5 Household Budget Templates That Will Help If You Actually Stick With It

If you are like many, the challenging economy has caused us to take a look at our personal finances and consider making a budget. Good news! Budgeting doesn't have to be painful!
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If you are like many, the challenging economy has caused us to take a look at our personal finances and consider making a budget. Good news! Budgeting doesn't have to be painful!

In fact, if done correctly budgeting can be fun and will actually provide you with more freedom financially than most can imagine. Keep reading below to find some free budget spreadsheets and worksheets.

Find the sheet that best suits your needs and adapt it to your own financial situation. No two families will have the exact same expenses, therefore there is no one-size-fits-all approach to this.

What programs to open the spreadsheets with

Many of the household budget sheets are in Excel format (which has an .xls extention). But the good news is that you don't necessarily need Excel to open their spreadsheets.

OpenOffice.org is a free software package that offers similar programs to Microsoft Office. The programs are not exactly the same, but are very similar. And the spreadsheet program that comes with OpenOffice will import Excel files just fine.

Google Docs is another great free solution to open the free worksheets. Within Google docs you can import worksheets with the .xls extension and many of them will work flawlessly. If it is a complex spreadsheet, some of the functionality may be lost in the import. Also be warned that Google docs (since it is online software) will not process data as quickly as Excel or Open Office.

1. Budget & Financial Snapshot

This template is great because not only does it allow you to set up a simple budget, but it also provides a snapshot of your total financial picture.

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2. SimplePlanning Budget Planner

This is my favorite household budgeting template that I have found, but unlike the other 4 listed it isn't free.

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3. Monthly Budget Template

This is an elaborate spreadsheet that allows you to enter each item you purchase and then it automatically adds up and compares the total amount spent with the amount budgeted.

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4. Zero-based Budgeting Template

If you are looking to do Zero-based budgeting (Dave Ramsey style) this one is for you.

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5. Personal Budget Template

This one is nice and simple. You just have to enter each purchase and it will track your daily expenses.

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