100+ Best Budgeting Templates for Every Budgeting Need

Times are tough. Everything just keeps getting more expensive. No budget fits everyone. Will I ever be able to own a home? 

No rules, percentages, or savings plans can possibly take into account all of the factors that play into your overall financial health. 

We always think it's best to leave the most valuable advice to the experts on that specific topic. There are so many great personal finance experts that don't lean into shame tactics to help folks manage their money. 

Managing your personal finances does not have to be the headache that some financial experts (who will not be named) claim that it is. You can take control of your finances without spending a dime on a book, a subscription, or a scare-tactic-based community. 

Keeping track of—and improving—your finances is a matter of organization, mindfulness, and a dose of self-directed honesty. 

We sifted through hundreds of budgets, budgeting templates, and financial tools to help you turn your hard-earned dollars into savings, vacations, root canals, a new set of tires, and more. 

What Is a Budgeting Template? 

A budget is a structured list of your personal or household expected income and expenses.

Many templates start with a look at your monthly spending so that you can make short-term goals and turn them into long-term savings and debt reduction. 

A budget template will help you manage your budget by tracking everything you spend and why. By tracking your spending habits over time, you gain a better vantage point of your habits—and you can adjust them accordingly.

Once you have a good idea of your budget, your habits, and your expenses, you can even create your own budgets for...anything, Create a budget to quit your job, to go on that dream vacation, or to finally pursue your entrepreneurship dreams. 

13 Places to Find Our Favorite Budget Templates + Apps 

A great budget planner helps you decide how to spend your money while reducing debt and creating savings goals, too. Yes, you can save, pay off, and spend at the same time. The secret is in starting small and making manageable tweaks to ensure that your goals fit your life. 

1. NerdWallet’s Free Budget Planner Worksheet 

NerdWallet knows a lot more than where to find the best credit cards for your needs. We love this monthly budget worksheet as an easy way to get things started.

This monthly budget worksheet prompts you to share a few facts and figures about yourself, your life, your expenses, and your wants. It will also compare your current spending to the popular 50/30/20 budgeting method. 

2. Clever Girl Finance’s Budgeting + Savings Worksheets

We love Clever Girl Finance for all things money management. Not to brag, but we consider Bola Sokunbi and her team our friends. We trust our friends with their financial advice. 

CGF's 40+ free budgeting templates come in both spreadsheet and printable formats. If you’re a pen and paper kind of person, you’re set. If you’re a Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet enthusiast, you’re also set. 

These budgeting templates cover everything from emergency savings to debt repayment to (gulp) wedding planning worksheets. 

Our Favorite: There’s even a worksheet to teach your kids about money planning, which is so useful. 

3. You Need a Budget (App) 

We also love the folks over at YNAB. We actually had founder, Jesse Mecham, on The Career Contessa Podcast and he sort of blew our minds with his advice. Unlike other budget apps, YNAB has their own thing going on…

Their unique approach to money is to give every dollar you earn a “job” to do. The entire app is built on that premise and their four “rules” to managing money—like never spending “incoming” money before it’s secured and saving your “baby money” to spend once it grows up. 

Oh, you can also get your sushi dinner with your best friend without blowing your entire annual budget. 

If you’re not sure about downloading the app just yet, check out their practical guides on dealing with debt and simplifying your finances. 

4. The Fiscal Femme’s 48-Hour Personal Finance Makeover + More 

Okay, we didn’t realize how many financial crushes we had until putting this list together, but we also love Ashley Feinstein Gerstley of The Fiscal Femme, which is why we created The 48-Hour Personal Finance Makeover together. 

We love a time-based task, so this budget planner helps you to spot financial sore spots, set realistic goals, and streamline all of your accounts for financial success. 

But that’s not all—not even close. The Fiscal Femme also has these incredible templates, too. 

Bonus: Learn how to manage your finances like an adult. 

5. Evernote’s Simple Save Money Template 

Evernote is a trusted source for all things organization, list-making, and note-taking. 

Their simple budget and savings plan templates allow you to keep track of your income and expenses with columns to log the expected dollar amount in relation to the actual amount. 

These budgeting trackers can also be used in conjunction with several other templates, like yearly goals templates and even an event budget template. 

6. Tiller’s Free Google Sheets Templates 

Tiller offers a way to manage your financial life with flexibility, privacy, and control. Tiller helps users to connect all of their financials to Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel in order to track everything. 

