Hi everyone! I’m searching for a solid budgeting template that I can use with Google Sheets. My current setup at home is pretty basic and I’m not great at creating fancy visuals or charts myself.
What I’m hoping to find is something that has separate areas for different types of expenses. I want to track my monthly income in one spot, then have another area for regular bills and payments. I’d also like a dedicated section for loans (not talking about mortgage or car loans, but things like personal loans for education). This way I can see how these loans impact my overall budget differently from regular bills.
I’m also looking for sections to track wants versus needs, plus a savings area so my spouse and I can see what fits in our budget. This would help us plan for things like activities our children want to participate in.
One feature that would be really helpful is some kind of checkbox system to mark when bills are paid, maybe with a visual chart to show payment status. My goal is to get better control of our finances and help both my wife and myself understand our spending patterns better.
Ideally looking for something free, but I’m open to paying a reasonable amount if it’s worth it. Any suggestions would be appreciated!
have you tried the templates in Google sheets? they’re super easy to use, customizable, and free! they might cover what you’re looking for with expenses and savings.
Tiller might be exactly what you need. It connects directly to your bank accounts and auto-pulls transactions into Google Sheets - saves you tons of manual data entry. The foundation template has sections for income, expenses by category, and debt tracking that separates different loan types like you mentioned. What sold me was their monthly budget dashboard. You can easily see wants vs needs spending, plus there’s a bills tracker that changes colors based on due dates and payment status. My wife and I love the visual reports for those budget conversations about kids’ activities and fun money. It’s around $79/year, but the automation makes it worth it if you want something better than basic templates. They’ve got a free trial so you can test it before committing.
I’ve used a modified Vertex42 budget template for two years - it covers most of what you need. The expense categories are solid, but I added my own loan tracking since theirs wasn’t detailed enough for different loan types. The checkbox feature for bills is great once you set up conditional formatting. Bills go green when paid, red when overdue. Pro tip: duplicate the template each month instead of using one sheet all year. Makes spotting patterns way easier. The charts update automatically, which is perfect when talking money with my partner. It’s free and easy to find with a quick search.