Tip: learn how to convert currencies in Google Sheets.
1. Simple Budget Template by Keepify
If you want a general yet highly effective budgeting template for Google Sheets, it’s hard to beat Keepify’s Simple Budget Template. It’s available in both monthly and annual varieties to let you manage finances month by month and see a yearly overview. There are multiple tabs, including samples in action, a transaction log, and of course, the template itself. The first tab is just instructions and a gentle push to use Keepify expense management tools. What’s nice is that the template is surprisingly easy to customize. Break your budget down into categories and see how your expenses have changed from one month to the next using both totals and percentages. There’s even a section dedicated to savings to let you divide income into both “needs” and “wants.” If you want to keep things simple, you can also use a mobile app to help with budgeting. For example, Google Pay lets you track your spending and Ivy Wallet (see our review) lets you quickly organize your spending.
2. College Student Budget by Smartsheet
As a college student, you have to deal with a variety of expenses and income sources, such as grants, loans, and part-time jobs, so you need a special budget template. Smartsheet’s College Student Budget has everything you need. Expenses and income are broken down by semester, type of income, and type of expense. Income and expenses have their own detailed sections that let you pick the categories relevant to you. Track every source of income you have along with every single expense, including things like school supplies, car maintenance, streaming services, and nights out. Another great feature is the expense estimator in the second tab. Use this to plan out your budget. You can also add notes, such as whether the expense needs to be added to your list or someone else is covering it, like a parent.
3. Family Budget Planner by Vertex42
Planning an entire family’s budget often requires more categories and a more complex template than an individual’s budget. However, the Family Budget Planner from Vertex42 is ideal for anyone, especially as your life changes from living as a student to living on your own to getting married or having kids. There are even categories for those going through divorce. The template has categories for income, tips, interest, savings breakdown, common expenses, like groceries and dining out, child-related expenses, health, transportation, entertainment, pets, and even running your own business. Obviously, you can change and customize anything on the template to best meet your needs. The two charts at the top give you a quick overview of your income and savings. There’s even a Help tab to guide you on how to best use the template.
4. Personal Monthly Budget by Vertex42
Love the family budget template but want one made more for individuals? Try Vertex42’s Personal Monthly Budget template instead. Almost anything you could think of tracking is on this template. It’s well laid out and does something you don’t often see. There’s a column for what you expect to spend and a column for what you actually spend to help you see whether you’re staying within your desired budget in different categories. This is also ideal for helping you see areas where you may need to budget more or cut back. Everything from general expenses and healthcare to savings and entertainment is included here. You can even track student loan payments, alimony, retirement, and estimated taxes. There’s also a yearly version of this template for yearly tracking.
5. Credit Card Tracker by JohnnyAfrica.com
Do you have a wallet full of credit cards and can’t keep track of limits, fees, payment dates, and rewards? Then you need the Credit Card Tracker template from JohnnyAfrica.com. This one isn’t for tracking your spending – it’s for tracking your rewards and credit limits. Easily track points, travel miles, fees, interest rates, credit score, and even bonuses, fees, and rewards related to your checking and savings accounts. It’s a uniquely-styled budget template for Google Sheets that lets you see which cards are helping you and which might be hurting your credit and budget, such as those with high interest rates and fees. This is a great template to use alongside another budget template. If you have multiple credit cards, are part of multiple rewards programs, and/or need to track bank account terms and fees, this template is a must-have.
6. Wedding Budget by Bridal Musings
Planning a wedding isn’t easy, but Bridal Musings’ Wedding Budget template does help simplify the budget-planning part. The great part is that it may also help you figure out what to plan for. For instance, you may have thought about the venue and DJ, but what about budgeting for wedding party gifts? While it looks rather simple, the comprehensive list includes jewelry, venue planning, music, flowers, fashion, photography, catering, vendors, and much more. You can set estimated costs and the actual costs, list every supplier name and contact details, and even list when you placed a deposit and when the final payment is due. Since the template comes from a wedding blog, there are also links to suggested resources in different categories to help with your planning. Even if you’re not planning a wedding, this template can easily be modified to plan most any major event, such as a birthday party, retirement party, or holiday party. If you need help with the actual planning, consider A Practical Wedding’s Complete Wedding Workbook. It’s not for budgeting but does cover all of the other details.
7. Haverland Budget by The Penny Hoarder
How often do you think about saving for the future? Do you need to cut back on your expenses? The Haverland Budget template is what one family used to save $6,000 in a year and cut back on unnecessary expenses. It’s not the prettiest spreadsheet but breaks your budget down into three main categories: long-term, short-term, and For Us (aka personal spending). The long-term category focuses on investments, insurance, mortgage, and retirement. These are all things you’ll need to set aside monthly. Short-term covers your standard monthly expenses, such as groceries, dining out, pets, vehicles (gas/maintenance), phone, and Internet. Of course, the For Us category is more for extras and splurges – for wants rather than needs. There is a main Budget tab to use as a planner and quick overview. Then, each month has its own tab where you enter every single expense by date and category. For tracking every detail of your budget by month and year, this is a surprisingly powerful spreadsheet.
8. Google Budget Sheet by Regpaq
Regpaq’s Google Budget Sheet is one of the best-looking budget templates for Google Sheets. It is based on the book I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. I’d highly recommend reading the full post below the download link for instructions on how to best use this template. While the template is incredibly useful, there is a slight learning curve to get the most out of it. There are four tabs:
Config: for setup and planning Dashboard: an overview of spending Expenses: individual expenses Balance Sheet: to reconcile expenses with budget
Don’t worry, there are detailed instructions for each tab. What’s nice is that everything is organized in colorful blocks with bold headers. It looks more like a premium template than a free one and is extremely easy to customize with any categories. You can also list all assets and accounts to better track investments, bank accounts, credit cards, and more.
9. Home Renovation Budget by Smartsheet
The Home Renovation Budget by Smartsheet is perfect for tracking any major project. While designed with home projects in mind, you could easily track car repairs, craft projects, woodworking projects, and much more. It’s a fairly simple template but gets the job done. Start with your budget, which includes any cash funds and loans, then itemize everything you need to spend or have spent to automatically calculate how much of your budget is remaining. This is perfect if you’re getting quotes on services and supplies and want to ensure everything comes up within your budget or to see where you may need to cut back. You could even use this to itemize projects to invoice. Tip: save money with these online shopping extensions. Image credit: Unsplash However, this also means entering all your information regularly and checking the results. It also means changing your habits based on those results. If you’re willing to make changes, these templates will help you stick to your budget.