Like any smart personal finance company, Tiller gives potential users a sneak peek into their expertise with this free monthly budget spreadsheet, which features:

Tiller also offers other free finance templates to track your yearly spending, average daily spending, and more. 

7. Club Thrifty’s Monthly Budget Template 

Club Thrifty’s Excel spreadsheets make budgeting and tracking your spending a breeze! With all formulas ready to go, all you need to do is plug in your numbers and Excel will calculate the rest. 

8. Google Sheets Monthly Budgeting Templates 

You didn’t think Google was going to miss out on all of the budgeting fun, did you? 

Google Sheets, yes, that Google Sheets, offers a free budget template and monthly expense tracker that’s ready for you.

If you’re logged into your Google Account (ahem, it’s free to create one if you don’t already have a Google account) head to Google Sheets and browse their templates gallery. 

Their Monthly Budget Tracker allows you to track your income and expenses with set and customizable budget categories. And, yes, you can customize the colors, too. 

Thanks, Google! Feel free to rank this page as number one for all budgeting templates search terms! 

9. Savvy Budget Boss’s Budget Templates 

If you’re really looking for printables, then you can skip ahead to the long list of free printables we found, but we wanted to start with this simple and functional budget printable from Savvy Budget Boss. 

Unlike many printables, you can edit this one before you print it, which means you can customize the categories that are most important to your financial goals. 

If you want more than a printable, Savvy Budget Boss also put together this list of the best budget planner books and journals to keep consistent track of your finances with the old pen and paper. 

10. Vertex42’s Personal Budget Excel Spreadsheet 

We really admire the folks who are spreadsheet pros, which is how we landed at this very organized and professional-looking spreadsheet.

This personal budgeting template provides a simple and crystal-clear way to budget by category. 

Beyond that, Vertex42 has every type of budget spreadsheet imaginable—from simple “entry-level” worksheets like this income and expense tracker to the more in-depth expert worksheets. 

11. Smartsheet's Bi-Weekly Budget Worksheet

Smartsheet is a software service that helps businesses manage work and collaborate effectively. We felt like we needed to give them a plug because this bi-weekly budget spreadsheet is a thing of beauty—and they just give it to anyone?!

If you’re more of a bi-weekly planner, this bi-weekly budgeting spreadsheet is perfect for you. We actually can’t believe you can download this for free. 

12. OnPlanners’s Budget Templates 

Notebook and planner review site, OnPlanners, has budget templates for just about every budget you can imagine. 

You can use their templates to track weekly expenses or track your financial goals.  We also love this monthly bills template, which could even help make paying your bills less painful.

You can even customize these templates for start and end dates, format sizing, cutting marks, and more. 

13. Microsoft Budget Templates 

You didn’t think the home of Excel was going to be left out of the budgeting template game, did you? 

Microsoft created a series of free budgeting spreadsheets for almost every need—from personal budget templates to budget calculators. 

We love the personal monthly budget template’s columns* for projected cost versus the actual cost to help us hone our budgeting skills over time. 

Free Printable Budget Templates

Are you looking for a budget planner that is also pretty? Yeah, we get it. That’s why we scoured the internet (and Pinterest) for some of the prettiest printables around. 

There are some great budget planners that are simple, easy to use, and not scary to look at. Okay, sometimes they are still a little scary once you insert the numbers, but that’s only for a little bit! 

Food Budget Templates and Worksheets

If you're a big foodie, then the chances are that you know how to rack up a good grocery and restaurant tab every month. These budget templates are here to help you keep your food spending at a reasonable level. 

We have to hand it to food bloggers and organizational bloggers. They have all of these templates covered! 

Emergency Budget Templates 

As someone who recently had to shell out a painful amount of money for expensive dental work, I can attest to the life-saving magic of emergency funds aka bummer funds aka funds you wish were for trips to Hawaii but instead end up living in the deep recesses of your molars. 

But enough about me! Emergency budgets exist so that you can have a really bad day with your car without ruining your month or your year. Here are some great emergency budget templates and worksheets. 

Household Budget Templates 

We've named a few above, but budgeting for a household is tough, especially when there are a few members to consider. With more people comes more mouths to feed, accidents to happen, cars to break down, and the list goes on. 

Here are some of the best templates, worksheets, and tools to set budgets for your household—whether it has multiple incomes, pain points, or debts to pay off.