Family, Home Budget Worksheet

Note: We believe the calculations to be correct, but do not guarantee the results. Please consult your financial advisor or accountant before making any final financial decisions. This note also applies to the spreadsheets listed below.

Why Use Excel for your Family or Personal Budget? I use Excel when working with my home budget because that it gives me the flexibility to keep track of the information the way I want to. For example, I like to use cell comments to explain certain budgeted items in more detail (such as the fact that in May, there is Mother's Day and a couple of birthdays to remember).

I recommend using Quicken to keep track of your expenses, or your budget projections will end up being only wild guesses. Make sure that you set up the Quicken categories the same as in your home budget worksheet, or vice versa. In this worksheet, the categories are organized alphabetically to make it easier to compare to the Cash Flow reports in Quicken.

After each month passes, enter your actual balance at the bottom of the worksheet. If the actual balance is much different from the prediction, try to figure out why, and you may want to adjust your worksheet to reflect your actual income and expenses for the month.

How do I calculate my "actual balance"? What you include in the balance is up to you, but I usually just add up the balance of my checking accounts and then subtract the balance from credit card accounts. In other words, I don't include investments, retirement, or savings accounts in the balance. For example, I include my take-home pay (wage minus tax deductions minus 401k contributions) as an income category, and then I record a transfer to my savings account in the "Savings Expense" category.

I was contacted by Eric Bray about putting his worksheet on this site, and he had some great ideas. Creating unique colors for the months helps with readability and might even make it a little more fun to use. Adding and removing categories is a little tricky with this original version because you have to be very careful that the subtotal formulas remain correct.

This spreadsheets is a modification of Eric Bray's original. It's pretty much a cross between the Home Budget Worksheet and Eric's original Household Budget Management worksheet. Note that the categories are the same as in Eric's original, and the subtotals have not been removed. The main difference is some of the formatting and the addition of the projected balance section at the bottom.

The personal finance Excel spreadsheets at YouNeedABudget.com provide six simple steps towards financial security.

If you are looking for a more advanced budgeting spreadsheet that is still simple to use, check out PearBudget, a free Excel workbook by Charlie Park.

This is a very basic worksheet, but if you are just getting started understanding what a budget is, this may be want you want. And of course, you don't need to have Excel - just a printer.

This worksheet includes expenses associated with buying and owning a home. The breakdown of expenses is nice.

A simple printable budget worksheet for college students, from American Student Assistance.