The Weekender Budget Workbook potx

The Weekender Budget Workbook
Get a jump start on your budget over the weekend!
By Derek Olsen of
Beatnik Budget
Don’t let your money slip through your fingers.
www.beatnikbudget.com
Copyright 2012 Derek Olsen
Smashwords Edition
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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.
Beatnik Budget
www.beatnikbudget.com
Photo Credit
Rachel Porter
Digital edition by GoPublished
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www.beatnikbudget.com
DISCLAIMER
The lessons presented in this workbook are a result of my own personal experience and
independent study. All information is offered as my own opinion. Please make sure that all
plans you make and actions you take are best for you and your unique financial situation.
I have pulled together all my knowledge regarding monthly budgeting and money
management to create this workbook. Use the information contained in this workbook
appropriately in regards to your personal financial situation.

I cannot take responsibility for any decisions that you or anyone else makes with regard to
your own personal financial situation. All results that come from decisions made based on the
advice in this workbook are solely the responsibility of the decision-maker. I do not assume
responsibility for any content contained in third party books, websites, people, products or
methods that I mention in this workbook.
By reading this workbook, you agree that Derek Olsen, Kansas City Coaching, LLC and
Beatnik Budget (DBA/fictitious name filed with the State of Missouri) should be held
harmless for any outcomes as a result of acting on any of the text in this workbook.
The information contained in this workbook is for informational and entertainment purposes
only. Also, it’s copyrighted.
Table of Contents – Just click to navigate
I, Derek.
Why You Should Listen to Me
Learn from our experience
What is “The Weekender Budget Workbook” all about?
How The Weekender helps you succeed
The Weekender Checklist
Saturday
Step 1: Basic Assessment
Worksheet #1: Basic Assessment
Debrief #1
Step 2: Calculating Your Net Worth
Worksheet #2: Assets – Debts = Net worth
Debrief #2
Sunday
Step 3: Needs vs. Wants
Worksheet #3: NEEDS List
Worksheet #4: WANTS List
Debrief #3
Minimalism: a great tool

Step 4: Where Should It Go?
Worksheet #5: Where should it go?
Debrief #4
Step 5: The Monthly Budget
Worksheet #6: The Monthly Budget
The Monthly Budget Re-Cap
Common pit-falls, black holes and general things to avoid
Things to remember
Summary and next steps
Extra Spectacular Bonus Worksheets
But wait…there’s more!
About the Author
I, Derek.
Here I am, having fun with the wife, Carrie.
(Pro marriage tip: marry your best friend!)
I am an expert—an expert at being who I am. I am not much of an expert at anything else.
I’m pretty average. When tricky situations pop up in my life that need dealing with, I try to
figure them out as best I can. They say that experience is the best teacher, and boy have I had
an experience.
Today I am offering to you all I’ve got: everything I’ve learned about how to create and
manage a financial plan that works for the average, everyday normal person.
Nothing too fancy, just a simple plan that works.
Let’s be friends. Seriously.
Why You Should Listen to Me
“Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.”
— Vernon Sanders Law
I have been there and done that.
Allow me to tell you my story, so you understand why you should listen to me about financial
strategies.
In 2010, I was trucking along in life, earning a steady, decent-sized paycheck and had

managed to save up a small pile of beans. My net worth was approaching six figures and I
was only 30. Debt free and loving it I had a comfortable and reliable financial buffer between
myself and the Bad Things in Life. As if there is such a thing as a financial buffer between
one’s self and the bad things in life.
Then Boy Meets Girl, Girl Says Yes, and it’s off to our Happily Ever After. While my soon-
to-be wife had a few small debts to clean up and a small student loan to pay off, it was easy
stuff that I could cover with one check. It was all going to “work out”.
But then
WE HAD TO DO A SHORT SALE ON HER OLD HOUSE!
Suddenly things weren’t so peachy anymore.
A short sale is what you must do in order to avoid a foreclosure on a property when you can’t
keep up with the mortgage payments. When there is a gap between what you owe on the
property and what you can get for selling it, where do you suppose that extra money come
from? It comes from you! It’s like selling a house to someone AND paying them to buy it.
Wikipedia describes it this way:
A short sale is a sale of real estate in which the proceeds from selling the property will fall
short of the balance of debts secured by liens against the property and the property owner
cannot afford to repay the liens' full amounts, whereby the lien holders agree to release
their lien on the real estate and accept less than the amount owed on the debt. Any unpaid
balance owed to the creditors is known as a deficiency. Short sale agreements do not
necessarily release borrowers from their obligations to repay any deficiencies of the loans,
unless specifically agreed to between the parties.
A short sale is often used as an alternative to foreclosure because it mitigates additional
fees and costs to both the creditor and borrower; however both will often result in a
negative credit report against the property owner.
I will skip the millions of details for now – let’s just say it’s not an experience I would
recommend (Details-a-plenty in a forthcoming ebook, launching late 2012). You can read
more about our short sale experience on my website.
Learn from our experience
We clamped down on our spending, started an intense monthly budget and managed to avoid

