Best Free Budget Templates & Sites
These are the best free budget templates around - mostly from fellow personal finance bloggers! How awesome is that? ;) I have to put mine at the top, of course, but ANY of these have the potential of working well nicely.
Remember, none of these budgets are perfect, but you can tweak & edit and use the one that's the most perfect for YOU. I change mine up every once in a while - getting rid of the parts that don't make sense any more, and adding in those which do - but the important part is FIRST choosing a workable template. So hopefully one of these works.
Remember, none of these budgets are perfect, but you can tweak & edit and use the one that's the most perfect for YOU. I change mine up every once in a while - getting rid of the parts that don't make sense any more, and adding in those which do - but the important part is FIRST choosing a workable template. So hopefully one of these works.
Best Free Budget Templates:
Here are the best free budget templates I've found so far! If you come across any others you think are worth adding, drop me a note. I'm always looking for some more great ones ;) "Financial Snapshot & Budget" @ Budgets Are SexyGoogle Doc | Excel | Example (filled in) | More details A colorful and easy way to track your budget and overall Financial Snapshot! Room to budget per paycheck, detail your net worth (if you want), credit card balances, savings funds, total income, and an extra budget just in case :) |
 "4 Step Budget Template" @ Life After CollegeGoogle Doc | More details Most budgets are too cumbersome to be useful (in my humble opinion). Check-out this handy four-step budget: After filling in income, must-have expenses and nice-to-have expenses, you'll get a "monthly allowance" for you to spend on discretionary items as you'd like, with the peace of mind of knowing that your main expenses are taken care of. |
 "Personal Monthly Budget" @ My Money ShruggedGoogle Doc | Net Worth Google Doc | More details This budget spread sheet works because it allows you to put in projected and actual income and cost and then shows you the difference. It is a great way to be able to compare each category or individual areas. This budget is also broken up into different categories based on major areas of your budget - housing, transportation, insurance, food, savings, etc. |
 "2010 Budget Spreadsheet" @ Finance for a Freelance Life Excel | Blog Income | Freelance Income | More detailsThis budget spreadsheet is very basic and is meant to be adapted to any person's unique situation. It's easy to add or delete lines and to change the names of categories to better fit your life. For convenience in tracking specific purchases throughout the month, it has a spending log as the first page. This way, you can not only see how much you spent in each category at the end of the month, you can track how purchases added up. |
 "E.O.D. Deluxe Budget 2.0" @ Enemy of DebtExcel | More details EOD Deluxe Budget 2.0 is a comprehensive budget spreadsheet including a zero-based budget, an allocated spending worksheet, a checking account ledger, a savings allocation worksheet, as well as a lump sum payment schedule. |
 "Monthly Report Template" @ Fiscal FizzleMicrosoft Word | More details A monthly financial report presented to your family or significant other keeps everyone accountable, aware, focused on goals and progress, and gives you the opportunity to celebrate success. This short but powerful financial template includes areas for monthly cash flow review, net worth tracking, credit score monitoring, goal tracking, and a notes area to explain unusual financial activity for the month or upcoming months. While it's easy to read and review with everyone out of "the box," remember to customize this template for your own system! |
 "Free Budget Spreadsheet" @ Money Under 30Excel | Really Simple Budget | More details Using the spreadsheet is easy. Enter the monthly amounts in the appropriate categories, estimating any value that fluctuates from month-to-month. Once you've entered the values, the spreadsheet will tell you how much you will have left at the end of the month to save or put towards debt. It will also tell you how close you are to an ideal income allocation (such allocation models are frequently used by banks and other lenders for determining your financial balance). |
