Free 70/20/10 Budget Spreadsheet Template
Divide income into 70% living expenses, 20% savings, and 10% giving or debt. A minimalist percentage-based budgeting framework.
What's Included
- Dashboard with 70/20/10 split view showing living expenses, savings, and giving allocations visually
- Automatic percentage allocation that calculates dollar targets for each category from gross income
- Budget tracker with formulas covering rent, food, utilities, insurance, and other living cost items
- Income-based category targets with monthly variance summary highlighting over or under spending
- Color-coded input fields (yellow) and auto-calculated summary cells (blue) for guided data entry
- Works in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, and LibreOffice Calc with no setup required
Preview
See what's inside this template
How to Use This 70/20/10 Budget Template
Enter monthly income
Add your after-tax income at the top. The template splits it into 70% living expenses, 20% savings, and 10% giving or debt.
Fill in living expenses
Assign your regular costs - rent, food, utilities, insurance, and transportation - to the 70% living expenses bucket.
Allocate savings and giving
Enter savings contributions in the 20% bucket and charitable giving or extra debt payments in the 10% bucket.
Check the breakdown
The dashboard displays actual vs target for each bucket, showing whether your spending aligns with the 70/20/10 framework.
Built by Claude AI. Perfected by us.
We use Claude AI to draft each free 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What goes in the 10% bucket?
The 10% bucket is typically for charitable giving, donations, tithing, or extra debt payments beyond minimums. You can use it for whichever purpose fits your priorities.
Is this based on gross or net income?
The template works with after-tax (net) income. Enter the amount you actually take home from your paycheck.
Can I adjust the percentages?
Yes. The percentage cells are editable. Change them to any ratio that better reflects your income and spending reality.
What if I cannot save 20%?
The template tracks the variance so you can see how far off you are. Even starting with a smaller savings percentage and working up over time is a valid approach.
How do I open this in Google Sheets?
Upload the .xlsx file to Google Drive, then open it with Google Sheets. All formulas and formatting will be preserved.
What license is this template under?
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.
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