15 Free Google Sheets Budget Templates to Simplify Your Finances
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It can be difficult to figure out which tool is best for creating a budget. Instead of giving up or jotting everything down on paper, a Google Sheets budgeting template makes it easy to pursue most budgeting strategies.
The best budgeting templates allow you to modify them to fit your personal needs and financial goals.
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Top Free Budget Templates For Google Sheets
There are many excellent candidates for the best Google Sheets budget template, as there are many budgeting strategies to try.
Most of these free budget templates allow you to try different budget styles. Investing in a premium sheet can sync with your bank accounts and make tracking your spending effortless.
1. Starter Budget
You may only need a basic budget template to quickly compare your income and monthly expenses.
Advanced spreadsheets may require too much effort to update or can be confusing to navigate. These complex budgeting templates are “too smart.”
The simplest budget is to write down your income and expenses on paper. The digital alternative is to manually log each transaction into your spreadsheet.
Building your template can be effective, but it’s easy to overlook certain expenses. Using Well Kept Wallet’s own Starter Budget is free and saves you time. You can open the Starter Budget in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets.
The Starter Budget takes a monthly look at these categories:
- Income – You and your spouse’s (if applicable) monthly salary
- Housing expenses – Mortgage/rent, utilities, internet, insurance, etc.
- Expenses – Groceries, giving, “His” and “Her” spending, vehicle and gas, etc.
You can modify the income and expense categories to fit your personal spending plan.
Want to make budgeting even easier? Check out Tiller which will automatically pull in the data from your bank!
2. 50/30/20 Budget
Most budgeting templates are a zero-sum budget where you assign a budget category for each dollar you earn. The “50/30/20 rule” encourages you to only spend half of your monthly income on necessary expenses.
Only spending half of your income on needs means you’re not living paycheck to paycheck. You’re also more likely to be able to afford a one-time financial surprise or temporary pay cut without going into debt.
The 50/30/20 rule divides your cash into one of three categories:
- Needs (50%)
- Wants (30%)
- Savings and extra debt payments (20%)
Examples of your “needs” include your minimum monthly loan payments, insurance, and living expenses. Your “wants” might consist of streaming plans and date nights. The remaining 20% for savings and extra debt payments should include saving for retirement and boosting your emergency fund.
Separating your necessary monthly expenses (needs) from your wants can be challenging. Thankfully, there are simple ways to save money when you don’t have free time to pursue a side hustle.
The 50/30/20 budgeting strategy can be easier if you live in a two-income household. This template has a tab for one or two people to compare each person’s income to their needs, wants, and savings.
3. Google Sheets Budget Trackers
Did you know that Google Sheets offers two premade templates? Both are free and similar to the Microsoft Excel budget templates you may already use.
These barebones templates can help improve your spending habits without breaking the bank. However, you must be willing to input each transaction manually to have the correct figures.
These are the two default Google Sheets budgeting templates:
- Monthly budget – Log individual income and spending transactions. You can compare your planned and actual benefits by category.
- Annual budget tracker – List your monthly income and expenses by category to track your monthly progress.
Both sheets include basic how-to instructions to create your budget. It’s possible to customize each template, but your options are relatively slim versus a Tiller Money spreadsheet.
You may decide to use the monthly budget template to track your daily spending. At the end of each month, you can copy these figures to the annual budget tracker to keep quickly comparing your month-to-month habits.
If you continue using these sheets for multiple years, you can compare your 2021 and 2020 monthly spending.
You will find both templates in the Google Sheets template gallery at sheets.google.com. There are free templates for other tasks, including a to-do list, calendar and travel planner.
4. Budget Tracking Tool
Our friends at The Measure of a Plan have a Budget Tracking Tool for Excel and Google Sheets. This is one of the best free, in-depth budgeting templates. It allows you to track your common monthly budget percentages quickly.
You can manually input each expense and income transaction and assign a category. This template also lets you assign a monthly spending target for each category.
The “Budget Targets” tab allows you to compare your actual spending to your target spending by percentage and dollar amount. The “Dashboard” tab lets you view your budget activity for a specific month or custom period.
5. Smartsheet College Student Budget
The best time to learn how to budget is when you live at home or as a college student.
Your expenses are low as you’re not “adulting” yet (although you don’t want to squander your college side hustle income).
The Smartsheet College Student Budget helps you plan for these expenses:
- Tuition and fees
- Rent
- Food plan
- Transportation
- Laundry
- Entertainment
This template also has income slots for your earned income, student loans, and financial aid.
6. Wedding Budget Spreadsheet
Weddings are an exciting “once in a lifetime” event. However, your special day can quickly turn into a budget-buster.
Renting a wedding dress can save money, but a wedding budget template can help you stay within your spending limit.
Your wedding budget should include these expenses:
- Ceremony
- Flowers
- Reception
- Entertainment
- Transport
- Fashion
- Hair and beauty
- Stationery
- Photography and videography services
- Gifts
Bridal Musings has one of the most in-depth templates for tracking the many expenses of your dream wedding.
Their template lists various expenses for each major category in the above list. You will also be happy to hear that this wedding budget template is free.
You can list the estimated cost, actual cost, supplier name, and contact details for each expense.
