No matter what your income is, having a budget and tracking your expenses will make it easier for you to achieve your personal finance goals. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recommends creating a budget spreadsheet or worksheet to track your income and expenses.
There are many free or inexpensive budget spreadsheet options, so all you have to do is put in your income and expenses, and the spreadsheet will allow you to track how much you spend and how much you save. That way, you can see where you can cut costs and meet your financial goals. You may also be able to personalize these spreadsheets for your needs.
Key Takeaways
- You can use budget spreadsheets to plan for your daily life and regular expenses, like rent, groceries, and transportation.
- You can use budget spreadsheets to save up for events like trips, holiday shopping, or weddings.
- Some budget spreadsheets, like Tiller, can be connected with your bank accounts.
Vertex42 Spreadsheets
Vertex42 has over a dozen free budget and personal finance spreadsheets that work with Microsoft Excel, as well as some that are compatible with LibreOffice Calc, Apache OpenOffice Calc, andGoogle Sheets.
You can use the free Money Management Template to track your spending against your budget, plan for seasonal expenses, handle irregular income or expenses, record transactions for multiple accounts, balance your checkbook, and more. You don't need to understand macros to use this spreadsheet.
You'll also find spreadsheets formonthly and yearly household and personal budgets, holiday gift budgets, business budgets, wedding budgets, and money management for kids. Many of these spreadsheets also include a demo video or tutorials.
It's Your Money Budget Spreadsheets
Financial blog It's Your Money lists seven free budgeting spreadsheets, including a Cash Flow Budget Spreadsheet inspired by Dave Ramsey's budgeting methods. The Box Budget Spreadsheet breaks down each month into four weeks, giving you an easy visual of your expenses, savings, and income.
These spreadsheets work with Microsoft Excelwith macros enabled. It's Your Money offers an assortment of free or low-cost personal money management spreadsheets.
PearBudget Budget Spreadsheet
PearBudget is a free, comprehensive spreadsheet designed to track your monthly household spending. It can be downloaded and used with Microsoft Excel or any other spreadsheet software that supports Excel files. An analysis tab analyzes expenses by different categoriesand shows the difference between actual and budgeted spending.
PearBudget also offers an updated online version of the budget spreadsheet that does not require a download and is available for afree 30-day trial.
Google Sheets Templates
If you go to the Google Sheets template gallery, you can find some free budget spreadsheet options. There is a monthly budget and an annual budget spreadsheet. You can put in your planned income and expenses, and your actual income and expenses.
That will allow you to track your actual income, and your actual savings, and you'll be able to see where you spent your money, and if your income and spending projects were correct.
Tiller Money
Tiller is a company that offers spreadsheet integration with your bank account. That means you can see every single expense from every account. You can also customize the way transactions are categorized. That way, you can track your expenses in a way that makes the most sense to you.
Tiller offers a 30-day free trial so you can see if the software works for you.
Microsoft Office Templates
Microsoft has a large number of financial templates that you can use. You can use the personal monthly budget or household budget for your ordinary budget needs. Other budget templates that Microsoft offers include a monthly food budget template, a holiday budget planner, and a business trip budget.
Using Budget Spreadsheets
You can use one of these spreadsheets or templates to help you manage your finances. You can use them to budget for your routine expenses, like rent or transportation. These tools can also help you save towards a larger goal, like a trip, a new business, or college tuition.
You can try out multiple spreadsheets to see which one works best for you. You'll be able to streamline personal finance planning, and you can see where your money is going and where you might be able to cut down on spending. These spreadsheets can make budgeting much easier than it was in the past.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I create a budget?
To start a budget, the first thing you'll need to do is tally all of your monthly income and expenses. Once you have accounted for everything, you can determine whether you are spending more or less than what you make. Then, you can categorize your expenses, set goals for spending and saving, and monitor your progress each month. You can use this budget calculator as a guide.
What should I include in a budget spreadsheet?
Your budgeting spreadsheet should include categories for each of your income sources, along with categories for each type of expense you need to track. Add up your income and expenses separately, and then subtract expenses from income to get the difference. You'll also want to create a category for savings. Then, figure out where you can reduce expenses, if necessary.