foreclosure by paying our portion of the short sale. The house is a memory now and we have
the documentation to prove it. It was a valuable learning experience for us.
In this three-part series, I present everything I learned about what we could and should have
done differently, as well as the few things we did right. I offer this to anyone in need of help,
support, and encouragement to create a real pen-to-paper strategy and action plan.
• PART I: “The Weekender”: You are here!
• PART II: “The Four-Week Financial Turnaround”: A more in-depth workbook,
launching 2012.
• PART III: The complete tale about our experience and how we made it through (untitled,
at this point).
I write this from in-the-trenches experience. I do not have a degree in finance, investing,
accounting or budgeting. I have never worked for any kind of financial firm.
My wife and I figured this stuff out because we had to. It wasn't fun at first, but I realized that
I really enjoyed the process. I enjoyed gathering the information, organizing it in a way that
made sense, identifying our values and goals, and creating a plan of action. In a strange way,
the whole thing turned into a fun challenge. After each battle that we won, a feeling of
accomplishment always followed. Reviewing the results of all our efforts, hard work and
discipline was even more satisfying. And when we finally got that last letter that said it was
all over, I could almost see the trumpets that I was hearing.
Another plus—my marriage is stronger than a Tyrannosaurus Rex because we stuck together
during this season of scarcity in our lives. My wife and I didn't blame or fight each other. We
even held hands when it got scary. It would have been very easy to blame and get mad at
each other, but it wouldn’t have gotten us anywhere. We fought together, not each other.
When you both fall out of the boat and find yourselves in a raging river, the best thing you
can do is hold on to each other.
Experience is truly the best teacher. I learned that the hard way. I learned on my own. And I
am better because of it.
I offer to you now what I learned from our experience. I hope you will let our experience be
your teacher as well.
—Derek

(With tons of help and love from Carrie)
What is “The Weekender Budget Workbook” all about?
It’s all about you and your success.
This workbook offers you tools and techniques that have nothing to do with numbers,
money or math. It’s about behavior and taking control.
Spending less is sometimes easier than making more. If you don’t have much control over the
amount of money you make, controlling the amount you spend is the only way to improve
your finances.
The numbers will take care of themselves—either the money is there or it isn’t. Our decisions
and buying behaviors are what may need an overhaul. This is a process of discovery.
This budget workbook is your map, guide & fearless leader for taking control of your
finances in just one weekend. One weekend — a few hours — and you are done.
How The Weekender helps you succeed:
• Create a starting point. Many people have told me they don’t have a financial strategy
because they don’t know where to start. This process can look overwhelming with no
clear starting point. Jumping into this process is like trying to jump onto a moving train.
When and where to jump is hard to see and scary to do. This workbook provides, or
more accurately, creates a starting point. And you’ll find that starting point on worksheet
#1.
• Follow the path. Just knowing the starting point usually isn’t enough. The numbered
worksheets and step-by-step instructions in this workbook provide a clear direction for
your financial path. The Checklist (page 10) is a great tool to keep you on that path. At
any time if you have lost your way, refer to the Checklist. Follow the steps in order.
• Discover information, knowledge and tools. When I say “information & knowledge,”
I’m talking about the hands-on side of this process that takes you all the way to the finish
line. Action-oriented information and knowledge, not just theory and good ideas.
Do yourself a favor…give yourself a raise.
After just a few months of this budgeting process, people who have completed every step and
continue to maintain their budget say that they feel like they have gotten a raise.

It’s easy to imagine why they might feel that way. Imagine you have been living paycheck to
paycheck, ending every month with the same amount of money you began the month with—
for years. Then all of a sudden you have a few hundred—or several thousand—more dollars
in the bank! How could you not feel like you got a raise?
Questions, comments, suggestions, thoughts and success stories are welcome
and encouraged:
Email =
Website = www.beatnikbudget.com
Twitter = @beatnikbusiness
Pinterest = pinterest.com/derekbeatnik
Enough talk already—that train is already moving.
It’s time to jump on board.
The Weekender Checklist
Use this checklist as a guide as you work through all the worksheets, listed in the order of
completion. Print this page and put it on the refrigerator. Check off each step as you fill out
the worksheets. When you have completed and checked off all the worksheets, take a picture
and tag me (#beatnikbusiness) in a tweet, Instagram, blog post or Facebook status update. I’d
love to hear about your progress and results!
To print, or not to print.
Some people will want to print this entire workbook. If you do, then I suggest you three-hole
punch the pages and place them all in a nice three-ring binder. The first page makes a handy
cover. Gathering everything in a binder brings the workbook into the physical world, making
it easier to fill in the forms.
At the very least, you will want to print the five worksheets so you can fill them out. Making
the calculations and hand-writing everything will help cement the knowledge of your
situation, keeping you engaged and more deeply connected with your finances in the future.
Go to Step 1 and get after it!
Saturday
Step 1: Basic Assessment
You have already taken the first step and are well on your way. Good for you, keep it up.