7. Smartsheet Home Renovation Budget
You may remodel your home to increase curb appeal or start a home business. Tracking project costs can be difficult if you forget to log multiple receipts.
Smartsheet’s “Home Renovation Budget” template is free. You can enter your total cash available, and each transaction you enter updates the remaining balance.
The template also lets you enter a target and actual spending amount for each expense.
8. Vertex42 Debt Reduction Calculator
You’re likely familiar with Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps if you are striving to be debt-free. The second step is using the “Debt Snowball Method” to make extra debt payments.
This debt payoff strategy follows these steps:
- List your debts from the smallest to the largest remaining balance
- Continue making the minimum monthly payment on each debt
- Make extra monthly payments on the smallest debt balance
As you pay off your smallest debt balance, make extra payments for the next-smallest balance. If two loans have the same balance amount, make additional payments on the one with the higher interest rate first.
While there are debt payoff apps to make a payment plan, a template might be your preference.
Vertex42 has a debt reduction calculator. Your first ten creditor accounts are free. Buying the Extended license costs $9.95 and lets you enter up to 20 creditors in Google Sheets. The premium Microsoft Excel version allows up to 40 creditors.
The free and premium templates let you enter these creditor details:
- Creditor name
- Current balance
- Minimum monthly payment
- Interest rate
After entering the necessary loan details, you can enter your monthly snowball payment. The spreadsheet recommends which loan to pay off first. You will also see the estimated payoff debt and potential interest savings.
9. Financial Snapshot and Budget
Can you see your budget summary and in-depth at the same time? The legendary J. Money of Budgets Are Sexy does this with his free Financial Snapshot and Budget template.
This customizable template shows these budget details on one tab:
- Net worth tracker
- This month’s pay dates
- Expenses from your first month’s paycheck and your second month’s paycheck pay
- Compare actual spending to planned spending for main budget categories
- Savings account balances
- Credit card balances
You may be hesitant to use a Google Sheets template because you must switch between multiple tabs to budget. However, this spreadsheet can be a good option if you want to view all your vital financial statistics in one place.
However, you may need an additional template to track your daily expenses. Tracking each expense helps you accurately see how you spend each dollar. You can also avoid common budgeting mistakes.
If you want a biweekly budget, you may prefer the Financial Snapshot and Budget template. This method makes it easy to visualize how you spend and save each paycheck. This spreadsheet is free and compatible with Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.
10. Zero-Based Budget
If you like giving every dollar you bring in a ‘job,’ the zero-based budget may be a good option. With this budget, you allocate every dollar you bring to do something, so you have nothing left at the end of the month.
This doesn’t mean you spent all your money. Instead, you gave them jobs, such as paying off debt, saving, and paying bills. For example, if you bring in $3,000 monthly and your bills are $1,500, you’d budget where the remaining $1,500 should go.
If you have debts, it’s a good idea to pay them down first, then allocate anything left for retirement, emergency, and specific goal savings. Aspire Budgeting offers an excellent template for a zero-based budget.
11. Smartsheet Bi-Weekly Budget
Smartsheet offers many budgeting templates, including a bi-weekly budget. If you get paid every other week, this budget can help you manage your money well. To use the budget effectively, match your bill due dates to one of the two paychecks you receive monthly to stay on track.
This budget tracks your net income as you go, so you can easily reallocate funds if you aren’t saving enough or discover you need funds for another purpose.
We like that the spreadsheet has various categories for income and expenses, making it easy to track what you bring in and spend.
12. Family Budget Planner
The Family Budget Planner by Vertex42.com is your standard monthly budget, but it includes categories you can use for each child. We all know raising kids is expensive, so budgeting for their expenses can help you stay on track.
The budget breaks down children’s expenses as follows:
- Medical
- Clothing
- School tuition
- School lunch
- School supplies
- Babysitting
- Toys/games
- Other
The budget template also has various categories to track your spending on almost anything, making it easy to see where and how much you spend at a glance.
13. Budget and Transaction Tracking Template
Greenshift offers a great free budget template, allowing you to plan and track your expenses. So, for example, say you budget $300 for groceries but spend $400 that week. You’ll have a record of how much you went over your budget.
You’ll see where you overspend and underspend and what changes you must make. It’s a budget for everyone because no one knows exactly how much you’ll spend.
Of course, you can give it your best guess, but the Budget and Transaction budget takes the guesswork out and allows you to make more informed budgeting decisions.
14. Business Budget Template
Your business needs a budget as well. If you’re looking for something simple that won’t overwhelm you, consider the Smartsheet Business Budget.
The free tool is simple and straightforward, and best for small business owners.
Of course, it’s not a replacement for working with a CPA or tax advisor, but it can help you keep your finances straight and make better business decisions.
15. Expense Report Template
If you work for a company that reimburses you for your business expenses or if you run a business, the Smartsheet Expense Budget Report can help you keep track of your expenses.
Even if you don’t get reimbursed, having a record of your spending can help you understand your budgeting and spending. It can also be helpful to write off any expenses at tax time.
Summary
Budget templates may require more effort than a budgeting app, but you have more flexibility.
If you like spreadsheets, finding one that caters to you may motivate you to improve your money skills.
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