Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets & Excel
A monthly income figure at the top works out the three targets - 60% to needs, 20% to wants, 20% to savings and debt - and the eighteen lines beneath set what you planned against what you spent, with the difference worked out on each. The Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template runs on one sheet, keeps a How to Use guide on a second, and asks for nothing but the numbers. Google Sheets or Excel, one file. No macros, no VBA, no sign-up.
The FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template is a one-sheet workbook for Google Sheets and Excel, with a How to Use guide on a second tab. It works as a Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template and a Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheets template from the same download. This Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template sets what you planned against what you actually spent, with needs, wants, and savings with debt each opening on their own target row, so the shape of the split is on the page before you type anything. No macros, no VBA, no sign-up.
Inside the workbook
What's inside the FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template
The FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template runs on a single working sheet, with the instructions on a tab of their own. It works in both Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets and here is what the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet holds.
01of 01
Budget
The single working sheet, and the whole template. A targets block sits above the table: the monthly income you enter, and the three bucket figures that follow from it as a share of that income - sixty percent for needs, twenty for wants, twenty for savings and debt - each set against what that bucket actually spent so a negative figure flags a bucket that ran over. Nothing in that block is added to anything - it is there to be read beside the spending underneath.
The table itself opens with income and then lists the categories as outgoings, each taking a label, the amount you planned and the amount that actually went out. The gap between planned and actual resolves itself as you type. Because the outgoings are negative, the row at the foot is what is left over rather than a sum of spending - which is what the earlier build reported, targets and spending added together.
A strip labelled At a Glance holds the planned balance, the actual balance, and the difference between them. Blank lines sit under the sample, and the category labels are yours to rename.
Budget
Included guide
How to Use
A step-by-step guide on its own tab, covering how to replace the sample values and how to change the currency. Because it ships inside the file, the instructions travel with the template wherever it is opened.
Works in both Google Sheets and Excel
Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet template for Google Sheets
Upload the Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template to Drive, right-click it, and choose "Open with Google Sheets". This Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheets template needs no conversion step and nothing gets rewritten on the way in - the differences recalculate exactly as they do in Excel.
Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheets template setup
A shared copy of the Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheets template suits a household, since the three headings tend to belong to different people in practice even when the income is shared.
Running the Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheet
The Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheet gets the planned column once and the actual column as the month runs. The table is short enough that the second pass takes a few minutes.
Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet template for Excel
The Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel download is a plain .xlsx. Excel opens this Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template directly, with no import step and no compatibility prompt, and every difference updates as you type. There are no macros and no VBA in the file, so it opens without a security warning.
Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template setup
The same Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template opens in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and Excel for the web. It is also the identical file you would upload to Drive, so there is no separate Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet download to choose between.
Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel notes
The Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file carries no macros and no VBA, so Excel opens it without a trust prompt.
Opening the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file
Nothing in the Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template is version-specific, so this Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel workbook behaves identically in Excel on Windows, Excel on Mac, and older builds.
What the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template tracks
Every column in the Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template is yours to fill, apart from the one that settles the gap. This build works the three targets out from the income you enter:
Category
the label for the line, whether that is a bucket target or a single expense
Budgeted
the amount you planned against that line
Actual
the amount that actually went out
Difference auto
derived, reading positive where you came in under the line and negative where you went over
Compare builds
FinancialAha 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template: Free, Essentials, and Ultimate compared
The FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template works the three targets out from the income you enter and sets them above a single table of planned against actual. The Essentials 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets and Excel gives each bucket its own section with its own total, a status on each bucket, and a dashboard with two charts. The Ultimate 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template gives each bucket a sheet of its own with variance in money and percent, compares your actual split against the target split as percentages, lets you change the allocation percentages themselves, and tracks twelve months.
Notes on working in the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template
The targets sit above the table rather than inside it, so the row at the foot is what is left over rather than targets and spending added together.
The three target figures follow from the monthly income you enter, so changing the income moves all three.
The 60/20/20 shares are fixed in this build. Nothing stops a section going over them, and the sheet takes no view about whether that matters - a household with a high rent and a low grocery bill will not match the split.
Sample rows ship in the file so the layout is visible on first open. Type straight over them - the totals read the row range, not the values.
The currency dropdown beside the title relabels the money columns of the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet. It changes the label only and does not convert the numbers.
