Free Monthly Expense Template – Simple Household Bills Tracker

Nov 26, 2010
Lena Gott

Download a Simple Budget Expense Worksheet - David Siqueira

Here's a simple example monthly budget worksheet with a pre-populated list of personal expenses. Find links to other sample Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.

Currently the eighth most popular sample budgeting planner on the Microsoft Office website, the Personal Monthly Budget Spreadsheet has been downloaded nearly 249,000 times and is rated four out of five stars. Unfortunately for users of old versions of Microsoft Office, this file is only compatible with Excel 2007 or later (in order to use it, you will need a compatibility pack).

Free Monthly Expense Template to Simplify Your Family’s Household Bills Tracking

The creator claims that this free monthly expense template can be used to streamline monthly budgeting. But does it hold up to the hype?

In this article, we’ll examine this budgeting worksheet template’s functionality. Find a direct link to the worksheet below.

Simple Budget Expense Worksheet to Track Projected and Actual Household Bills

Upon first glance, this income and expenses tracking worksheet has a particularly eye-catching color scheme. On a white background, the creator(s) used a combination of light blue and medium blue for the ledger and a calming shade of green for the details. Muted shades of red and yellow also make an appearance. Even though this has no bearing on the spreadsheet’s functionality, it gives a good first impression.

Upon further inspection, it appears the goal of this budget expense worksheet is to give you an accurate view of actual monthly expenses with the ability to make projections and compare your performance. At the top of the budgeting worksheet template, there is a snapshot of projected versus actual income and a separate view of the monthly projected versus actual net results (income minus expenses). You also get a quick snapshot of the total differential between the net projected monthly amount and the actual net monthly amount.

Monthly Budget Example – Pre-Populated Personal Expenses List

Below the monthly snapshot section, you will find household expense categories. The major categories of housing, entertainment, transportation, loans, insurance, taxes, savings/investments, food, pets, gifts/donations, personal care, and legal are separately shown. Then, each category is further broken down into individual expenses.

Next to each expense, there is a spot for projected and actual monthly amounts, and a difference is automatically calculated for you. A list of common household and personal expenses is already pre-populated in the template; however, there is room to add more in each category, and, of course, you can always add more lines as needed because it is Microsoft Excel.

Below the expense categories, total projected costs and total actual costs are calculated and compared to arrive at a net differential.

Income & Expenses Tracking – Budgeting Worksheet Template with Sorting Capability

A unique aspect to this sample budgeting planner that I haven’t seen in most Excel budget spreadsheets: next to the itemized expenses, the projected, actual, and difference columns can be sorted by amount (smallest to largest or vice versa) using drop down boxes. This is a handy feature that gives you the ability to identify the weak spots in your budget.

As the spreadsheet focuses on projected versus actual amounts without a time constraint, it really could be used for weekly or annual tracking. Monthly tracking is discussed above because it’s a fairly common time period for budgeting.

Sample Budgeting Planners – More Free Excel Budget Spreadsheets

The monthly household expense template profiled in this article appears to be a simple, yet effective budgeting tool; however, it is just one of many available for free download online. You’ll find links to many other household budget spreadsheets in the articles below. All of the recommended downloads are compatible with Microsoft Excel.