Ultimate 80/20 Budget Spreadsheet Template for Google Sheets & Excel

Where the split is set. Income goes in, each side gets a target, and beside it sits what actually went out, the gap, and the share of income it really came to. That share column is the one to read. A split is a claim about percentages, and staying under a number is not the same as honouring it - a month where income dropped and spending held is a month that missed the split while every line stayed under target.

A line per category, each with what was planned, what went out, the variance, and that variance as a percentage. Twenty-five rows, because on a two-bucket split everything that is not savings lands here - this sheet carries what a three-bucket budget would spread across two. Seventeen come filled in with sample categories; the rest are there so the rent and the restaurant meals can stay separate lines instead of collapsing into an 'everything else' row as the list grows. The percentage variance column is what makes a small line and a large one comparable. Twenty over on a subscription and twenty over on rent are not the same event.

Five sample destinations on the same columns, with room for six more - eleven rows in total. Saving tends to a short list though: filling every row invites splitting one transfer across several entries that all mean the same thing.

The split across a year, month by month, with an average and a total per line. One month says almost nothing about a percentage split - a bonus or a boiler moves every share. Twelve says whether the split describes how the money actually behaves, which is the only question worth asking of it.

Six figures across the top: total income, what went to spending, what went to savings, then spending and savings each as a share of income, and one over-or-under-budget number saying whether the month left anything. The two rate tiles are the ones to read. A two-bucket split is a claim about shares rather than amounts, and the money figures move with income while the shares do not - a month where income dropped and spending held misses the split without a single line going over. Underneath, the split table sets target percentage against actual percentage for both buckets, with the money and the gap beside them, and two charts plot the same comparison.