Personal Budget Excel Spreadsheet
If you've just entered the real world as a newly independent adult, or you've been spending more than you can afford, it's time to figure out a budget. If this is your first time trying to create a personal budget, start with the articles How to Make a Budget and 5 Basic Budgeting Tips. After you have the basics down, use this free personal budget spreadsheet template in Excel to track your income and expenses by category.
The personal budget spreadsheet below is one of my original budget templates, but if you are looking for a more advanced application or a way to both create and manage your budget, take a look at the yearly Budget Calculator and the all-in-one Money Management Template.
Personal Budget Spreadsheet
for Excel, OpenOffice, & Google Docs
THEME-ENABLED
Excel 2010 Version
Microsoft Excel® 2002(XP) or Later
License
Personal Use Only
Questions?
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Get OpenOffice Version
Google Docs Version
Like my family budget planner, this personal budget spreadsheet can be used to create a yearly budget. By planning many months ahead, you can account for variable expenses and estimate how major life changes like moving, changing jobs, or purchasing a home may affect your financial future.
"No Installation, No Macros - Just a simple spreadsheet - An original creation by Dr. Jon Wittwer of Vertex42.com"
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More Budget Spreadsheets
- Monthly Budget - The monthly version of the above spreadsheet.
- Household Budget Worksheet (monthly) - More detailed and includes child expenses.
- Family Budget Planner A yearly budget planner, with the same categories as the household budget spreadsheet.
- Budget Worksheet - Our original selection of home budget worksheets.
Why Use Excel for your Personal Budget?
First off, if you are reading this, you should congratulate yourself! The fact that you are concerned about creating a personal budget is the first step to your financial freedom (whatever that means...it sounds good, though)
The reason I use Excel when working with my home budget is that I have complete flexibility in how I keep track of the information. 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).
Creating a simple personal budget (even if it is only on paper) is one of the first steps in gaining control of your spending habits. BUT, I strongly recommend using Quicken to keep track of your expenses. A budget isn't much good if you don't track what you are spending your money on.
I started out using Excel to do everything, but converted to Quicken after a friend showed me how easy it was to keep track of checks, credit card charges, etc. I still end up exporting reports from Quicken into Excel, though.
By the way, since you may be looking for a personal budget spreadsheet, you may want to consider reading a book on personal finance. The one that got me started was "Personal Finance for Dummies".
Personal Budget Commentary
- 4/22/2013: Even Lazy People Can Budget - One of the reasons people avoid budgeting is because it seems like it takes a lot of effort and time. There are several tricks to reduce the time it takes to create and follow a budget – which makes it possible even for lazy people to follow a budget and get their finances on track!
- 4/16/2013: Figure Out Why You Are Broke All The Time - There are many people who have good paying jobs yet they still walk around broke all the time. If you have no idea why you never have any money, you probably don't have a budget. Take some time to sit down with a personal budget spreadsheet and figure out how much money you really make each month and how much you really spend each month – and it will be an eye opening experience. It's the first step to figuring out why you are broke all the time!
- 4/8/2013: Teach Kids About Money - Use personal budget spreadsheets to teach your children about money. You can create fictional scenarios, or use real life examples from your finances or even those of your child depending how old he or she is. When children learn solid financial habits like budgeting at a young age, they are more likely to make good financial decisions as adults.
- 4/2/2013: Make Better Financial Decisions - Learning to manage your money starts with budgeting. Without a budget, you don't know where your money goes or how much you have available for all of your bills and savings goals.
Make a Budget