 "How Much Debt Costs You" @ Debt Free AdventureGoogle Doc | More details Complete with CHART. Figure out how much your debt costs you each month. Specifically, how much of your loan payments are allocated toward interest (paying for the debt) and how much toward principal (paying the debt down.) *Included are 3 sheets: Data, Chart, and Print* |
Other Great Templates & Spreadsheets:
Sometimes less options are better, but I didn't want to leave you hangin' if none of those above options did the trick for ya. Keep in mind that all these spreadsheets & templates are customizable, but see if you like any of these better: (I'm listing them out or else this page would go on forever ;))- USAA: Budget Worksheet (.pdf)
- Gail Vaz-Oxlade: Wedding Budget Worksheet (html)
- Gail Vaz-Oxlade: Gail's Interactive Budget Worksheet (excel)
- 27 and Frugal: Beginner's Budget (google doc)
- My Money Blog: Within Your Means (excel - created by leisure guy)
- My Money Blog: Spreadsheet #2 (excel - by Neil Rothma)
- My Money Blog: Spreadsheet #4 (excel)
- Pear Budget: Original Spreadsheet (excel)
- Punch Debt In The Face: Monthly Budget (google doc)
- Rate State Blog: Zero Based Budgeting Tool (excel - based on Dave Ramsey's "zero based budget")
Aggregate Template Sites:
And if you STILL can't find anything good...or you're just addicted:- Google Docs: Handful of Budget Templates
- Microsoft Online: Top 25 rated templates! (excel - out of 100+)
Best Online Budgeting Sites:
And now, we've got the places online where you can budget & track all your financials instead of manually doing them yourselves. Well, you'll still have to manually keep up with this stuff online, but most of these places make it super easy for you - my favorites being Mint & Yodlee (although I personally still use Google Docs). The best online budgeting sites around:- Yodlee MoneyCenter (free)
- Budget Pulse (free)
- Mint (free)
- Geezeo (free)
- Wesabe (free)
- Pear Budget (online version: free for 30 days, then $3/mo.)
- You Need A Budget (free for 15 days, and then 1 time cost of $49.95?)
Labels: budgets, money management, tools and resources
posted by J. Money at
7:26 AM
11 Comments:
Ack! I knew i forgot to do something this weekend (send out my sample budget to you and enemyofdebt). Oh well, i will be in 2010's Template and sites! http://tinyurl.com/odcdfh
Great post though. I am looking for ways to improve my excel budget and i am sure these will inspire some ideas.
No worries at all my man, I'll add it up there :) You never know who it may help, right?
Thanks for including mine bro! I appreciate it! I am working on putting out 3.0 in the next month or so with plenty of additions.
Full Disclosure: BudgetPulse.com is another great free money management tool that can help people track their finances. Manual input or import of MS Money or Quicken formats. International compatibility. Does not sync with banks so reduces all security threats. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me.
Craig Kessler
Marketing Director at BudgetPulse
craig@budgetpulse.com
@Craig - I knew I had left one out! Thank you sir, it has been added.
A friend told me about this little free budgeting website gem which I used for about 6 month now and find it too good to be free. It's on the web at:
http://www.myexp.org/OOTD_gate.php
Happy budgeting
BudgetToolkit.com is another free online budget management service. We are continually adding new features as requested by our members. Features include flash graphs, reports, extensive search capabilities, as well as custom alert thresholds which can be configured to send email alerts. Electronic banking imports (OFX, QIF, and CSV) are supported for Premium members (as low as $2.95/month).
Chris Hastings
Business Manager
BudgetToolkit.com, LLC
chris@budgettoolkit.com
I love that there are so many different ways to do one thing like this!
I'm adding my own because it's a bit simpler than many other budgets available online:
http://www.27andfrugal.com/2009/12/30/how-to-make-your-2010-budget/
Nice, I like this! Def. simple and easy to follow along with. Adding this to the list now ;) (Question though – what happens to your blog when you turn 28? haha...)
Very nice! I have a budget, but all the information is spread across different tabs. I've spent the last 1.5 hours taking yours and fixing it to suit my purposes. It's an awesome spreadsheet, but I wanted to slap some snowball stuff in there, and a "Day Bills Are Due" table. Thanks!
Yeah dude, work it out! Having the due dates in there isn't a bad idea - I actually keep them in a draft email I check on and off throughout the month.
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