A budget planner is much like a regular planner—only exclusively for organizing and managing your money. Most budget planners come with advice, stickers, and pages on which to itemize your daily, weekly, and/or monthly expenses. Some also come with envelopes for cash, calendars, and more specific tools to make sure you’re on top of your accounts.
How do you keep a budget book?
Essentially, you keep a budget book by tracking every bit of your money that comes and track your expenses down to the last dime that goes out using this planner.
If you stay consistent with entering information and your planner includes every aspect of your personal finance goals, it will turn into the answer to effectively managing your finances.
Because of this accountability factor, budget planners are generally more effective than budgeting on your own without any kind of tracking system.
It tells budgeters exactly how much they spend each day or week, and it makes them accountable for their budgeting because everything has to be written down.
What goes in a budget planner?
Some people like the finance books that include tip sheets and checklists for expenditures such as travel, medical, home improvement, and insurance.
Budgeting is one way to ensure you don’t spend more money than your income, as long as you take it seriously and follow it.
Budget books should include space for categories that fit your particular financial situation: shopping, entertainment, gas expenses, and other miscellaneous costs.
There should also be space for income earned from work (and potential overtime), child support or alimony payments, rental income if you have any properties outside of your primary residence that you rent out, income from investments, etc., sources of income.
No matter what content you choose for your organizer, the goal does not change, which is to set up an effective budgeting system tailored to fit your needs.
There are a variety of pages that can go inside a good budget planner.
The key features to look for include:
Bill organizer/place for bills and receipts
Debt tracking pages
Savings tracker
Monthly spending pages
When using a budget planner, just remember to take it one step at a time!
It’s unnecessary to include every expense on your first go-round; budget one category at a time until you’ve got all of your bases covered.
Keeps Your Financial Goals Realistic
Budget planners ensure that your budget remains realistic and achievable over time.
The best budget planner books include relevant information which will help handle future situations such as unexpected bills and financial emergencies such as an unplanned hospital stay.
Another example, you’ll know in advance whether or not you can cover the costs of maintaining a car that needs repairs from an accident.
Effective budget planning is vital to anybody who wants to stay financially healthy in today’s world.
Your Spending HabitsTrack
A budgeting planner makes it easy to keep track of your spending habits and plan ahead for purchases in advance, so you won’t have to wait until the last minute or forget about budgeting altogether!
Tell You How Much Money You have to Spend
Budget planners help you decide how much money you can spend on different expenses, considering activities you do for fun, not just money spent on rent, groceries, electricity, etc.
Best Budget Planners & Notebooks Reviewed
Budgeting Workbook Finance Monthly & Weekly Budget Planner, $11.99 from Barnes and Noble
Managing your money is a tall order, which is why you’ll need the Budgeting Workbook Finance Monthly & Weekly Budget Planner—a large formatted (8.5″x11.0″) budget planner that comes with a weekly and daily expense tracker to a monthly budget worksheet. It’s great for business, personal finance, bookkeeping, budgeting, and more.
Credit Card Payment Planner: Payoff Credit Card, Account Debt Tracker, Track Personal Details, Budget and Balance, Logbook, $19.99 at Barnes and Noble.
Overwhelmed with credit card debt? The Credit Card Payment Planner: Payoff Credit Card, Account Debt Tracker, Track Personal Details, Budget and Balance, Logbook is the perfect solution for you. Each page helps you manage
and record credit card debt information and provides prompts and space to track everything from the amount owed and the minimum payment to the interest rate and due date.
Stress Less, Spend Less Budget Planner, $14.99 at Barnes and Noble.
Is budget stressing you out? The Stress Less, Spend Less Budget Planner can help you reimagine your relationship with money. With a strong focus on overall financial wellness—with language that doesn’t make you feel guilty about spending!—this budget planner comes with the standard 52-week expense tracker as well as two planner sticker sheets with 250 organizational and inspirational stickers, an engagement calendar, a gold foil cover design, and easy-to-complete planning grids.