For lots of people, this worksheet will be a challenge, for some it will be a breeze. If you
already know all the figures needed for this first worksheet, great! You can move along fairly
quickly. If this form is challenging for you, however, that’s okay. You are far from alone.
Don’t get discouraged if you don’t know all the answers or the numbers look scary. The
results are worth it. It’s better to know the facts than to be in the dark.
You’ll need to hunt down a few pieces of information for this worksheet.
• Your paycheck and all other sources of income
• Information about all of your bills, debts and payments
• Information about any assets you have (stocks, mutual funds, 401k)
• A bank statement for last month that shows every transaction for the month
To get a picture of your current finances, start with your income and subtract all the spending.
In other words, track down where each dollar went. This exercise will leave you with one
number, one number that has a whole lot to say about how you are spending what you have
earned. That number is the difference between how much money was earned and how much
was spent. Also known as “Breathing Room.”
Instructions:
1. Using your bank statement, identify a category for each expense, using the list on page
14. You can come up with your own different categories if that helps you.
2. Total up the amounts for each category and note that amount spent on the worksheet.
For example, if you have fourteen transactions for food purchases at the grocery store,
add them all up for one sum for the Groceries category.
3. As you go along, put a check mark next to each transaction on your bank statement to
make sure that you don’t skip over any purchases you made during the month.
Please do not spend hours tracking down every penny. Just get as close as you can — it does
not have to be perfect! This process is designed to get easier and take less time as you get
used to it. If it turns out messy and the numbers don’t add up perfectly, relax. It will get better
each month. If you don’t have exact numbers for some items, just estimate what an average
month’s cost would be.
At the bottom of the worksheet, your total spending should equal your income to the dollar. If
you are unsure what to do with a bit of spending that has not been allocated to a category,

throw it in the “All Other/Unexpected” line. You might end up with a big “other/unexpected”
amount. That’s okay for now; as you continue to do your monthly budget, the numbers will
make more sense.
Worksheet #1: Basic Assessment
Net Monthly Income __________________
(“Net” means the cash that actually hits your bank account. Anything that is automatically
withdrawn from your paycheck before this point, such as taxes, retirement or insurance, is not
recorded here.)
Total Spending – Income should equal Zero. If it doesn’t, what have you missed?
Debrief
How did it go? Was it tough? Easy? What did you learn?
Many people have told me they have never done anything like this exercise before. When
people do this for the first time, most are surprised at what they learn about their own
spending habits. I was. It’s interesting to be surprised by something that you did.
This worksheet is first for a reason. We need to discover where our money has been going
before we can tell our money where we want it to go.
The first time I did this I was 31 years old. I would have guessed that I was spending about
$150 on restaurants each month. After my new wife and I went through our bank statement
line by line like you just did, I was shocked. It turned out we were spending $450 a month on
eating out.
I was angry! I was allowing myself to do something that, had I known, I never would have
allowed myself to do. It doesn’t take a calculator to figure out that I had spent thousands of
dollars on restaurants during my adult life.
$450 might be an average weekend for you, or an average year. The point isn’t the amount
but the fact that I was unaware of the facts. I was off by 3 times the correct amount, compared
to what I guessed was happening.
I wish I had all that money back. That was my money! I had worked hard to earn it. Yet I was
the one who spent it. No one forced me to spend it in this way or stole any of it from me. It
was all my choice.
Information about your money is so easy to get now-a-days on the Internet. Most banks have

your statement online, yet hardly anyone does this simple exercise every month. Lots of
people have never and will never do it. And it’s a wonder why things aren’t adding up?
My wife and I follow this practice every month. For over a year, we have gone through our
bank statement for the previous month, line by line. This habit has changed our financial
lives. We make small adjustments, write up a budget for the upcoming month and get on with
living our life together without worrying about money. Getting on the same page with your
partner is priceless — no secrets and no fights. Agree on how the money will be spent ahead
of time, and you can enjoy spending it together.
Time saving tip!
Going through a bank statement line-by-line can be tedious. I have an easy way to trim down
on the number of transactions on your bank statement, which makes this resolution process
easier and faster to complete each month. My tips on creating a cash-only policy will also
help create and define barriers for specific budget categories.
Check out this blog post on creating a cash budget system.
Step 2: Calculating Your Net Worth
Let’s get an idea of where you stand in your own financial “big picture”. Track down all of
those long-lost user names and passwords. Use this worksheet and a calculator to:
1. Add up all your “liquid-ish” financial assets you own.
a. Cash
b. Stocks
c. Bonds
d. Mutual funds
e. IRAs
f. Value of House*
g. Value of Car**
TOTAL =
2. Add up all your debts and liabilities
a. Credit cards
b. Loans (e.g. education)
c. Outstanding bills (e.g. medical)

