No matter where you are in your financial journey, budgeting is an essential money management tool. But just like personal finance is personal, there’s no one size fits all budget template.
There are many ways to budget and track how much money you’re making, spending, saving, and investing. This is why it’s important to find the best way for you to budget. I’ve spent the last month diving into all of the best budget templates so you don’t have to.
There are four simple ways to set up a simple budget template: you can use a free budgeting app, a spreadsheet (with Google Docs or Excel), a paid budgeting tool, or good old pen and paper.
No one method is better than another, so it’s important to try out different methods and pick the best method for you.
No matter what budget method you choose, you want to find a way to budget you’re comfortable with so you’ll stick with it.
7 Best Budget Templates and Tools
Here are the best budget templates for you to customize for your own needs:
- 🏆 Personal Capital
- YNAB
- Mint
- Everydollar
- Google Sheets Free Budget Templates
- Microsoft Excel Budget Templates
- Free Budget Printable from A Mom’s Take
Best Online Budgeting Templates
Life is so busy so I’m always looking for more efficient ways to manage my money. This is why I prefer to budget on my phone using a free budgeting tracking app.
1. Personal Capital
Cost: Free
In addition to using Mint since 2010, I’ve also been using Personal Capital for just as long. You might be wondering why I’d choose to use both Mint and Personal Capital and the reason is that they both have different strengths.
While Mint is a great spending and budget tracker, Personal Capital has a lot more features and allows me to also track my investing portfolio performance, as well as the strength of my investing strategy.
The dashboard is also much more detailed so I can see my entire financial life on one screen, including my budget. Check out what the Personal Capital dashboard looks like below.
Learn More:
2. YNAB (You Need A Budget)
Cost: Free Trial then $8.25/month with Annual Plan
According to YNAB, every dollar has a job and it’s up to you to put it to work. YNAB has tens of thousands of devoted users who swear by the service.
You Need A Budget is regularly recommended as the best-paid budgeting tracker and template, and it’s an accolade that’s well deserved. It is without a doubt the most comprehensive and best online budgeting tracker on the market.
Their online budgeting template works on your computer, or phone, and has every budgeting feature you would ever need. While it can be a little daunting at first, if you’re serious about taking your budgeting game to the next level it’s worth trying YNAB out for free.
Learn More:
3. Mint.com
Cost: Free
Mint is a completely free app that completely changed budgeting when it debuted in 2006. I’ve been using it since 2010 to track my money and budget. It’s been a game-changer in my life.
This means I now have almost 10 years of budgeting data in the app so I can track patterns over time, like how I’ve spent over $10,000 on Chipotle over the past 10 years!
Another feature I really like is Mint has a great phone and smartwatch app so you can see your budget on your hand so you don’t overspend in key budget categories.
Mint walks you through all of the steps and it’s super easy to set-up (and adjust) a budget over time.
Learn More:
4. Every Dollar
Cost: Free – $79.99/year
Here’s another great budgeting app from the team at Ramsey Solutions. It’s a completely free and easy-to-use mobile budgeting template that you can use to track your income and expenses.
While it’s not as robust as Mint or Personal Capital, maybe you’re the type of person who prefers a simple budgeting app. If you’re someone who prefers fewer bells and whistles check out Everydollar.
Best Spreadsheet Budget Templates
Want can’t be solved in life with a good spreadsheet? There are so many great budgeting spreadsheets, but here are the best.
5. Free Google Sheets Budget Templates
There are some incredible Google Sheets Budget templates that are worth exploring. One added bonus is that you can easily edit them through the Google Sheets iPhone and Android apps, so you’ll never be far from your budget.
Here is a great collection of budget templates, all of which are completely customizable.
CUSTOMIZE: After viewing each spreadsheet simply select Make A Copy under File to copy the spreadsheet into your own Google account where you’ll be able to edit and share it. Requesting access will not give you access. You need to copy it into your own account to make edits.
- Financial Independence Budget Template from FINJA (learn how to use here)
- Very Simple Monthly Budget Template
- Keepify Simple Budget Template
6. Free Microsoft Excel Budget Templates
Microsoft Excel has been used for budgeting since 1985 and they’ve compiled over 50 of the best Excel budget templates every made so you can use them too.
Whether you’re an Excel nerd or just looking for an easy way to manage your budget then Excel might be a simple solution. You can find all of the available Excel budget templates here.
Best Printable Budget Template
If you’d rather download a PDF budget that you can write on or keep in a budget binder, here is the best printable budget template.
7. Free Budget Printable from A Mom’s Take
When it comes to budgeting this is as simple as it gets. On this monthly budget worksheet, you can track your expected and actual income each month, along with all of your expenses.
Here’s a printable budget template PDF or the word doc of the blog A Mom’s Take.
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