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Home » Budgeting

Free Google Docs & Excel Personal Budget Spreadsheets!

Submitted by G.E. Miller on Sunday, 10 February 200811 Comments

Building and maintaining a workable personal budget is essential for anyone looking to get out of debt, stay out of debt, and figure out what kind of cash flow they have available for investments. I have decided to post my own free personal budget spreadsheets in two formats, for free! I think you will find these versions to be cleaner and much more functional than the aforementioned versions.

Recently, I posted an article about how to create a personal budget, Simply your Finances with a 4-Step Personal Budget, which gave the theory behind creating an easy to use personal budget. The spreadsheets included in this post have brought theory full circle and will give you the functional tool to do it. I have also included an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to use these spreadsheets.

Free Budgeting Spreadsheet

For the 20somethingfinance.com free Google Docs personal budget planner spreadsheet, follow this link:

20somethingfinance.com personal budget planner (Google Docs)

You’ll notice that you cannot edit this spreadsheet. In order to save and edit your own version of this spreadsheet, select ‘File’, and ‘Copy Spreadsheet’. Now you should be able to edit your own version in Google Docs. For the 20somethingfinance.com Excel or Open Office (free download) version, right click and ‘Save As’:

20somethingfinancecom-personal-budget-planner.xls

How to Use your Free Personal Budget Planner Spreadsheet

Everyone’s personal income and expense lines are going to vary slightly from what you will find in this personal budget planner. Feel free to delete and/or add in rows. However, make sure that the formulas in the ‘Total’ rows compensate for your alterations. Here is a step-by-step process for filling out your budget.

1. First, grab your W2 so that you can input all of your income rows, in the section as shown below:

free budget planner

2. Next, collect your credit card and bank statements to fill out your regular expenses. If you have consistent one-time expenses (i.e. auto insurance) that you only pay once per year, pro-rate (divide by 12) to get a monthly budgeted amount, and then fill out the cell for the month the expense was paid. All months in which you don’t pay that expense should have $0 posted. The expenses section is highlighted below.

free budget spreadsheet

3. Now, you will want to account for one-off income and expenses for each month. First, click on the tab for the corresponding month…

tabs1.png

Now, you will want to fill out your one-time items…

sheet1.png

Finally, add your totals on the corresponding rows (12 and 38 in the original) on the ‘Total Budget’ sheet…

1time1.png

And you’re done. You should really only need to update your sheet periodically as an income or expense item changes in amount, or at the end of every month as you you receive your statements. Ideally, this personal finance budget planner will allow you to predict how much cash flow you have available to spend during a given month so that you can plan throughout the year.

I would love to see any modifications of this spreadsheet, if anyone would like to share. Happy budgeting!

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You may also find the following article of interest:

Simplify your Finances with a 4-Step Personal Budget

Review of Net10: How to Save on your Cell Phone

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11 Comments »

  • Søkemotoroptimalisering said:

    Thanks for providing such a great “how to” for Excel.
    I really need a personal budget planner!
    Great work!

  • Eric said:

    Thanks for the spreadsheets. I personally use YNAB but am always looking for free alternatives when friends ask for suggestions.

  • allen said:

    Question: i printed off my W2, but there are “issues” if you will, for me.

    1) what i’m being paid now is (subtly) different then what is on my last w2
    2) Is the first field supposed to be the yearly, or the divided-out monthly?
    3) i get paid every two weeks, not on a monthly cycle: How do i factor for this? Suggestions?
    4) how do i factor for other pre-tax items? Like health insurance?
    5) i have more, but i’m stressed out. :P

  • stockadv.com said:

    Excel sheets are greatway to track your investments and portfolio.
    I am using it as investment tracker.
    But i never used google docs and spread sheets for this.
    I inspired with your article and i will try it now.

    thanks,
    http://www.stockadv.com

  • 6 Steps Towards Financial Freedom in 2009 and Every Year | Personal Finance Blog 20somethingfinance.com - for Twenty Somethings and Beyond said:

    [...] have to know how much is coming in and how much is going out every month. I’ve created a free budget planner to help you do so. You can also utilize budgeting sites like Mint, Yodlee, and [...]

  • How to Track Expenses through GMail Quick Links and Google Docs | Personal Finance Blog | 20somethingfinance.com said:

    [...] you want to learn how to use this budget spreadsheet, you can view the personal budget spreadsheet [...]

  • Wren said:

    I use a similar Excel spreadsheet, which I also offer free from my website. It has some additional functionality and is easily personalized/modified. If you want to check it out or compare, it’s at TiredofBeingPoor.net’s Budgeting page.

  • Budgeting Yourself Through a Money Management Spreadsheet said:

    [...] where everything was going and how much money I had available to spend every week. There are many spreadsheets available online that you can download. However, you can also create your own and tailor it to your spending habits [...]

  • Marc said:

    hello admin, i really need a personal budget planner!
    Great work!

  • Hoa Binh said:

    Excel sheets are greatway to track your investments and portfolio.
    Thanks
    Article Directory, Bui Thi Xuan Highschool, Marie Curie HighSchool, Nghe Nhin

  • Abe said:

    Here’s my google docs “Good Faith Estimate” spreadsheet with tax, maintenance, and other costs/benefits – lots of detail (see the comments). Download a copy and fill in the yellow cells only (other cells’ formula depend on the yellow cell values).

    http://bit.ly/316FFd

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