d. Mortgage*
e. Car loan**
TOTAL =
3. Subtract the debts from the assets – the number you get is your Net Worth.
*A note about the house. If you have a mortgage, you must include the market value of the
house as an asset if you are going to include the balance of your mortgage in your liabilities.
**Same with a car loan. If you include the cars value as an asset, you must include the car
loan as a debt. Otherwise things won’t balance out correctly.
Worksheet #2: Assets – Debts = Net worth
Debrief
Your Net Worth may well be a negative (literally and figuratively) number. If you have a
mortgage on a house, credit cards, a car loan and student loans, it could be a very BIG
negative number. Don’t panic – it’s that way for lots and lots of people. It’s better to know
the facts than to keep yourself in the dark about your own financial situation. If your debt is
huge, don’t use that as an excuse to give up.
Why figure out your Net Worth? As with everything in this workbook, you can learn from
this. This shows you the big picture and boils everything down to one number. Doing this
every month is the best way to keep track of your overall progress. If your Net Worth goes
up, good. If it goes down, figure out why and make adjustments.
Your Net Worth is the big picture. This one number represents your financial situation in the
simplest terms.
Re-figure your Net Worth without the mortgage (debt) and the value of the house (asset) to
get a different perspective. Of course the debt on your house is real and should be given due
attention. But looking at the situation without the house can make more sense. It will give
you a better idea of what you are really looking at. The house and the mortgage are more or
less “fixed” and aren’t easily manipulated during the monthly budget process. You can
control other areas such as eating out or entertainment more easily on a month-by-month
basis. The mortgage is such a large number and only speaks for one aspect of your situation.
This one number can skew the rest of the numbers and make it difficult to judge all the
variables for what they really are.

Calculating your Net Worth should be a motivator, not a slap in the face. If you set yourself
up to be able to make forward progress each month, your Net Worth will grow. Use this
number as a kind of target or goal. Challenge yourself to make it climb a little each month.
After a year, go back and chart your Net Worth for each month.
Up, Up, and away!
Day one is over. Congrats and great job!
For those who have never done this: I want to say, good for you. You are taking control. If
you have come this far, you are serious about getting a handle on your finances and making
changes. Keep it up!
Take a break and I will see you tomorrow.
Don’t just stop now — make the time.
Sunday
Step 3: Needs vs. Wants
A blank sheet, a fresh start.
The next worksheet is a series of blank lines. It’s blank for a reason. I want you to use it to
list only the expenses that you have to have in order to survive. Really—don’t list anything
that you don’t need to actually survive. If you went a month without cable TV, you would not
die. Trust me; I haven’t had cable or even a TV in my house for over two years.
I will make it easy – here’s what goes on your list:
• Food
• Clothing
• Shelter
• Love (and you can’t even buy that!)
Ok, Ok, I know… You should probably list things like a car and pesky nuisances like
insurance and basic utilities. Do not list debts or anything else that you don’t need. Debts are
things that you have, not need. Paying off debt is something that should be done, but having
debt is not something that you need. We will tackle debt head on in The Four Week Financial
Turnaround.
I am trying to shift your way of thinking about how you spend your money. We get so used
to certain things being in our lives that it becomes normal and we forget that we don’t

actually need them. We don’t even consider the possibility of tossing them out the window.
Let’s question the things around us and find a few things to toss out the window. It will feel
good, and it could even be fun.
Worksheet #3: NEEDS List
List only the things that you need to survive.
I have limited the number of rows to ten on purpose. It should look something like this.
• Food
• Clothing
• Shelter
• Car & Car insurance
• Health insurance
• Medical expenses
• Life insurance
• Basic utilities (water, gas, electric, trash)
Anything beyond this should be questioned as “NEED”, and probably categorized as
“WANT”.
Move on to part two…
Worksheet #4: WANTS List
The leftovers, the extras…the fat.
With your spending from last month fresh on your mind and the list of things you truly need
on the previous page, what is left over?
On the worksheet below:
1. List all of the things that you spent money on last month that did not make it onto your
“Needs” list —expenses listed on WS #1 but not on WS #3.
2. Include the amount you usually spend monthly on each item.
3. Include what action is needed to drop this expense. (Cancel cable bill, call book club,
call gym, brew coffee at home, cook dinner at home, sell boat)
The list should include all the things that you can do without. Your list may include things
like:
• Eating out

• Cable TV
• Music and movie subscriptions
• Premium Entertainment (anything that costs more than free)
• Boat, motorcycle, or other “leisure vehicle”
• Cigarettes, alcohol, and other “vices”