Budget template for Excel: free monthly household budget
A budget spreadsheet works best when you only type what you spend and earn, and the sheet does the rest: totals per month, what is left, how much of each budget you have used and your savings rate. Download the free template, then learn how it is built.
In short: one sheet lists every transaction (date, category, description, amount), a second sheet adds them up by category and month with =SUMIFS(Amount,Category,$A6,Date,">="&B$4,Date,"<="&EOMONTH(B$4,0)). A monthly budget per category shows what is left for the year, and the savings rate is =(Income-Spending)/Income.
Try it now
The first question in any budget: how much went on one category? That is a sum with a condition.
Task In G2, calculate how much was spent in January on the category in F2. The formula should point to F2 so you can switch the category there.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Date | Category | Amount | Category | Total | ||
| 2 | 1/1/2027 | Rent | 850 | Groceries | |||
| 3 | 1/4/2027 | Groceries | 86.4 | ||||
| 4 | 1/7/2027 | Transport | 62.3 | ||||
| 5 | 1/11/2027 | Groceries | 92.15 | ||||
| 6 | 1/14/2027 | Leisure | 24 | ||||
| 7 | 1/18/2027 | Groceries | 78.9 | ||||
| 8 | 1/19/2027 | Insurance | 6.5 | ||||
| 9 | 1/25/2027 | Groceries | 41.2 | ||||
| 10 | 1/28/2027 | Clothing | 59.99 |
Download the Excel budget template
The template has everything on this page: a transaction list with a category drop-down, a year overview with twelve months, totals, what is left over, a monthly budget per category, the savings rate, each category's share of income, a chart, sample rows and an instructions sheet. Amounts have no currency symbol, so it fits any currency.
Enlarge previewDownload the finished template
The finished Excel file household-budget-template.xlsx, with sample rows and instructions, is free. All you need is a free account: no subscription, no payment details.
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The layout: transactions and summary apart
The most common mistake in homemade budgets is one sheet per month where entries and totals are mixed up. It gets messy fast, and a view of the whole year becomes hard work. Two separate sheets are better:
- Transactions: one long list, one row per purchase, bill or paycheck. This is the only place you type.
- Summary: categories down the side, months across the top. Only formulas live here.
A small Lists sheet holds the categories. Format the transactions as an Excel table with Ctrl+T and the list grows with every new row, while every summary formula picks up the new entries by itself.
| Column | Contents | Example |
|---|---|---|
| A | Date | 1/4/2027 |
| B | Category | Groceries, from a drop-down |
| C | Description | Weekly shop |
| D | Amount | 86.40, always positive |
Amounts are always positive. Whether a row is income or spending depends on the category: Salary is income, Rent is spending. That keeps typing simple and formulas short.
Categories that fit your life
The template starts with four income categories (Salary, Side income, Benefits, Other income) and eleven spending categories: Rent, Utilities, Groceries, Toiletries, Transport, Insurance, Phone and internet, Leisure, Clothing, Health and Other. Adjust them, but keep the list short. If you have fifty categories, you will not know where a receipt belongs.
So that a category is spelled the same way every time, column B gets a drop-down list. A single typo such as "Grocries" would otherwise vanish from every total.
Task So that every expense lands in the right category, B2:B7 should only accept entries from the category list in F2:F7. Create a drop-down list for that.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Date | Category | Amount | Categories | ||
| 2 | 1/1/2027 | 850 | Rent | |||
| 3 | 1/4/2027 | 86.4 | Groceries | |||
| 4 | 1/7/2027 | 62.3 | Transport | |||
| 5 | 1/11/2027 | 92.15 | Leisure | |||
| 6 | 1/14/2027 | 24 | Phone and internet | |||
| 7 | 1/18/2027 | 29.99 | Other |
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The first exercise in this lesson is free.
The monthly summary with SUMIFS
On the Summary sheet, the categories are in column A and row 4 holds the first day of each month. B4 takes the year from B2 with =DATE($B$2,1,1), C4 is =EDATE(B4,1) and so on to December. The number format mmm shows just Jan, Feb, Mar.
