According to Forbes, more than 78% of U.S. workers are living paycheck-to-paycheck due to not having a plan for their money. It’s time to stop the money stress and take back control.
It’s really much easier than you think. You just need a simple budget template, tracker, or spreadsheet to help you track the details.
Luckily there are plenty of free budget templates and tools available for you to use.
In this article, we are going to go over the best budgeting tools and apps that you can start using today.
Table of Contents
What is a Budget Template?
A budget template helps you track your monthly income vs. your monthly expenses with accuracy. Using a budget template helps you easily manage your money and know exactly where your money is going each month.
Budget templates can be printable, digital, or even a simple-to-use app.
Over time your budget will show you your spending habits. This will allow you to see where you are wasting money and make a better plan for the future.
Best Budget Templates, Tools, and Apps
So, what are the best budget templates for you to use? Let’s take a closer look at our favorite options.
1. FREE Budget Template from The Savvy Couple
We created our simple monthly budget template to be as straightforward and easy to use as possible.
Our budget template is both printable and digital like a spreadsheet that will auto calculate for you. You can customize our template and use it for any financial situation.
We found when you are first getting started with a monthly budget nothing beats pen and paper.
Add your income at the top then subtract your fixed expenses, variable expenses, debt, and savings then watch our digital budget template auto-calculate your monthly cash flow at the bottom.
Using our budget template will allow you to have far more control over your spending and help you reach your financial goals.
If you are looking for an entire printable budgeting and debt payoff system grab our entire easy to use Budgeting Binder here!
2. Google Sheets Budget Spreadsheet
Of course, Google never lets you down and has plenty of budget templates to choose from.
If you love looking at the numbers and tracking every last penny then a Google Sheets budget spreadsheet will be perfect for you.
This way of budgeting is more time-consuming but you have far more control over your overall finances.
Since we found most of Google Sheets budget templates to not be very visually appealing or as user-friendly as we would have liked we actually created our own.
Head here to grab The Savvy Couple Google Sheet Digital Budgeting System.
3. Microsoft Excel Budget Spreadsheets
Microsoft Excel has some incredible free budget templates that you can use for free if you have Microsoft office.
Microsoft has a variety of options to fit all your budgeting needs. From personal family budgets, monthly budget templates, holiday budget templates, budget calculators, and even wedding budget trackers, they have plenty of free options to use.
If you can’t find a pre-made budget template that will fit your needs you can always create your own custom free budget template.
4. Mint – Free Budget App & Software
Kelan and I have been using Mint and Personal Capital to budget our money for more than a decade.
Mint is absolutely FREE and by far our favorite hands-off approach to budgeting.
If you want to automatically track your spending, know what your monthly cash flow is, and reach your financial goals then Mint is a perfect budgeting solution for your budgeting needs.
We love how user-friendly both their website and app has become over the years. You can read our full in-depth mint review here.
5. Personal Capital – Simple Budget Planner
Personal Capital is another great free online budgeting tool to use to track your monthly and yearly finances.
Personal capital is great for understanding your monthly spending, cash flow, investments, retirement, and net worth.
Out of all the budgeting apps, Personal Capital easily takes the cake when it comes to their net worth tracker and retirement planning.
We often go into our Personal Capital account about once a month to look at the big picture of our finances and make sure we are hitting all of our goals.
6. Vertex42 Free Budget Spreadsheets
Vertex42 has a huge collection of budget templates and worksheets for you to use. The best part is they are all free!
Whether you are looking for a family budget planner, personal budget, money management system, monthly household budget, or a simple budget worksheet Vertex42 has you covered.
We love that they have so many free budget templates for you to download and start using. They are simple and easy to use to help you get your money under control again.
7. YNAB – You Need A Budget App
YNAB is one of the fastest-growing budgeting software we have ever seen. Unlike Mint where it is a set it and forget it budgeting system YNAB will keep you on your toes and force you to budget every single dollar.
This is really a great budgeting software that is perfect for someone that does not have a lot of self-control.
You can break down your finances over the span of multiple months, as shown above, to see how much of your money is being spent. I love the circle graph and the breakdown in percents.
For a small fee of $6.99 per month, YNAB promises to help you take control of your finances.
8. EveryDollar – Dave Ramsey’s Monthly Budget App
EveryDollar allows you to create your first budget in less than 10 minutes and easily track your spending throughout the month. EveryDollar easily has one of the best user experiences around when it comes to budget templates.
The feel is very clean, organized, and as straightforward as they come. A crucial aspect of managing your money and learning how to budget.
The mobile app is very convenient but does last some of the features that other apps have to help you better manage your money effectively.
With a huge user base, you can’t go wrong starting your budgeting journey with EveryDollar.
