A reader recently asked me if I knew of any good and free budgeting spreadsheets. Personally, I love Excel and get a kick out of building spreadsheets, but I know not everyone is as interested in that as I am. 
Also, be sure to check out the article I wrote listing 15 places to get free budgeting software.
About the spreadsheets
Each one of the sheets below are free and are designed to be used with Excel, but will more than likely work if you use OpenOffice (basically a free version of Microsoft Office). Some may also work with Google Docs, but I have had bad luck with some of my imports into Google Docs.
Each of the budgeting sheets below have their own strengths and weaknesses, so give try them out, see what works, and make tweaks and changes if necessary. If you have a spreadsheet that you have built or have found (that is free to distribute) please provide a link to it in the comments below.
Since we are talking about free spreadsheets, I will tell you about two I built and use. They aren’t necessarily for budgeting, but they help keep our finances organized.
- FLOP (Financial Life on One Page) – Basically my balance sheet to calculate my Net Worth, keeps track of account numbers, and other information about all my financial accounts.
- Bill Payment Schedule – I pay my bills twice a month. I use this sheet to make sure everything balances and gets paid at the right time.
If you are just getting started budgeting, I suggest reading this article first: How to make a budget. Once you are finished, come back to this article and you can download one of these sheets.
Household budgeting Spreadsheets
Here are all the personal budgeting templates listed in no particular order.
Personal budgeting spreadsheet
A good and simple budget spreadsheet. The user has to enter each purchase and details in order to get full and accurate tracking of expenses.
Household budget template
Allows you to put in each item you purchase and the item’s category. It will then add up and compare the total amount spent with the amount budgeted.
Personal Budget monthly spreadsheet
This one is good if you are trying to add up income and expenses and find the difference between the two.
Family Budget planner
This one allows you to look at the whole year’s expenses and income with each month being a column in the sheet.
Wedding Budget Template
This sheet provides suggestions on how much you should spend on each item in the wedding. It also will help you think of expenses you might not have thought of.
GLBL Budget Spreadsheet
Simple it is different than most because it works by pay period, rather than by month.
Debt Reduction spreadsheet
This is a really cool spreadsheet that helps you decide the best method for paying down your debts. It allows you to create a debt reduction schedule based on the debt-snowball method. The first page is a basic calculator for you to enter your information, choose your total monthly payment, and see a summary of the results based your debt reduction strategy. The second page is a printable payment schedule to help you keep track of your progress.
Personal Budget Worksheet
A famous old Microsoft budgeting template. It is very simple, but has proven to be helpful with the 2,000,000+ downloads. I like this one because all it does is provides a sheet to add up your expenses and your income showing the difference.
Detailed personal budgeting Excel sheet
Very thorough, walks you through everything step-by-step, but just a little bit more that I am looking for. It is a really cool spreadsheet and will probably be very helpful to some people.
Thoughts about household budgeting
If you are just getting started budgeting I suggest reading two articles I wrote – How to make a budget and why budgeting is like baking cookies. From personal experience, I can assure you that you won’t get it right the first month. It’s okay, just keep making adjustments and it will get better and easier each month. Budgeting of some sort is critical if you want to master your finances or get out of debt.
If you are just starting, I wish you all the best and let us know about what you learn in the comments!
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Great ideas! I also created a spreadsheet on excel to keep track of my expenses. I share it on my blog if you want to check it out. I wrote step-by-step instructions on how to set it up, but I think they may be confusing.
Just what I was looking for! Thanks!
No problem! Christina I will check it out… Thanks!
For anyone interested, here is the link that Christina mentioned…
http://niftythriftyhomemaker.blogspot.com/2008/09/tracking-your-expenses.html
These are great. I think I have finally found something I can use.
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Thanks for the consolidated effort!!
Here is another one you can use to track expenses when you are trying to figure out what you spend your money on when initially creating a budget: http://liberta.co.za/blog/expense-tracker-spreadsheet/
I created what I think is a pretty comprehensive Excel budgeting spreadsheet. Visit my blog to download it: http://www.seemymoney.net/2008/05/another-budget-spreadsheet.html
Thanks for the templates. There are some really good ones there.
I find that using excel or any computer based budgeting application is easier than using a paper based budgeting system as it allows you to run calculations alot quicker, save copies and print – hey aren’t computers just great!
Agreed – I wouldn’t want to do my budgeting on paper!! Excel is my friend and makes my life a lot easier!!
Thanks for your hard work. These are great!
A friend told me a few months ago about this little free online personal budgeting website, I have been using it for over three months now and it is too good to be free. I wish I had this at my disposal earlier in life before I went through my own hard financial lessons.
For those who want to benefit from a powerful online budgeting utility but do not want to give out access to bank accounts and personal identity, Out Of The Dark (OOTD) is worth a check at:
http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php
Happy budgeting.
If you’re looking for an online budgeting application, but still want to have the control of a traditional spreadsheet, you should have a look at Budgetoo.com. It’s 100% free and you also don’t need to provide your bank account info. Give it a try and let me know what you think:
http://budgetoo.com/
This couldn’t have come at a better time in our economy. Thanks for sharing this.
I don’t mean to offend anyone but was wondering….how do I know that the spreadsheets are safe to download?
I keep hearing so many horror stories of identity theft that I just don’t know what is safe…..or am I just paranoid for no reason?
@Dee
I think it is always good to be cautious, and I don’t know a ton about PC security, but I don’t know how downloading an Excel file could lead to identity theft…
And for everyone else, I found another budgeting spreadsheet worth checking out… Budget Ministry Spreadsheet
Hey all,
I’m the one who created the Budget Ministry Spreadsheet. I think what Bob created is great, and I’m glad to see it.
I think it’s great that there are free budgets available now. I created an excel (or calc) yearly budget based on the envelopes idea. My wife and I have been using it since we were married and I’m convinced it has saved us many difficult conversations. Whether you use mine or another, it’s worth all the effort. I hope that God blesses you through this journey and grows us in the wisdom of good stewardship!
grace and peace,
square
Very cool, i’ll have to check them out and see if i should tweak or add anything to mine. I have a “financial snapshot/budget,” on my site that anyone can download for free, so just snatch it up if you want. It’s a bit colorful in hope it will keep you awake
haha…
thats the good job for the housewives ..to abt the unwanted expenses….
I used the Bill Payment Schedule spreadsheet, I altered it to fit me better, but its awesome, Thanks.
Thanks Bob, here is another free one http://www.budget5000.com/
yeah Thanks a lot bob, I used a couple Personal finance budgeting plans and this is great! I also found some data about this kind of stuff from here, http://manishathakor.com/about-femalefinanceexpert
When I clicked on Quickin Online free, it took me to Mint, which they say is their wholly owned subsidiary, and when I signed up, it wanted my bank account! I stopped there. In short, it seems that there is no Quickin Online free that doesn’t get the system staff into your personal bank account. I also tried to find another route to Quicken Online, but all Google options led to the same Mint web page.
Thanks Bob for this priceless financial advice. Thank you also for providing this advice through a Christian vantage point. I sincerely appreciate the time and effort that you’ve put into this site.