Directions

Question

Directions
Build a budget using a spreadsheet. Suppose you're a senior in high school and you need to continue to save for college tuition. You'll need to include income, expenses, and savings in your personal budget. Open a spreadsheet and follow these steps to populate your spreadsheet.

Enter labels, Month, Projected Income, Estimated Expenses, and Savings in cells A2, B2, C2, and D2.
Enter the months October through August in cells A3 through A13. Use a shortcut.
Enter the following data for your income.
Month	Projected Income
October	$550
November	$550
December	$600
January	$550
February	$550
March	$550
April	$550
May	$550
June	$930
July	$930
August	$620
Use the spreadsheet to calculate the totals for the following expenses. There is no need to label the type of expenses in the spreadsheet. Just add the numbers together and list as a lump sum for each month.
Month	Estimated Expenses	Month	Estimated Expenses	Month	Estimated Expenses
October	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30	November	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Miscellaneous $30	December	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Gifts $150
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30
January	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Miscellaneous $30	February	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30	March	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Miscellaneous $30
April	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30	May	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Miscellaneous $30	June	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $300
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30
July	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Miscellaneous $30	August	Clothes $150
Cell phone $50
Entertainment $60
Haircut $40
Miscellaneous $30	
At the beginning of October, you had $5600 in your savings account. Enter a formula in column D to show the amount you have in savings each month. Assume all of the money that you don't spend goes into your savings account.
Estimate the answer and check the data and formulas.

GPT-4o mini · Answer

Certainly! Below is a detailed walkthrough of how to create the personal budget spreadsheet following your directions.

Spreadsheet Setup Instructions

Open a Spreadsheet:
- Open a tool like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or any other spreadsheet software.
Enter Labels:
- In cell A2, type Month
- In cell B2, type Projected Income
- In cell C2, type Estimated Expenses
- In cell D2, type Savings
Enter Months:
- In cell A3, type October
- In cell A4, type November
- In cell A5, type December
- In cell A6, type January
- In cell A7, type February
- In cell A8, type March
- In cell A9, type April
- In cell A10, type May
- In cell A11, type June
- In cell A12, type July
- In cell A13, type August
- (You can also use the fill handle to quickly drag and fill these months.)
Enter Projected Income:
- In cell B3, type 550
- In cell B4, type 550
- In cell B5, type 600
- In cell B6, type 550
- In cell B7, type 550
- In cell B8, type 550
- In cell B9, type 550
- In cell B10, type 930
- In cell B11, type 930
- In cell B12, type 620
Calculate Estimated Expenses:
- You need to sum up the expenses for each month. Here’s how this can be done for every month:
| Month | Estimated Expenses Calculation | Total | |----------|--------------------------------------------------------|-------| | October | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $330 | | November | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $290 | | December | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $150 (Gifts) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $480 | | January | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $290 | | February | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $330 | | March | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $290 | | April | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $330 | | May | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $290 | | June | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $300 (Entertainment) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $570 | | July | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $290 | | August | $150 (Clothes) + $50 (Cell Phone) + $60 (Entertainment) + $40 (Haircut) + $30 (Miscellaneous) | $330 |
- Enter these totals into column C (C3 to C13):
  - C3: 330
  - C4: 290
  - C5: 480
  - C6: 290
  - C7: 330
  - C8: 290
  - C9: 330
  - C10: 290
  - C11: 570
  - C12: 290
  - C13: 330
Calculate Savings:
- In cell D3, enter the formula to calculate the savings. The formula will depend on the previous month’s savings and the current month’s income and expenses.
- First, input the starting amount: In cell D2, type 5600 (the initial savings).
- In cell D3, write the formula:
```
=D2 + B3 - C3
```
- Drag or copy this formula down through D4 to D13. It will use the values from the previous month to calculate the new savings balance for each month.

Summary

Your spreadsheet will look like this:

| Month | Projected Income | Estimated Expenses | Savings | |----------|------------------|--------------------|---------| | October | $550 | $330 | $5820 | | November | $550 | $290 | $6080 | | December | $600 | $480 | $6200 | | January | $550 | $290 | $6460 | | February | $550 | $330 | $6680 | | March | $550 | $290 | $6930 | | April | $550 | $330 | $7160 | | May | $550 | $290 | $7420 | | June | $930 | $570 | $7780 | | July | $930 | $290 | $8420 | | August | $620 | $330 | $8710 |

Final Check

Make sure to check your totals for accuracy, and ensure formulas are applied correctly for continuous calculations in the Savings column. If everything is in place, you have successfully created a budget for your college tuition savings!