Not financial advice. This tool only adds up the numbers you enter. The 50/30/20 split shown is a common rule of thumb for comparison, not a recommendation for your situation.
A budget that compares what you planned with what you actually spent is easy to keep in a spreadsheet. You need two tabs: a Budget tab with your categories and a Transactions tab where you log spending.
Columns: Category (A), Type (B: Income or Expense), Planned (C), Actual (D), Remaining (E). Put the month you're looking at, as any date in that month, in H1.
Columns: Date (A), Description (B), Category (C), Amount (D). Use Data validation on column C with the Budget tab's category list so the names always match.
In Budget!D2, fill down:
=SUMIFS(Transactions!$D:$D,Transactions!$C:$C,A2,Transactions!$A:$A,">="&EOMONTH($H$1,-1)+1,Transactions!$A:$A,"<="&EOMONTH($H$1,0))
Remaining in E2 (positive means under plan):
=C2-D2
=SUMIFS(D:D,B:B,"Income")-SUMIFS(D:D,B:B,"Expense")
Example (the calculator's sample data): income of $4,850 and expenses of $3,620 leave $1,230. A negative number means you spent more than you earned.
Add conditional formatting to column E with the custom formula =AND(B2="Expense",E2<0) to highlight categories over plan.
Add a Group column (Need, Want, Savings) and compare each group's share of income with the common 50/30/20 rule of thumb. It's a starting point for comparison, not a rule you have to follow.
Check that the Transactions total matches your bank statement for the month. Any gap usually means an uncategorized or mistyped row.
A Budget tab with planned amounts by category and a Transactions tab; the actual for each category is summed from the transactions for the month.
Add a Remaining column (=Planned − Actual) and use conditional formatting to highlight expense categories where it goes below zero.
It's a common rule of thumb for needs, wants and savings, useful as a comparison, not a rule you have to follow.
Skip the formulas: the free Monthly Budget Calculator does this in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Just starting out? Grab the free Starter Expense Tracker (pay what you want, $0 is fine).