For this exercise we are going to create a simple budget, and track our budget compliance over the course of a 12 month period. Although it is possible (and common) to track budget compliance on a month to month basis, to keep things simple for this exercise we are going to only examine the year end result.
Start by creating a budget in Excel in the following format.

For the starting budget $ amounts you use the following logic. Determine the yearly values and enter them into your budget. Don’t forget to add the totals, and to determine the amount you are short/extra.
Salary = $4,000 a month
Rent = $1200 a month
Car payment = $650 a month
Phone = $95 a month
Health Insurance = $250 a month
Food = $500 a month
We are now going to add the following data for the monthly amounts in out spreadsheet
Salary: Your starting salary for the year is $4,000 a month. In June you get a 3% pay increase.
Additionally you get a one-time bonus payout of $500 in October.
Rent: Your monthly rent per your lease is $1,200 a month, with a 5% increase in November.
Car: Your car is under lease at a rate of $650 a month.
Phone: Your month rate for your phone is $95 a month, but you incurred overage charges of $25 each in the months of April, August, and December.
Health Insurance: Your monthly installments for health insurance are $250 a month.
Food: Food expense tends to be more varied than the other expenses be captured. Use the follow table to enter your food expenses.

Other: In the month of March you have a car repair bill of $750 and in August you took a $125 flight to visit your parents.
Brief Write-up: Now review your actual income/expenses versus the budget that you established. Discuss in what areas you exceeded your budgetary amounts? What options do you have, and what actions would you take if your goal is to maintain your budget in all categories? Discuss how miscellaneous unexpected items can impact your budget.