create a wedding budget planner in excel
It's interesting:"Wasn’t the wedding ceremony beautiful? The highlight, of course, was Linda floating magically down the aisle. I’m sure we were all thinking exactly the same thing: “How did HE get HER?”"
Weddings can be very expensive, but with a little planning, you can have your big day at a price you can afford. All you need is a budget! And there's no better way to begin compiling one than in Microsoft Excel.
Instructions
1
Before you begin, determine an amount you can afford to spend on your wedding. Include all of your sources of funds, including your personal income and family contributions. This amount should give you a solid figure on which to base your budget.
2
Boot up your computer and open Excel. When the program opens, a new Excel spreadsheet should appear. If it doesn't, go to "File" in the the upper left-hand corner and click on it. A drop-down menu should appear. Click on "New," and a new spreadsheet document will open.
3
Once the document is open, go back to "File" and click on "Save as." When the dialog box pops up, enter a name for your document and save it. You will want to save your spreadsheet periodically while you are working to keep from losing any data. To save, you can either click on the little disk at the top or click "File" in the upper left-hand corner. If you click file, a drop-down menu should appear. Click "Save" in that menu to save your Excel spreadsheet.
4
Click on the second box in the top row. This will allow you to enter data into the box, also called a cell. Label this cell "Expense." Then click on the next cell on the right. From left to right, label the next few columns as follows: Estimated Cost, Budget Amount, Dealer Estimate (for five separate columns) and Final Cost.
5
Referring to your original list of expenses, decide how you want to arrange your spreadsheet. Do you want to arrange the items by importance, or by the part of the wedding they entail? Once you've come to a decision, click on the second box in the first column and enter your first expense label. Then click on the cell below that one and enter the next label. Continue entering the expense labels until you have them all in the document. Click "Save."
6
Do a little research, and estimate how much each item for your wedding should cost. Enter the estimated cost of each item next to its expense in the Estimated Cost column of your spreadsheet. Click "Save."
7
Divide your budget accordingly. As you look at the numbers, you may have to cut items. You can either leave alone the cells that list these items, in case you underspend on something later, or you can delete the row. To delete the row, right-click on a row- one of the options in the drop-down should be "Delete Row." Click on it, and the row will disappear.
8
Once you have come up with your budgeted amount for each item, click on the first cell under the Budget Amount label and enter the budgeted amount for the corresponding expense. Click on the appropriate cell for each additional expense and enter the rest of your data. Click "Save." You now have a budget.
9
As you get estimates on different items from various dealers, enter each figure in the row for the specific item under a Dealer Estimate column.
10
As you sign contracts and come to a decision, list the final cost of each item in the Final Cost column.
Tips &- Warnings
If you have problems at any time with your Excel spreadsheet, click on "Help" and enter your help topic to obtain detailed instructions.
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