12 Free Budget Templates That’ll Help You Save Without Stress

People budget for different reasons. Some need to budget to save some money for a holiday or vacation and some need to save to recuperate some money in general.

For other people, some need to budget for a much serious issue like saving enough money to pay off a debt.

According to Forbes, almost 80% of people are living paycheck to paycheck because they are not planning their money as well as they could.

But it is amazing that by having a financial plan and organizing your budget you can make a difference each week.

Over time this can make a considerable difference to your financial situation.

Whatever your reason, we have 12 Free Budget Templates That’ll Help You Save Without Stress.

So if you are ready to take control of your finances then the best place to start is with a printable budget planner like these templates below.

What is a budget template?

A budget template is a simple planner that can help you organize your finances.

This can be a printable template, digital worksheet or even an app.

By writing down all of your monthly income in one column, and all of your expenses in another column, you can quickly total the amounts of both and see exactly where your money is going.

This can help you make adjustments to your spending. By tracking what you are spending you can decide whether each purchase is necessary and see how much you could have saved at the end of each month.

How does a budget template work?

Most budget templates are fundamentally the same, they let you see your income and your expenses. Some will let you write your goals so that you can see what you are saving towards.

So firstly start by downloading any one of these free budget templates below.

Next you will need to write down all of your income, or household income if you are budgeting as a family.

Then you will need to write down all of your expenses, which can be bills such as utilities, rent, shopping and so on.

You might need to look at your bank statement to make sure you are finding everything, as it is easy to forget about little bills here and there.

Also check subscriptions for things like cell phones, Netflix, Amazon Prime – basically anything that you have a subscription or contract with as this can also make it easier to find expenses.

You might be surprised at home much the total comes to for your expenses and how much you have left of your income at the end of each month.

This can then help you find expenses that aren’t necessary and can cancel them or avoid.

For any bills that you think are necessary, perhaps you can start to think about where you can get the same thing elsewhere for a better price.

These are the fundamentals of budgeting. Avoiding unnecessary spending and finding better deals on what you do spend, will mean extra money in your pocket each month. This is the best way to start saving.

A monthly budget plan can really change your life. No more living from paycheck to paycheck, or sitting with your head in your hands after realizing you didn’t put money aside for the car servicing this month. No more being hit by an unexpected vet bill after your cat eats something it shouldn’t have, and you know why? Because you budgeted and you had that money put to the side.

Monthly Budget Templates

With that in mind, we’re going to show you some of the best monthly budget templates that will help you get your personal finances organized.

Let’s take a look.

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Free Financial Planner 2021

This free financial planner from World of Printables covers everything you need to start budgeting and saving. There are pages to cover your income, expenses, debt, and savings along with savings challenges and tracker pages. Make your finances easy with this useful and effective free financial planner.

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2. Budget Calendar from EndThrive

Ok, this one is a little bit different because we are talking about a monthly budget calendar here. Ever heard of one of those? Well take a look at this great post from EndThrive and have your budgeting mind blown. You can download their free budget calendar for free, and you will notice on the sidebar that you can get a free monthly budgeting template to use alongside it.

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3. How To Budget Biweekly Pay With Monthly Bills

Many people earn a Biweekly paycheck but that doesn’t mean you can’t use a monthly budget template to keep on top of your bills and budgeting. This great post from Mom Managing Chaos shows you exactly how to make your biweekly paycheck cover your monthly bills when you need it to. She also offers a great free budgeting printable!

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Household Budget Templates

When it comes to budgeting for your family and household, there is a lot to consider. You need to make sure you take care and do it right, factoring in everything important not just to you but everyone involved. Remember, it’s not just your own personal income you are budgeting with.

Household or family budgeting is important to keeping your finances on track and avoid falling into debt. Budgeting is also a great way to see where you money goes and how you can improve your saving and budgeting over the following months.

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4. How To Make A Budget For A Large Family + Free Printables

Let’s start strong with an amazing freebie from Best Money Mom. Best Money Mom doesn’t just offer you a free template, she offers you a free budget planner plus finance tracking sheets! Along with that, she also gives you very good input and advice on how to make a budget for your family and how to do it well.

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5. How to Create a Household Budget + Free Printables

This great post from Blue Summit Supplies offers online tools to help you understand your net income along with the different types of expenses and other information that is really useful when budgeting. Along with this, you can download a bunch of useful free printables that you can combine into a binder. They show you how to set that up too!

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6. Free Budget Template to Organize Your Home Finances

If you want nice and easy then this post by Home Beautifully is a great choice. Cynthia makes it so easy to understand budgeting and she walks you through the process of getting started and making progress with her free budget template.

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Zero-Based Budget Templates

You might be wondering what a Zero-based budget is, well, let’s get straight to the point.

A zero-based budget is when you budget to make every dollar count. Every dollar in your budget will go towards something and at the end of your budget, you will have zero dollars left in your budget.

Using the zero-based budget method really takes the guesswork out of budgeting and keeps your budgeting the same every month unless you decide to switch it up. It is also really good at stopping you from overspending if you stick to it.

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7. A Zero-Based Budget Template + How to use it

This post by Mint Notion is a great read if you want to learn about creating a zero-based budget along with a free template. Eden breaks down everything you need to know about how to use the budget template effectively.

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8. Zero Based Budgeting (Free Printable PDF – How To Easily Save Money)

This free zero-based budgeting printable from Key To My Lime is colorful and easy to use. Alexa does a great job in explaining the basics around zero-based budgeting and how to use her free printable.

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9. Free Zero-Based Budget Template

Ellie Mondelli has created a free zero-based budget template that has been proven to work. She has been using this budget template personally for years and once downloaded, it syncs perfectly to Google spreadsheet. Ellie also shows you how to use the budget template step by step

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Budget Templates For College Students

We all know College is expensive and the majority of us have to get a job to cover our living costs and fees as well as graduating with a ton of debt! I make it sound bad, I know but education is so important and with some clever planning, you can stay on top of your finances.

Let’s take a look at some of the best free budget templates for college students.

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10. An Easy to Use College Budget Template

This free college budget template from Collegelifemadeeasy.com is great and so easy to use. Charli does a great job of really breaking down the importance of managing your finances through your college life and how to use this budget to fit into your lifestyle.

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11. College Student Budget Worksheet

This colorful college student budget worksheet from Moritzfinedesigns.com is a great way of introducing your child to budgeting before they leave for college and also while they are in college. Heather makes a fine point of using this free budget worksheet together before and after the semester to see where any budgeting adjustments are needed.

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12. College Student Budget Template + Tips

If you’re looking for something more than just a budget template and would like some serious, sound advice then this post by wondermomwannabe.com is the place to go. Corinne has some really impressive views when it comes to college finances and has a ton of experience under her belt. I’d recommend giving her post a read.

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See, budgeting isn’t hard but it is important if you want to get on top of your finances. Learning to budget can really set you up for life, you never know what you are capable of doing until you try.

Hopefully these great posts and free budgeting templates will help you on your journey of getting in control of your finances.

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