Free Budget Spreadsheets

Free budget spreadsheets speckle the internet like freckles at a red head convention.

The problem is finding one that you can make work for YOUR personal budget. I've looked at hundreds and it seems that nobody can make one that suits my needs exactly.

Don't worry...just grab a few to get you started. The important thing to remember is just get started with a spreadsheet and see what happens. The momentum of starting to control your money will help get you in the right direction. As I stumble across "good" free budget spreadsheets I'll add them to this page with a small review of each that you can download for your use.

Try them all...

See what you think...

Let me know your thoughts...

Budget Calculator
This budget spreadsheet is pretty slick. Confusing when you first open it--make sure you scroll up to the top to see the whole thing. Its got a nifty feature that updates your total spent and shows your remaining money as you fill in your budget. It also has a nice function on the right hand side that gives you the "expert" opinions on what range your expenses "should" be in. You can't modify any expense categories and it doesn't keep a record of your budgets vs actual spent but this one is usable. Definitely a starting point.

Neil's Budget

I really like this budget spreadsheet by Neil Rothman. The excel spreadsheet has several tabs at the bottom. The first tab is a general budget worksheet that covers most categories and allows you to enter an amount for your budget and totals everything for you at the bottom. The second tab is a tracking tab that captures all the information from the rest of the tabs (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc) to let you know how you are doing on a year-to-date basis. The monthly tabs have a section for collecting individual expense information. Slim, sleek, easy to use. Definitely worth a look.

Budget Planner 08
This free budget spreadsheet hails from down under. Not too bad. Definitely no frills. If you don't have a lot of bills going out this is a good one. The last tab on the spreadsheet has a nice function to annualize those "weird" bills that come every so often.

Gather Little by Little
Here's a nice one I found on a similar website. Definitely confusing at first but it does have nice instructions on the first tab of the spreadsheet. There are several tabs for spending categories--Groceries, House Repair, etc. You enter your actual expenses on each of these tabs and excel automatically sums them up on the main page. Neat concept but it is a little tedious to work with. If you like manipulating spreadsheets, this one might be for you.