Budget Planning Bundle, $49 at ErinCondren.com
Perfect for any aesthetic, fans of Erin Condren are low-key obsessed with her line of budget planning products. And it’s not hard to see why! This A5 budget planner also comes with a gold gel pen (to make budgeting less boring!) and an accordion file so that you have everything you need to get going.
Pay the F*cking Bills: Simple Monthly Bill Organizer to Track Bills and Expenses Payments Checklist Log Book Budget Worksheets, $6.89 at Barnes and Noble.
It’s all right there in this budget planner’s name. For those who don’t shy away from a little profanity, this budget planner might just be the motivation needed to get that money in check.
Budget Planner: Daily Weekly Monthly Calendar Bill Debt Organizer With Income Expenses Tracker Accounting, $8.86 at Barnes and Noble
Also known as the Ultimate Budget Planner, this baby isn’t just a monthly bill organizer. There’s space to track savings, debt, annual expenses, annual budget, monthly budget, monthly income, and more. Plus, it comes with a 12-month calendar and blank pages for filling out your holiday gift list as well as your holiday budget.
Bill Organizer Budget Planner Book – Monthly Budget and Expense Tracker, $27.99 at Walmart
Perhaps the most all-inclusive of the budget planners on this list, the Bill Organizer Budget Planner Book is our top pick for both budgeting newbies and young adults alike. That’s because it comes with about every financial tool possible: individual pages for account information, each month with pockets for receipts and bills, annual expenses, actual versus project income, blank monthly calendars, incomes, payments, savings, and more. There’s even
1 Christmas/Holiday Section Including- 1 Christmas Title Page, 1 Page with a Pocket for Receipts and Bills, 1 Actual vs. Projected Income Page, 1 Budget Page, 1 Spending Page, 1 Overview Page for Tracking Gifts, Christmas Tree, Decorations, Grocery Shopping, and much more expenses.
Well Planned Budget, $25 at Etsy
Available in two color cover options—Shades of Purple or Pink Floral—the Well Planned book from the Etsy shop WellPlannerPaper offers step-by-step tools for creating a monthly budget, setting up a successful savings plan, and aggressively paying down debt. A great workbook for the individual but also awesome for managing a whole family’s budget; you’ll also love the actionable steps the planner provides.
Weekly Budget Planner: A Year-Long Updated Spending Tracker, $5.99 at Barnes and Noble
Get your finances in order with the Weekly Budget Planner: A Year-Long Updated Spending Tracker. It features specific tracker pages for up to 52 weeks of weekly expenses and 12 monthly budgets—all updated so that you can start (or pick it back up) at any time. You’ll also love that it’s not exactly small—it’s desk-sized, measuring 8-1/2″ wide x 11″ high.
Budget Planner, $28.90 at Etsy
Definitely, one of the more colorful planners out there, this one from Etsy is a no-brainer for the financial guru who knows what they’re doing and just wants to keep the good times rolling. Inside, each un-dated monthly spread (there are 12) comes with budgeting tips, a monthly calendar, a monthly overview that manages income, debts, and long-term savings goals, a monthly bill tracker, a cash envelope tracker for two pay periods, journaling sections, motivational quotes throughout, and three pages of expense trackers (each with a category key).
Undated Hello Savings Classic Budget Happy Planner, $29.99 at The Happy Planner
Know. Your. Worth! The classic-sized budgeting planner from The Happy Planner wants to make monitoring your spending happy. With a layout specifically designed to make it easy to save with weekly expense charts, reflection space, and more, the Undated Hello Savings Classic Budget Happy Planner features 12 dividers, bright prints, metallic foil accents, and of course,,, motivational quotes to inspire you to keep saving.
Also, some other budget planning books are listed below:
Clever Fox Budget Planner [Best For Beginners]
Clever Fox Budget Book
Money Tamer Ultimate Budget Binder [Best Reusable Option]
GoGirl Budget Planner
Legend Budget Planner
Clever Fox Budget Planner Bill Organizer [Editor’s Choice]
Erin Condren Petite Financial Planner
Limitless Mindset Budget Planner
Boxclever Press Budget Planner
Mead OrganizHer Expense Tracker
