Budget Spreadsheet

A simple monthly budget planner built for starter salaries — track income, bills, rent, food and savings, with the maths done for you.

What's inside

A ready-made monthly budget split into four groups, with the totals, your remaining balance and your savings rate calculated automatically:

Income — salary (after tax), side income and anything else.
Fixed costs — rent, bills, broadband, subscriptions, transport and loan repayments.
Variable costs — food, social, clothing and the rest.
Savings & debt — emergency fund, savings and debt repayment.

Here's how the budget is laid out. The downloaded file has the working totals, remaining balance and savings-rate formulas.

	Income
	Date	Items	Amount	Notes
1	01-Aug-2026	Salary	2,800.00	Monthly Salar after tax
2	02-Aug-2026	Side Gig	200.00	Extra £200 distributing magazines
3	03-Aug-2026	Food delivery gig	100.00	Extra £100 delivery gig over the weekend
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
		Total Income	3,100.00

	Variable Costs (the "Optionals")
	Date		Salary after tax	Notes
1	01-Aug-2026	Weekly Latte	34.30	£4.90 per day
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
		Total Variables Costs	34.30

	Savings and Debt (Debt is shown as Negative)
			Salary after tax	Notes
1	Emergency Fund		2,200.00
2	Bank Savings		200.00
3	Credit Card #1		-300.00	29% APR
4	Credit Card #2		-100.00	45% APR - Need to pay this off quickly
5
6
7
8
9
10
		Total Variables Costs	2,000.00

Budget Summary
Total Income	3,100.00
Total Fixed Costs	1,000.00
Total Variable Costs	34.30
Savings and Debt	2,000.00
Savings rate (higher the better)	65%

This is a preview to show the layout. Download the file to use the working dropdown, formulas and colours.

Review it monthly; a budget is a habit, not a one-off.
Aim for some savings, however small — consistency matters more than the amount.
If money's tight, see our finance articles for practical, judgement-free guidance.

Ready to use it?

Download the Excel spreadsheetand start straight away. It's yours to keep and edit.