Each cell adds up the amounts where two things match: the category of the row and the month of the column. That is a job for SUMIFS. With the table's column names, the formula in B6 reads:
=SUMIFS(Transactions[Amount],Transactions[Category],$A6,Transactions[Date],">="&B$4,Transactions[Date],"<="&EOMONTH(B$4,0))
The mixed references are the trick: $A6 locks the column with the category, B$4 the row with the month, so one formula copies across all twelve months and every category. If you only need one category without months, as in the first exercise, SUMIF is enough. The lesson on absolute references explains the dollar signs.
Below each block are the totals: total income, total spending, and below that what is left over. Column N adds the twelve months for the year.
Budget vs actual
A budget is a plan; the summary shows what really happened. Column P on the Summary sheet holds your monthly budget for each spending category, and column Q compares it with the year: =IF(P13="","",P13*12-N13) is the budget for twelve months minus what you have spent so far. A conditional formatting rule turns the cell red as soon as a category goes over.
Want a monthly check instead? Compare a single month with the budget, for example =P13-B13 for January, and copy it across. Start with the fixed costs you know (rent, insurance, phone), then set limits for the flexible ones after a month or two of real numbers.
Savings rate: what is left over
The savings rate tells you what share of your income is left at the end of the month. It is what is left divided by income, a simple percentage.
Task In D2, calculate the savings rate for the month: the share of income that is left over. Leave the result as a decimal (0.15 is 15%). The formula is filled down to D7.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Month | Income | Spending | Savings rate |
| 2 | January | 2350 | 2010 | |
| 3 | February | 2350 | 2135.4 | |
| 4 | March | 2350 | 1980 | |
| 5 | April | 2350 | 2290 | |
| 6 | May | 2350 | 2405 | |
| 7 | June | 2900 | 2210 |
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The first exercise in this lesson is free.
In the template the formula sits below what is left: =IF(B10=0,"",B26/B10), where B10 is total income and B26 is what is left. The IF prevents a #DIV/0! error in months with no entries yet. Next to it, the column Share of income shows what percentage of the year's income each spending category takes, so you can see quickly where saving matters most.
Chart: spending by category
Below the summary there is a column chart with the yearly total of each spending category. It reads column N and updates with every transaction. To make one yourself, select the categories and the yearly totals (hold Ctrl for the second column), then choose Insert > Column. The lesson on Excel charts covers labels and chart types.
Monthly budget, household budget, personal budget
It is the same sheet with different names. For a personal budget, use your own income and the categories you actually spend on. For a household, put everyone's income in the income block and shared costs in spending. A monthly budget planner is simply the Summary sheet read one column at a time; the year view comes for free.
Common mistakes
Negative amounts for spending
If a payment goes in as -50, it reduces the spending total instead of adding to it. Keep every amount positive and let the category decide.
Dates as text
"Jan 4" typed in a cell that Excel does not recognize as a date drops out of every month. A real date is right-aligned in the cell.
Categories typed by hand
"Grocery" and "Groceries" are two different categories to SUMIFS. Use the drop-down.
Budget formulas in German Excel
| English | German |
|---|---|
| SUMIF, SUMIFS | SUMMEWENN, SUMMEWENNS |
| EOMONTH, EDATE, DATE | MONATSENDE, EDATUM, DATUM |
| IF | WENN |
Which Excel versions support this?
SUMIFS, EOMONTH, EDATE, Excel tables, drop-down lists and charts work in every current version of Excel, including Excel for Mac and Excel for the web.
FAQ
Is this Excel budget template free?
Yes, with a free account. No subscription and no payment details.
Can I use it as a monthly budget template?
Yes. The Summary sheet shows every month in its own column, and the Monthly budget column sets a target per category.
Does it work in Google Sheets?
The .xlsx file opens in Google Sheets, and SUMIFS, EOMONTH and EDATE exist there too. The template is built and tested for Excel, so check the drop-down and chart after the import.
How do I start a new year?
Save a copy, delete last year's transactions and enter the new year in B2 on the Summary sheet. Categories and budgets stay.
Can I add my own categories?
Add them on the Lists sheet, then insert a row in the matching block of the Summary sheet and copy the formulas from the row above.
More files are on the Excel templates page.