How the 60/20/20 Budget template works
The Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template lays out its categories in three groups - needs, wants, and savings with debt - each opening with a target row carrying the share that heading is meant to take, with the spending categories beneath it and the difference worked out on every line. The three target figures come from the monthly income you enter, at sixty, twenty and twenty percent, and they sit above the table rather than inside it, so the figure at the foot is what is left over rather than targets and spending added together. The per-line difference column is the part to work from. The shares are fixed on this build, and nothing stops a section going over them.
When this template helps
01
You want to try a percentage split without committing to an app.
02
You want the plan and the actual side by side on every line.
03
You are checking whether your spending has the shape you assumed.
04
You prefer a spreadsheet you control over a budgeting service.
Tips to get the most out of it
A household with a high rent and a low grocery bill will not match the split, and the file takes no view on that.
The per-line difference column is the part to work from.
Renaming a group changes the label and not the share behind the figure.
Common mistakes to avoid
Reading the foot of the sheet as a spending total. It is income less outgoings, so it reads what is left over.
Treating the percentages as a standard to be met rather than a convention to test against.
Filling the planned column and never returning to the actual one.
Renaming a target row and expecting the arithmetic to change - it will not.
How to Use the Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template
1
Enter your monthly income
The three group targets follow from it, at sixty, twenty and twenty percent.
We use Claude AI to draft each template, after a deep research. Then our team steps in. We refine the layout, stress-test every formula, fix edge cases, and polish the design until it feels like something we would actually use ourselves. The AI gets us 80% there. The last 20% is all human judgment.
Excel
Sheets
No signup
Download instantly, no email required
Formula-driven
All calculations update automatically
Dual compatible
Works in Excel and Google Sheets
Sample data included
See the template in action right away
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between the free, Essentials, and Ultimate Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template?
Free is a single-sheet starter template with sample data and a How to Use guide. Essentials ($19) is the fuller build - more capacity, more detail, and more worked out for you rather than typed. Ultimate ($29) goes further again, usually six working sheets, giving each part of the template its own sheet and adding deeper reporting on top. What each tier holds differs by template - the comparison table on every template page lists it exactly.
Which Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template should I download?
Upgrade to Essentials if you want a dashboard with charts, more categories, larger capacity, and a more polished spreadsheet for ongoing use. The Free version is a good fit for one-off planning or trying out the layout.
Can I upgrade the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template later?
Essentials is a one-time $19 purchase with no subscription. It typically adds a full dashboard, 30-50% more categories or rows than the Free version, and richer formulas. Most buyers upgrade after using the Free version for a few weeks and hitting its limits.
Is the FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template a Google Sheets template?
Yes. Upload the file to Drive and choose "Open with Google Sheets". Nothing needs rewriting in the Free 60/20/20 Budget Google Sheets template, and the differences recalculate exactly as they do in Excel.
Is the FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template an Excel template?
Yes. The download is a plain .xlsx, so the Free 60/20/20 Budget Excel template opens directly in Excel with no import step. There are no macros and no VBA.
Will the FinancialAha Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel file open in older versions of Excel?
Yes. The Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet Excel workbook ships as a plain .xlsx, so it opens identically in current Excel and in builds that predate dynamic arrays.
What does the total at the foot include?
What is left over. Income is entered as a positive line and the outgoings as negatives, so the foot row reads income less spending rather than a sum of everything typed. The three bucket targets sit above the table and are not added into it.
Does the sheet calculate the percentages from my income?
Yes. Enter your monthly income above the table and the three targets follow from it at sixty, twenty and twenty percent. The shares themselves are fixed on this build - the Ultimate build makes them editable cells.
What if my spending does not fit the split?
Then it does not fit. The shares are the split the template is named for rather than a judgement about your household - a high rent and a low grocery bill will not match them, and nothing here takes a view about whether that matters.
Is the file safe to download?
Yes. No macros, no sign-up, no tracking. The file is a plain .xlsx that opens directly in Excel or Google Sheets.
How do I open the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template in Google Sheets?
Upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive, then open it with Google Sheets. All formulas and formatting will be preserved.
Can I use the Free 60/20/20 Budget spreadsheet template for commercial work?
All free templates are released under CC BY 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution). You can use, modify, and share them freely - including for commercial purposes - as long as you credit FinancialAha.com. They are provided as-is and do not constitute financial advice.
