Budgeting is the foundation of any financial strategy. Here are the best budget templates to help you budget online, in a spreadsheet, or with pen and paper.
Discover the 7 best budget templates and tools for 2023 that will revolutionize the way you manage your money. Whether you prefer budgeting online, using spreadsheets, or going the traditional route with pen and paper, these budgeting solutions are designed to simplify your financial planning and help you achieve your savings goals. Explore the top picks today!
No matter where you are in your financial journey, budgeting is an essential money management tool. But just like personal finance is personal, theres no one size fits all budget template.
There are many ways to budget and track how much money youre making, spending, saving, and investing. This is why its important to find the best way for you to budget. Ive spent the last month diving into all of the best budget templates so you dont 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 its 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 youre comfortable with so youll stick with it.
7 Best Budget Templates and Tools
Here are the best budget templates for you to customize for your own needs:
Table of Contents
Best Online Budgeting Templates
Life is so busy so Im 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, Ive also been using Personal Capital for just as long. You might be wondering why Id 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:
- Personal Capital review
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 its 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 its an accolade thats 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 youre serious about taking your budgeting game to the next level its worth trying YNAB out for free.
Learn More:
- You Need a Budget review
3. Mint.com
Cost: Free
Mint is a completely free app that completely changed budgeting when it debuted in 2006. Ive been using it since 2010 to track my money and budget. Its 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 Ive 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 dont overspend in key budget categories.
Mint walks you through all of the steps and its super easy to set-up (and adjust) a budget over time.
Learn More:
- Mint.com review
4. Every Dollar
Cost: Free $79.99/year
Heres another great budgeting app from the team at Ramsey Solutions. Its a completely free and easy-to-use mobile budgeting template that you can use to track your income and expenses.
While its not as robust as Mint or Personal Capital, maybe youre the type of person who prefers a simple budgeting app. If youre someone who prefers fewer bells and whistles check out Everydollar.
Best Spreadsheet Budget Templates
Want cant 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 youll 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 youll 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 theyve compiled over 50 of the best Excel budget templates every made so you can use them too.
Whether youre 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 youd 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 Moms 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.
Heres a printable budget template PDF or the word doc of the blog A Moms Take.
budget templates
