in cash or want to curb their credit card use. It involves setting aside cash into envelopes for each item in your budget so you never spend beyond a set amount. You could attach these envelopes to your DIY budget planner. (Note: You can adapt this system for debit card use if spending cash isn’t convenient for you.)

Recommended: 50/30/20 Budget Calculator

Design Your Budget Planner Layout

The beauty of making your own budget planner book is that you can customize it to your preferences. You’ll need the following materials to get started:

•   A binder with dividers

•   Monthly budget calendars and/or templates, which you can find online and print out for free

•   Writing utensils

•   Other materials for color coding or organization, such as sticky notes, markers, and highlighters

Once you have the components of your budget planner gathered, you can determine how to structure it. You’ll need a designated space for your income and expenses, as well as an expense tracker for each month. You can organize this section however works best for you.

•   Perhaps you want to divide your budget planner’s monthly expenses by category, such as household, food, healthcare, transportation, and entertainment expenses.

•   Or you might prefer thinking in terms of fixed vs. variable expenses.

•   You might want to add sections for gift spending at the holidays and in months which contain birthdays of the favorite people in your life.

It’s all about finding out what suits you and will keep you engaged in managing your money.

Some other ideas:

•   You might also create some pages to set goals (and include imagery to motivate you of, say, the new car you’re saving for), journal about your progress, or record other notes that are meaningful for you.

•   If you want to save paper receipts or bills (or use the envelope system of budgeting), you could attach envelopes or extra folders to different pages in your budget planner.

Tips for Consistently Using Your DIY Budget Planner

Designing your DIY budget planner book is only the first step — you also need to use it regularly to stick to your spending plan. Here are a few tips for staying consistent:

•   Set aside time to budget: Your budget planner isn’t going to fill itself out. Consider setting aside a specific time each week to use it. Sunday evenings, for instance, can be a good time to set goals for the week ahead.

•   Make adjustments along the way: Your budget planner may reveal hidden expenses or blind spots. Don’t be afraid to revise your work along the way as circumstances change. For instance, if you overspend during the holidays, you may want to try some tips for living on a budget to recover, such as dining out less or putting your gym membership on hold and trying free classes on YouTube. You can track your progress in your planner and write in motivational messages or mantras, if you like.

•   Look for ways to increase your income: After a certain point, you can only cut expenses so much. If you want to speed up progress toward your financial goals, you might consider ways to make more money, such as working a side hustle, applying for a promotion, or training for a new, more lucrative job.

•   Set SMART goals: One of the most common budgeting mistakes is setting vague, uninspiring goals. Use the SMART framework to set meaningful goals. This acronym means your goals must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. For that last one, it can be helpful to set both short- and longer-term goals. You’ll likely feel a sense of pride and accomplishment as you check off the near-term ones, which can fuel your progress on ones that are farther out.

As you get used to working consistently with your DIY budget planner book, it can be a helpful and satisfying ritual that anchors your financial life and progress.

The Takeaway

Creating a DIY budget planner can help you manage your finances in a way that works best for you. You’ll have a tangible tool for tracking your monthly income and expenses, as well as setting goals and tracking your progress. Plus, you’ll have full control over the design, layout, and organization of your budget, which can help you adapt and stay motivated along your financial journey.

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FAQ

How often should I update my DIY budget planner?

Update your DIY budget planner frequently at the beginning to ensure it aligns with your spending and savings habits. You might want to check in with it weekly or at least monthly to track your finances, and then see how often suits you going forward. You’ll also want to update it whenever you have a change in your status, savings goals, expenses, or income (say, if you get married or divorced, have a baby, buy a house, or get a raise).

Can I use a digital template for my DIY budget planner?

You can use a digital template for your DIY budget planner, customize it to meet your needs, and then print it out. Some tools that offer free templates include Google Docs and Canva. You can also purchase budget planner templates on a site like Etsy.

What are some creative ways to decorate my budget planner?

With a DIY budget planner, you can organize and decorate it however you like. You could use colorful markers, dividers, stamps, illustrations, stickers, or other materials to jazz it up. Another DIY budget planner idea might be to include a journaling section where you can reflect on your goals and your spending and saving habits. Make sure to keep your budget planner functional, however, as organizing and tracking your expenses is the top priority.

Photo credit: iStock/tacojim


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