Family budget template — free Excel spreadsheet
A complete family budget spreadsheet with three built-in worksheets — monthly budget, annual overview, and sinking funds tracker. Works in Excel and Google Sheets. No email required.
The core budget — enter your income and planned spending, then track actuals as the month progresses. Automatically calculates difference and percentage of income for every category.
Track 12 months of income and expenses side-by-side. See patterns, spot problem months, and calculate your total annual spending by category. TOTAL column auto-sums all 12 months.
Plan for 12 irregular expenses — holidays, back-to-school, vacation, car maintenance, and more. Enter your target amount and monthly savings, and the template calculates months to goal automatically.
How to use the family budget template
Download the .xlsx file and open in Excel or import into Google Sheets. All three worksheets are pre-built and ready to use.
Blue cells are your inputs — income and planned budget amounts. The template comes pre-filled with realistic example numbers for a family of four. Replace them with yours.
Enter actual spending in the Actual column as the month progresses. The Difference column shows instantly where you're over or under. 10 minutes per week is all it takes.
Open Sheet 3 and list your upcoming large expenses — holiday gifts, vacation, car maintenance. The template tells you exactly how much to save each month for each goal.
At month-end, copy actuals to Sheet 2 (Annual Overview) to build your year-over-year picture. Adjust next month's budget based on what you learned.
Most families download a budget template and spend two hours filling it in perfectly — then never open it again. The template isn't the point; the habit is. Set a recurring 15-minute calendar invite on the same day each week to update actuals. After three weeks it becomes automatic.
Prefer an interactive version?
Our free family budget calculator does the same math online — no download needed. See your spending breakdown by category and compare to recommended percentages for families at your income level.
Use the online budget calculator →