This First Apartment Budget Worksheet Will Make Your Move SO Much Easier

I swore by this first apartment budget worksheet I created when I first moved into my apartment, and now I am showing you how to create one so you can set an exact budget for your own first apartment.

When I first was thinking about moving into my first apartment, I had NO idea how much everything was going to cost me. Of course I could set a budget for the actual apartment rent but what about all the other stuff like a couch, bed, mattress, silverware, etc.

Being my type A self, I had my boyfriend (who is an accountant and Excel extraordinaire) put together an Excel sheet that easily allowed me to organize and budget exactly how much I was going to spend on everything that I had on my checklist.

When I was creating this, I had no idea how much I was going to rely on it during the next few months when I started actually buying things. Not only did it get me super excited to plan everything, but it really allowed me to stay on track and know exactly where I was spending/if it fit into the budget I set for each room.

I am showing you exactly how I set mine up and I even have it so you can download the exact Excel sheet I used when planning my first apartment budget.

FREE FIRST APARTMENT BUDGET WORKSHEET:

Besides the apartment rent and utilities, I quickly learned that there is a lot more you have to pay for when getting your first apartment. I was starting from scratch and every single thing that was going into my apartment, I needed to buy.

Because of this, I wanted to make sure that I could afford to get everything I needed. I was telling my boyfriend how hard it was to keep track of everything and he was like, "Tell me what you want and I'll put it into a nice budget for you" and holy crap, was this budget worksheet SO nice.

At the bottom of this post, I have the link so you can download this exact first apartment budget worksheet I used on Excel (and I even figured out how to get it on Google Sheets in case you don't have Excel!).

Here's how I had him divide out my first apartment budget template:

1. First apartment budget sheet divided out by rooms.

I already made myself a first apartment checklist so I knew everything I needed to buy for each room. I found it was easiest for me to keep track if it was divided out by each room.

PS - The Excel sheet is editable so if you don't need one of the things I have on my list, you can just erase it.

2. The budgeted cost I set for every apartment essential.

I came back to this excel sheet all the time for MONTHS checking at what I budgeted for each section and seeing if the products I found fit into the worksheet. As you can see above, some of the budgets I hit and others I went over on, but this allowed me to know exactly how much money I needed to have to buy things for each room.

It just helped me set a plan in my mind.

3. The ACTUAL amount it cost to purchase the item.

If I ended up buying the product, I would put the actual price I bought the apartment essential for.

I also knew that if this box was filled in, that the product had been purchased and I no longer needed to worry about it.

4. Link to the apartment item I wanted/bought.

This was probably one of my favorite things on the first apartment budget checklist because it made it so easy to plan for things I wanted. I would literally go to the coffee shop for fun and "shop" for my apartment.

Whenever I found something I liked, I would add the link into the worksheet and then come back to it every once in awhile to see if it was on sale.

5. Some added extras that make life easier.

Then we just have some extras that Ben added in like the "difference" section that automatically calculates the difference between what you budgeted vs. what you actually spent.