Do you want to take control of your finances? Using a budget template is one of the easiest ways to start managing your money better.
According to Forbes, more than 78% of 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.
In this article, we are going to help you simplify and organize your finances using a simple monthly budget template.
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.
Monthly budget templates can be printable, digital, or even a simple to use app.
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.
FREE Printable Monthly Budget Templates
1. FREE Simple Monthly Budget Template from The Savvy Couple
We created our simple monthly budget template to get you started with budgeting. This budget template is extremely easy to use and customizable to your individual financial situation.
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.
If you are more comfortable using pen and paper feel free to print it off and use it that way just like a budget planner.
If you are sick of living paycheck to paycheck grab our entire easy to use Budgeting Binder here!
2. Monthly Budget Printable Template from Frugal Fanatic
Frugal Fanatic wants you to get a better grasp on your finances by using their blank printable budget template. I like this template because it is very simple to follow.
This printable budget sheet also allows for some expenses I might have looked over from my own budget.
Frugal Fanatic has a monthly expense category called Household Maintenance. We have a lot of items we put into our “other” category that would fit nicely into this category.
3. Similar Dave Ramsey Budget Envelope System from Frugal Mom eh!
If you follow Dave Ramsey and his envelope system, this printable is for you! This Dave Ramsey budget sheet has a beautiful color scheme.
I don’t know about you, but it makes budgeting feel more fun and relaxed! Check out Elizabeth’s labels and envelope designs.
4. Printable Monthly Budget from Lightroom Presets
I love this printable budget template from Lightroom Presets. It’s super pretty and very efficient to use. You can customize your savings goals and also use it to help pay off your debt.
On their budget template, they even put a checkbox next to each of your monthly expenses to keep track of what is paid and what needs to be paid. This is a perfect budget worksheet to keep you organized and in control of your money.
5. Family Budget Worksheet from A Mom’s Take
Bright, colorful, and clean family budget worksheet. This printable budget sheet not only has your monthly expenses, it also has a large section for long-term planning and investments.
Many budget printables forget about this aspect of budgeting, but it is crucial to plan for the future and retirement.
If you download one of these budget templates and it doesn’t work for you, come back and try another one next month.
Your financial future is far too important to ignore where your money is going.
Best Digital Budget Templates and Spreadsheets
Maybe you are not a pencil and paper kind of person and you want to be able to budget your money using an online budget site.
There are both free and paid websites to help you budget your money.
These websites allow you to look at your finances from month to month and then yearly outcomes as you keep using the software.
6. Mint – Monthly Budgeting App (FREE)
Kelan and I use Mint and Personal Capital to budget our money. We have been with Mint since March of 2013.
Imagine all the data we can go back and track over the years to really fine-tune our budget each month.
Mint just updated their software and the new interface is SO user-friendly.
Another great thing I love about Mint is the app I have downloaded on my phone. I am able to easily check before I walk in the grocery store how much is left for the month for groceries.
7. Personal Capital – Simple Budget Planner (FREE)
Personal Capital is another great free online budgeting tool to use to track your monthly and yearly finances.
We also have been using Personal Capital for a long time but mostly for cash flow, investments, retirement, and net worth. Our favorite feature is being able to project our potential retirement account depending on the different factors we put in.
Chasing financial independence and being able to retire when and how we want is a goal of ours.
8. Mvelopes – Cash Budgeting App + Software ($4/month)
If you love the concept of Dave Ramsey’s budget envelope system, than this is the online budget tool 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.
9. Every Dollar – Dave Ramsey’s Monthly Budget App (FREE)
Every Dollar has the most monthly budget template look to a printable. The feel is very clean and organized. A crucial aspect of managing your money; financial organization!
The mobile app also allows maintaining that organization on the go with your mobile device.
10. YNAB – Hands on Budget Template App ($6.99/month)
Completely worth the $6.99 a month to take control of your finances over on YNAB.
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 break down in percents.
It really shows you what you can work on decreasing your monthly budget.
BONUS: Free Microsoft Office Budget Templates and Spreadsheets
If you like going old school and using Microsoft Excel to budget your money then look no further!
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.
Whether you are using one of the free printable budget templates 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!