How to Make a Simple Monthly Budget in a Spreadsheet, From Scratch

Try it now: use our free Monthly Budget Calculator to work out your monthly budget in seconds.

Introduction

Pay arrives, the first week feels comfortable, and by the 22nd of the month the account is somehow nearly empty. No big purchase explains it. No emergency happened. The money simply leaked away in amounts too small to remember.

That is the problem a budget actually solves. Not guilt, not complicated finance — just seeing where the money went in one place, written down, before the month starts rather than after it ends. And you do not need an app subscription or a finance degree. A blank spreadsheet, the kind already on most computers and phones, is enough.

The layout: keep it boring on purpose

Open a new blank spreadsheet. You only need two columns: A for the item name, B for the amount. Resist colours, charts, and twelve categories on day one. A budget you actually fill in beats a beautiful one you abandon by February.

Type these headings:

In cell A1: Monthly Budget
In A3: Income
Below it, one row per income source
Further down: Expenses
Below that, one row per expense

Step 1: Put your real income at the top

Use the amount that actually reaches your account, after deductions — your take-home pay, not the figure in the job advert. If you have more than one source, give each its own row: main salary, a part-time shift, regular freelance work.

Salary (take-home): 1,800
Weekend work: 200
Total income: 2,000

To add the income up automatically, click the empty cell under your income amounts and type:

=SUM(B4:B5)

Adjust the cell letters and numbers to match your sheet. The equals sign marks a formula, SUM means add, and the brackets hold the cells to add. Change any figure later and the total updates itself — the main reason for using a spreadsheet instead of paper.

Step 2: List expenses in groups

Write expenses in small groups so the list does not become a blur. Four groups cover most households:

Home

Rent: 650
Electricity and gas: 95
Internet and phone: 45

Food

Groceries: 320
Eating out and takeaways: 80

Transport

Bus pass or fuel: 120
Occasional taxi: 30

Everything else

Toiletries and household bits: 40
Entertainment and subscriptions: 35
Clothes (averaged): 50
Health costs: 25

Add a SUM formula at the bottom of each group, as you did for income. Then make one grand total for all expenses by adding the group totals together, for example =B10+B15+B19+B25 — using your own cell numbers.

Adding our example groups: home comes to 790, food to 400, transport to 150, and everything else to 150. Total expenses: 1,490.

Step 3: Find what is left — and give it a job

Now the most useful formula in the whole sheet. In a cell labelled Left over, subtract total expenses from total income:

=B6-B26

Once more, match the cells to your sheet. In our example: 2,000 minus 1,490 leaves 510.

That 510 is not spare money to drift away. Decide where it goes while you are looking at the sheet:

Savings or emergency fund: 300
Yearly costs pot (explained below): 110
Genuinely free to spend: 100

If your leftover is negative, do not panic and do not bin the sheet. That number is exactly the information you came for. Find the groups you can trim honestly — eating out and subscriptions are usually easier than rent — and change the plan on paper before the month forces a worse change on you.

Step 4: The costs everyone forgets

Here is the mistake that wrecks otherwise good budgets: forgetting irregular yearly expenses. They are not surprises, really. They arrive every year, on roughly the same date, and still catch people out because they never appear in a normal month’s list.

Think of things like:

Annual insurance: 240 a year is 20 a month
Car service or registration: 180 a year is 15 a month
School or course fees paid once or twice a year
Festivals, birthdays, and gifts: say 600 a year, which is 50 a month
A yearly subscription renewal or two

Take each yearly cost, divide it by 12, and add that monthly amount as a row in its own group called Yearly costs, monthly share. In our example those items add up to roughly 110 a month. Pay it into a separate savings pot each month, and when the annual bill lands, the money is sitting there.

Step 5: Use it during the month, not just at the start

A budget written once and never reopened is a wish, not a plan. Keep it alive with a tiny routine:

Once a week, spend five minutes adding what you spent into the groups. Bank apps make this quick.
If one group goes over, move money from another group on the sheet and add a short note, like “moved 30 from clothes — guests visited.” Notes like that are gold next month.
At month end, compare planned against actual, copy the sheet for next month, and adjust only the rows that were clearly wrong.

Frequently Asked Questions

I get paid at the end of the month. Which month does this budget cover?

Whichever way makes sense to you, as long as you stay consistent. The simplest approach: the pay that arrives at the end of October funds November’s budget. Write the month name at the top of the sheet, and build each new month as a copy of the last one, adjusted.

What if I honestly have nothing left after essentials?

Then the sheet has still done its job, because now you can see it in numbers. Look first for small recurring leaks — unused subscriptions, avoidable fees, wasted food. If the gap is bigger than small leaks, the honest options are reducing a fixed cost over time or adding income. A budget cannot invent money, but it stops you blaming yourself for an arithmetic problem.

Do I have to track every tiny purchase? That sounds exhausting.

No. Track by group, not by biscuit. If groceries get 320, you only need the running total for groceries. Many people keep small daily spending in one row called “small cash spending” with a fixed weekly amount. When the cash is gone, it is gone — no recording needed beyond the withdrawal.

Conclusion

A blank sheet, your real take-home pay, honest expense groups, a SUM formula or two, and a monthly share set aside for yearly bills. That is a working budget. Keep the weekly check to five minutes and let the leftover row tell you the truth. The first version will be imperfect. Use it anyway.