Free Microsoft Excel Household Budget Template

Download Family Budgeting Spreadsheet, Monthly Expenses Worksheet

Jul 7, 2009

Track monthly expenses. Download a free household budget template. Know how to use a family budgeting spreadsheet; find another Microsoft Excel expense worksheet review.

This article will profile another very popular worksheet, the one entitled "household monthly budget," that has been downloaded over 183,000 times by Microsoft Excel users (it requires Excel 2007 or a later version).

This budget template appears complex at first glance, but it is actually quite simple to use and provides useful data to those who want to get a handle on monthly expenses. The primary purpose of this Excel spreadsheet template is for individuals to be able to compare projected income and expenses to actual monthly amounts. As such, it can be used as a budgeting tool or after the fact as a guide for which household expenses to focus on in the budgeting process.

Expenses are broken into thirteen major categories in this household budget template: children, entertainment, food, gifts/donations, housing, insurance, legal, loans, personal care, pets, savings/investments, taxes, transportation. Each of these budget categories is then broken down further. The categories are separated by bolded outlines, so users can visually separate the types of expenses when analyzing monthly spending habits.

Download Excel Spreadsheet Template- Compare Monthly Expenses to Income

For each separately itemized expense, individuals should input a projected monthly amount and the actual monthly amount. After this has been completed, the Excel spreadsheet will show a total projected monthly surplus or deficit compared to the actual amount over or under. A unique feature of this spreadsheet template is that it comes with two visual representations of monthly expenses.

The person who created the worksheet inserted a pie chart that visually depicts monthly expenses by select budget categories. The categories that appear in this pie chart are ones that may be considered variable and/or discretionary in nature (like a specific car loan or dining out). This is particularly helpful in that it allows the user to quickly determine which monthly expenses take up the largest portion of monthly income.

The second visual representation is a bar graph that shows ten of the major categories noted above (all of them except legal, loans, and taxes). This graph is helpful, although it does not provide the user with an idea of the exact expenditures that are consuming a large portion of monthly income.

How to Use Family Budgeting Spreadsheets

Keeping track of monthly expenses may seem daunting, but a pre-populated household budget template like the one above makes this task much simpler. An easy way to keep track of expenses is to hang on to sales receipts as you make purchases throughout the month. To make data entry as easy as possible, keep those receipts organized into the thirteen categories above in a standard thirteen-category coupon organizer or file folders designated solely for this purpose.

At the end of the month, tally up the receipts for each category and input those amounts into the budgeting spreadsheet. Individuals who are so inclined may wish to input projected amounts into the spreadsheet before any actual expenses are ever tracked, but some may find it easier to get a feel for actual expenses the first month so they can input realistic goals in the projected column for the following month. After a few months of this process, individuals may begin to get a handle on monthly household expenses.

Another Free Monthly Expenses Worksheet & Related Family Budgeting Article

The Microsoft Office website offers several monthly household budget spreadsheets free of charge. For another household budget template review, see the article Microsoft Excel Household Budget Spreadsheet.

The copyright of the article Free Microsoft Excel Household Budget Template in Personal Budget Creation is owned by Lena Gott. Permission to republish Free Microsoft Excel Household Budget Template in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.