What columns should a budget spreadsheet have?

Four are enough: the category name, a Planned amount, an Actual amount you update as you spend, and a Remaining column computed as Planned minus Actual. A totals row at the bottom shows whether the whole plan fits inside your income.

What formulas does a budget spreadsheet need?

Only three: a SUM over the Planned column to compare against income, a SUM over the Actual column, and Planned minus Actual per row for the Remaining figure. Conditional formatting that turns a negative Remaining red does the talking after that.

Should I use Google Sheets or Excel for a budget?

Either works; the formulas are identical. Google Sheets has the edge for most people because it is free, lives in a browser tab you can keep open, and syncs to your phone, which makes the update-as-you-spend habit slightly easier to keep.

Why do most budget spreadsheets fail?

Because the Actual column is manual. After a busy fortnight you are twenty receipts behind, the numbers no longer reflect reality, and starting fresh next month feels easier than catching up. The fix is either entering spending immediately or letting a tool capture it for you.

Is a spreadsheet better than a budgeting app?

A spreadsheet is unbeatable for flexibility and price, and genuinely good if you enjoy maintaining it. An app earns its keep when the manual upkeep is what keeps killing your budget, since capture can happen automatically the moment you spend.

How to Make a Budget Spreadsheet (and When to Skip It)

A budget spreadsheet is still one of the cheapest and most flexible ways to take control of your money. You do not need any apps or subscriptions, just Google Sheets or Excel and about half an hour. Here is how to build one that actually works, step by step.

Step 1: Start with your income

Open a new sheet and, at the top, write your monthly take-home income (after tax). If your income varies, use a conservative average of the last three months rather than your best month. This number is your starting budget for everything below.

Step 2: List your fixed expenses

Fixed expenses are the bills that stay roughly the same every month: rent or mortgage, utilities, phone, insurance, subscriptions, loan repayments. Put each on its own row in a column called Planned. These are the non-negotiables, so getting them down first shows you what is actually left to work with.

Step 3: Add your variable categories

Below the fixed costs, list the categories you can influence: groceries, eating out, transport, shopping, fun, and so on. Give each a planned amount. Do not aim for perfection here. Your first month is really a measurement exercise, and you will adjust the numbers once you see reality.

Step 4: Add the formulas that matter

This is what turns a list into a budget. You only need three:

Total planned: =SUM(range) over your Planned column. Compare it to your income. If planned spending is higher than income, something has to give now, not at the end of the month.
Actual spent: a second column called Actual next to Planned, where you record what you really spent in each category.
Remaining: =Planned-Actual for each row, so a glance tells you how much is left in groceries before you overspend.

Add a row at the bottom that sums each column, then use conditional formatting to turn a Remaining cell red when it goes negative. Now your spreadsheet talks back.

Step 5: Keep it updated through the month

A budget is only useful if the Actual column reflects real life. The habit is simple: every time you spend, you add a line. That is also, as it turns out, the exact point where most budget spreadsheets quietly die.

The 50/30/20 shortcut

If staring at a blank sheet is the hard part, borrow a structure. The 50/30/20 rule splits your income into 50% needs, 30% wants, and 20% savings, which gives you sensible planned figures in about a minute. Build your categories under those three headings and you are most of the way there.

Why most spreadsheets fail (and what to do about it)

Be honest about the failure mode, because nearly everyone hits it. Spreadsheets do not fail because people are bad with money. They fail because keeping the Actual column current is manual work, and after a busy fortnight you are twenty receipts behind, the numbers are wrong, and it feels easier to start fresh next month. You never do.

There are two ways to beat this:

Lower the effort. Keep the sheet open as a browser tab and enter spending the moment it happens, before the pile builds up.
Remove the data entry entirely. This is where a tool earns its keep. With kvar. you photograph a receipt and the purchase is read, math-checked, and dropped into the right category automatically, so the Actual side of your budget fills itself in. You keep the planned-versus-reality view a good spreadsheet gives you, without the upkeep that kills it. You can even bring your existing spreadsheet across when you start.

The bottom line

If you enjoy building and tweaking a sheet, a well-made budget spreadsheet is a genuinely good tool, and now you have the structure and the three formulas to build one. If the upkeep is what keeps beating you, that is a sign to let something else do the typing. Either way the structure is the same: plan it, track it, and check the remaining number before you spend.