I built a monthly budget & expense tracker in Google Sheets this week.

Here's a breakdown of how it works and a free template you can use: 📊

First things first:

There are about 1,000,000 different ways you can budget your money.

But if you're looking for a financial advisor, that ain't me.

I'm just sharing a simple template that anyone can use to get started.

(Link at the end)

Wanna know how it works?

Read on:👇🏻

Step 1: Setup

We'll start by creating our framework.

Put simply:

• What do we want to track?
• How often?

I prefer to track finances on a monthly basis.

Begin by renaming one tab (or worksheet) within your doc & creating another.

Tab 1 - "YTD Dashboard"
Tab 2 - "January"

Step 2: What to track?

For the sake of time & simplicity, I've gone ahead & populated January with a few sample ideas:

• High-level categories: Income, Savings, & Expenses.

• Subitems below each:

Income → Salary
Housing → Lawn Care
Utilities → Electric

And so on...

Step 3: Basic Formatting

I like things to be formatted in a similar manner across sheets.

A few quick rules of thumb I've used here:

• Headings: Merge + Center, ⬆ Font, Bold
• Sheet Gridlines: Turned off
• Subitems: Heavy borders
• Totals: ⬆ Font, Bold

For example: