How to Make a Simple Budget in Google Sheets

by Abdulrasaq • Life Hacks • August 10, 2025

Budgets work best when they’re simple. This Google Sheets setup gives you one clean page to plan your month, one table to log spending, and automatic totals that show what’s left. No subscriptions, no add-ons-just a spreadsheet that’s easy to reuse every month.

Step 1 - Create the File & Two Sheets

Step 2 - Categories, Income & Planned Amounts (Budget)

1. In A1:D1 add headers: Category, Planned, Actual, Leftover.
2. In A2:A list categories, e.g. Rent, Groceries, Transport, Utilities, Subscriptions, Savings, Misc.
3. In B2:B enter your Planned amounts per category.
4. At the top, add F1: Income and F2: your monthly take-home.
5. Total planned: in a cell under your list (e.g. B10): =SUM(B2:B9).

Step 3 - Expense Log (Expenses)

1. In row 1 add: Date, Category, Description, Amount.
2. Select the Category column → Data → Data validation → List from a range → choose Budget!A2:A so your categories appear as a dropdown.
3. Format Amount as currency. Optional: freeze row 1 (View → Freeze → 1 row).

Step 4 - Link Actuals & Leftover (Budget)

1. In C2 (Actual) enter: =SUMIF(Expenses!B:B, A2, Expenses!D:D) and copy down.
2. In D2 (Leftover): =B2 - C2 and copy down.
3. Total actual (e.g. C10) = SUM(C2:C9) • Total leftover (e.g. D10) = SUM(D2:D9).
4. Net for the month: In F4 use =F2 - C10 to see how much of your income is unspent.

Step 5 - Quick Chart & Visuals

1. Select Category and Actual columns → Insert → Chart → Pie (Actual spend by category).
2. Add conditional formatting on Leftover (D2:D) to highlight negatives in red and positives in green.
3. Optional progress bar for Savings: in a separate cell, set a goal (e.g. 20% of income) and use a bar-style conditional format on the Savings row.

Step 6 - Make It Reusable

Extras You’ll Actually Use

Common Mistakes to Avoid