Having a budget is a great way to get control of your finances so that you can experience vacations, become debt-free, and your other financial goals. There are many ways to budget, but it is always nice to find a free budget planner printable you don’t have to invest money into.
Finding a free budget template isn’t tough, there are so many available online that are easily downloaded and printed off. You can choose from simple budget templates to goal-oriented templates. You can even make your own to customize it to your needs.
There are so many free printable budget templates that it can be difficult to sift through. Here are some of the more popular budget templates to help you with your needs.
Best Printable Monthly Budget Template
Before figuring out the best budget templates for your family, you first need to decide why you want to budget and your end goal. If you can’t find one that fits your needs, you can also create one using a Google spreadsheet or Microsoft Excel.
Simple Budget Template
If you do not need anything fancy, you can do a simple budget with this simple monthly budget template. It provides a quick, easy template to put in your expenses, income, savings, and other expenses.
This template is free, and you can even get one in color if you are one to organize your months this way. Plus, it adds a little splash to your organization. Nothing wrong with a little personalization without going too big.
50/30/20 Budget Template
The 50/30/20 budget method is where you split your income up into different categories. This is best if you have extra money to go towards a goal. You can also adjust the percentages for your income.
The 50/30/20 budget splits your income where 50% of it goes to your “needs,” 30% towards your “wants,” and 20% towards your “goals.” You can find this free template here. You can adjust the percentages within this template too.
Cash Envelope Budget Template
Cash envelope budgets are great if you like to use cash to save money instead of using your bank account. You can assign budget categories to envelopes to put cash in. The cash envelope system is perfect for those who:
- need to see how your money should be divided visually
- are struggling with your cash flow during the month
- Need help keep their spending and variable expenses on track
- Have specific goals that they are working towards.
This method is also great for young adults or teenagers when learning about budgeting as they may not have access to a debit card via their bank.
You don’t need a template for this system, but if you want a template, you can find a pretty useful template here. It isn’t free, but it is only $3. It allows you to create envelopes with the budget printed on them for easy organization.
Free Budget Binder Template
If you are one to break down your budget to the finer details, the budget binder template may be the one for you. It has a quick “month at a glance” for an overall view of your expenses and then other templates you can follow to keep track of all the small details.
You will find a monthly ledger, savings information, and outstanding debt information. This is a great template for those who want to pay off any debt. There is the option to look at the year “at a glance” and a few other templates for budgeting your meals.
If you have a family or just like to have everything planned out, this budget binder is perfect for that. It is wonderfully organized, and you can show it off to your friends to impress them with your skills.
Budget Template For College Students
If you are a college student and want a budget template that caters to this, these budget templates are great for college students. You can pick from multiple colors, and it provides you with expenses you would find as a college student, like textbooks and more.
Many of these templates are free, which is great for students who need to save every penny they have. College can be quite expensive.
Google Sheets Template
If you are looking for something simple, you can always use a google sheets budget spreadsheet template. You just need to log into your Google account or create a free account. Google offers quite a few templates that you can use for free and are ready to go.
If you want more customized finance trackers and understand the basics of spreadsheets, you can also create your own budgeting system. It won’t take you long, and you can track your personal finances in a way that prioritizes your priorities and in a way that makes sense to you.
If google sheets are not your style, you can also use Google’s other free features like google docs or slides to create a budget. You can be as fancy as you want or simple.
Monthly Budget Planner
Looking for a monthly budget tracker to keep track of your finances at a more high level overview? Check out this monthly budget planner. This free budget printable tracks your monthly income, your expenses on a monthly basis and broken down into different types of income as well as savings tracker and a debt tracker.
It also includes a budget categories list of expenses with the monthly budget planner. Both can be downloaded as pdf files for easy printing.
Family Budget Planner
If you are looking for a family budget template, look no further than here.
This family budget planner allows you to get control of your money by keep track of your income and monthly expenses and creating a spending plan. This particular family budget planner is unique in the way it organizes expenses to include long term expenses within the monthly budget.
Monthly Bill Tracker
A monthly bill tracker is a budgeting tool that makes budget planning so much easier. One of the best ways to organize your expenses on this bill tracker is to list them out in chronological order of due dates.
When you organize this expense tracker by due date you can quickly it allows you to quickly move through your personal budget from start to end of each month. Allowing you to create a sustainable budgeting system.
Remember: easy = repeatable = sustainable.
Tips To Filling Out Your Template
You have gone through many templates and finally chose one that best fits you, but what are some of the best ways to fill it out? You may need to find the best way to figure out how to organize your expenses. Here are some tips for you:
- Ensure you separate the expenses appropriately. The generic is “needs,” “wants,” and “goals.”
- Always round your income down, i.e., $348.88 to $348, if you want to get rid of cents.
- Always round your outcome up, i.e., $45.25 to $46, so that you can save extra money.
- Leave room for you to spend on yourself, enjoy the money you earn.
- Don’t forget to include any debts you have.
- If you can, pay off more of your debt.
- Try to give yourself some cushion for emergencies or better yet, contribute regularly to an emergency fund
Ch. ange any of these aspects of your budget templates to meet your needs. How you want to organize your budget is up to you, and do what best fits you.
Conclusion
There are many more templates out there that you can find that fit your needs. Figure out how you want to budget yourself and find the best template for you. Remember, you can always create your own if you want it to look a certain way. There are so many opportunities for you.
