How to calculate money needed for bills, by day?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how to budget my money so I can look to see how much money I need on that particular day for bills. I've had an excel sheet I've used for a while that has all my bills listed out, how much they are, how often they occur, and some totals that for each month tell me how much my bills were. This worked for a while when I was using two separate accounts (one for bills, and one for "spending") but now I am switching to just one account. Because of this change I would like to be able to just look at my spreadsheet and see that for the 10th day of the month (generalized months) I should have X amount of money in my account for bills and the remaining is available for spending. Theoretically this amount needed for bills would be added to when each paycheck is received, and then subtracted from when each bill is paid. This process assumes bills are paid the exact same day each month. I just can't wrap my head around how to setup a spreadsheet for this. OR Maybe the question should be is this even a wise way to go about tracking? It all boils down to how much spending money do I have available on this day?

Answer 1

It almost sounds like you're trying to create a checkbook register. If that's the case here's something you can try:

You'll need 3 columns, let's say A, B, C. In cell c1 put the beginning balance. In cell c2 you can put this formula

=C1+A2-B2

Then column A will be any increases to the account (paychecks) and column B would be decreases and C shows the balance. Copy the formula down in column C. You can then take your beginning balance put all the bills you expect to pay in that period in separate rows in column B or as one big total. Then what's left is your "spendable". As you spend your "spendable" you'll need to record that in column b so you can keep an accurate balance.