9. Mvelopes – Cash Budgeting App
If you love the concept of Dave Ramsey’s budget envelope system, then Mvelopes digital budgeting app will work great for you.
I love how you can open different “envelopes” to check on how much you have budgeted, funded, and spent. A digital take on the classic envelope system.
You should note that this budgeting app is not free and their monthly subscription costs around $5 per month.
How Does a Budget Template Work?
First, start by writing down your total take-home income.
Then grab all of your monthly bills and write down where you are spending your money.
Simply take your income minus your expenses to quickly see where your money is going and how much you have left each month.
Before you get started on using any of these monthly budget templates, make sure you know why it is so important to have a budget.
You can learn all the budgeting tips and tricks you want but the most important thing is to find an easy-to-use budgeting system that works for you.
In order to live the stress-free life that you want you NEED to learn how to budget your money.
Should You Use a Budget Template or App?
This really depends on what you are the most comfortable with. You want a budgeting system that fits your personality and needs.
Budgeting can be so overwhelming and time-consuming when you are first getting started so keeping it simple is always the best answer.
By selecting one of these best budgeting templates and apps to use you will have far more control over your spending and entire financial future.
Final Thoughts
Whether you are using a free printable budget template or an online personal budget app, you can’t go wrong.
You are being purposeful with your money! At the end of the day this is all that matters because you took a first step to managing your money.
If you are looking for support on budgeting, saving money, and starting a side hustle we invite you to join our private Facebook group!
We need help, in our 50s lots of dept
Start budgeting right away. Track every dollar. What type of debt do you have? What’s the interest rate? How much?
Listen to Dave Ramsey’s “Total Money Makeover” on YouTube. Start implementing his tactics.
I’m a faithful YNAB user but that printable from A Mom’s Take is SO GORGEOUS I wanted to use it NOW. Budgeting is often seen as negative but it has shown us what we CAN do and given us the confidence and data to take big risks.
Her printable looks amazing! Totally agree budgeting is NOT restricting but freeing.
Creating a budget is so important. I am currently trying to help some relatives with their dire financial situation and I just can’t get them to understand how life changing it could be for them. They feel like they are so strapped that it wouldn’t be worth trying to create a budget. I’m a little old school and just created a simple excel spreadsheet for myself but I may have to try one of these you’ve listed, or it might at least inspire me to pretty up my own now.
Nothing wrong with excel, it’s actually a very powerful tool!
I enjoy seeing in print systems I have been doing for years. My deceased husband always
teased my for “systems” but your web site proved me RIGHT. What a nice feeling.
Marge
What if you and your husband have separate bank accounts?
You can still budget together and work on big time goals. Or you can combine. Just have to figure out what works best for both of you and stick to it.
We use Excel to track our spending so we can create whatever fields we want to track. Something that has helped us a lot is tracking by Spender — each member of the family, but also our businesses. This way, we can look at a category, such as Meals, but also who it’s for (us as a family, a business expense, an individual in the family). If someone is overspending, we can easily see it. If a category is outsized, we can see that too.
I have been using this template fur a couple of months. I finally feel as if I manage my budget instead of in managing me. When you live on SSI with 2 kids its hard but I was able to start a savings account and money on hand for kids school things that crop up out of the blue. Thank for sharing
So happy our budget template has helped you start to manage your money better Helen. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for these great budget templates. I find it so interesting to see the differences and perfect for picking the right one for me and my daughter.
So happy to help Scarlet. Feel free to reach out if you need help with budgeting.
The templates help me big time on tracking and projecting my expenses. These templates are gonna be with me for a very long time. Thanks for helping me out!
So happy to help Mark!
We are struggling, my husband works and I attend college, work as well, and we have 3 kids to manage all in the mix. I feel like we are hanging on by a thread with finances and I feel so hopeless. I do all of the finances and I am spread so thin already that they have become last in the chaos of our daily lives. Our biggest problem is eating out because of cram for time! My anxiety is so high because of the uncertainty that each month brings with bills that are higher than our income coming in. I feel so lost and just want to cry.
Hey Janis,
I am so sorry you are feeling like this. We will be reaching out via email to help guide you in your current situation.
Thank you so much Kelan, that means a lot to us!
Our pleasure. We sent the email. Let us know if you did not receive it.
Are there any ones for kids? like 12-year-olds?
Thanks for posting all the spreadsheets. I really enjoy the flexibility they provide. I’ve been using the Aspire Budget Google Sheet recently and have really enjoyed it.
These budget spreadsheets have a nice balance between simplicity and usefulness, which is always welcome when it comes to managing your money.
Budgeting can be really stressful especially if it is not done in an organized way. Those templates are very cute and lively that provides positive feelings while dealing with budgeting problems.
This looks so helpful!