The family budget that runs itself

The spreadsheet that has helped families take control of their money since 2016 is back, rebuilt from the ground up. Log a transaction once and your entire year updates. Budgets, dashboards, bill calendar, all of it.

Completely rebuilt for 2026Google Sheets + Excel27 tabs · 5 dashboardsInstant download
Get the Spreadsheet — $27 See how it works ↓
Sound familiar?

You don't have a money problem. You have a tracking problem.

It's 9pm. The kids are finally asleep. You're at the kitchen table with your bank app open, trying to remember if the electric bill already came out, whether that Target run was this week's grocery money or last week's, and why the number in your checking account never matches the number in your head.

You've tried the apps. You've tried the printables. You've maybe even tried the original version of this spreadsheet, where every paycheck meant updating three different tabs and hoping you didn't miss one.

The problem was never you. The problem is that keeping a family budget alive has always required too many steps. So I removed them.

"I just want to look at ONE place and know if we're okay."

Try it right now

Your month, in 10 seconds

Drag the sliders to your real numbers. This is the question the spreadsheet answers for you automatically, every single month.

$6,000
$3,200
$2,100
Left over each month
$700
Over a full year
$8,400
Savings rate
12%

Put it on autopilot — $27
How it works now

Three steps. That's the whole system.

01
Once a year

Set your plan

Type a planned amount for every category, every month, on one Budget Plan tab. List your monthly bills and yearly expenses. The spreadsheet even calculates how much to set aside monthly so annual bills never surprise you again.

02
2 minutes, a few times a week

Log your money in ONE place

Money comes in or goes out, you add one row: date, description, category, amount. No formulas to touch, no negative signs to remember, no copying tabs every month. This is the only data entry in the entire system.

03
Automatic

Watch everything fill itself in

All 12 monthly budgets compare your plan to your actual spending on their own. The dashboards chart your year. The bill calendar maps your due dates. You get answers without doing the math.

See inside

This is your money, organized

Actual screens from the spreadsheet, shown with a sample family's year. Every number below was calculated by the spreadsheet itself.

Dashboard
Dashboard
Your money at a glance — pick a month below and everything updates.
Selected Month: Jul
INCOME THIS MONTH
$5,720
SPENT THIS MONTH
$3,529
LEFT OVER
$2,191
SAVED THIS YEAR
$14,984
Income vs. Spending by Month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJul
Jul
July Budget
Planned comes from your Budget Plan. Actuals fill in automatically.
CategoryPlannedActual (auto)Left to Spend
Groceries$800$765$35
Dining Out$250$95$155
Utilities$240$255−$15
Kids & Childcare$400$150$250
Transportation$420$95$325
Total Expenses$4,660$3,529$1,131
+ 13 more categories, all tracking themselves
Budget Health
Budget Health
Am I on pace? Each bar shows how much of the budget is used.
Groceries
Watch it Utilities
Over budget Dining Out
On pace Insurance
Over budget Kids
On pace Entertainment
On pace
Bill Calendar
Bill Calendar · July 2026
Every due date from your Recurring Bills, on a real calendar.
SMTWTFS
1
Mortgage
2
3
Gym
4
5
Electric
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Water
13
14
15
Car ins.
16
17
18
Internet
…and the rest of the month, automatically
Savings Goals
Savings Goals
Progress bars and target dates calculate themselves.
Emergency fund72% · done Feb 2027
$7,200 of $10,000 · $400/month
Disney trip45% · done May 2027
$2,025 of $4,500 · $250/month
Christmas90% · almost there!
$1,080 of $1,200 · $100/month
Transactions
Transactions · the only tab you ever type on
One row per transaction. Every dashboard above builds itself from these rows.
DateDescriptionTypeCategoryAccountAmount
7/1/2026PaycheckIncome ▾Paycheck 1 ▾Checking ▾$2,400.00
7/2/2026GroceriesExpense ▾Groceries ▾Credit Card 1 ▾$180.00
7/14/2026Date nightExpense ▾Dining Out ▾Cash ▾$85.00
Every choice is a dropdown. No formulas, no negative signs, nothing to remember.

No more 9pm money panic

You'll know exactly where you stand before the bill is due, not after it bounces.

The 2.0 upgrade

Five dashboards that build themselves

The original spreadsheet tracked your money. This one shows it to you. Every chart, total, and countdown updates from the transactions you're already logging.

📊

Dashboard

Pick any month and see income, spending, what's left, and where every dollar went. One glance, whole picture.

🗓️

Year in Review

Your savings rate, your best and toughest months, and full-year spending by category. Your money story on one page.

🚦

Budget Health

Green means on pace, gold means watch it, red means over. It even accounts for how far into the month you are.

🎯

Goals & Debt

Progress bars for every savings goal and a countdown to your debt-free date, side by side for motivation.

📅

Bill Calendar

Every due date lands on a real calendar automatically. Pick a month and the grid rebuilds itself.

💵

12 monthly budgets, pre-built

January through December, ready on day one. No more copying tabs every month and praying the formulas survived.

0
helping families since
0
tabs working together
0
automatic dashboards
0
place to log everything
Also inside

Everything the classic did, done better

Paycheck Projections. The classic method that made this spreadsheet famous: map every bill to the paycheck that pays it and never get caught short again.

Recurring Bills + Yearly Expenses. With automatic monthly set-aside math so the car registration never ambushes you.

Savings Goals. Targets, progress bars, and estimated finish dates for the emergency fund, the vacation, and Christmas.

Debt Payoff tracker. Months to payoff and your debt-free date calculated for every debt you list.

Customizable categories. Rename anything once and it updates every tab and dropdown automatically.

A guided setup built in. The Start Here tab walks you through a 15-minute practice run, clicking exact cells and watching the dashboards react. A full User Guide tab covers every tab, your 10-minute weekly routine, and troubleshooting. No video required.

The full tour

All 27 tabs, and what each one does

Grouped by what they do for you. You type in the plan and tracking tabs. The dashboards build themselves.

Get started
Start Here

A guided 15-minute setup that names the exact cells to click and shows you what you should see at every step.

User Guide

Every tab explained in depth, your 10-minute weekly routine, customizing categories, and a fix-it section.

Your dashboards — they build themselves
Dashboard

Pick a month and see income, spending, what's left, and exactly where the money went.

Year in Review

Annual totals, your savings rate, your best and toughest months, and full-year spending by category.

Budget Health

On pace, watch it, or over budget for every category, adjusted for how far into the month you are.

Goals & Debt

Savings progress bars beside your debt-free countdown, on one motivating page.

Bill Calendar

Every due date lands on a real calendar. Change the month and the grid rebuilds itself.

Your plan — set it once
Budget Plan

The one place you set planned amounts for every category, every month of the year.

Recurring Bills

Your monthly bills with due days and autopay tracking. This list feeds the Bill Calendar.

Yearly Expenses

Annual bills with the monthly set-aside calculated for you, so December never ambushes you.

Lists

Rename any category or account once and every dropdown, month tab, and dashboard updates.

Your tracking — 2 minutes at a time
Transactions

The ONE place you log day-to-day money. One row per transaction, and everything else updates.

Jan – Dec (12 tabs)

Automatic monthly report cards: planned vs. actual for every category, all twelve months pre-built.

Paycheck Projections

Map every bill to the paycheck that pays it, with a warning before you'd ever dip below zero.

Savings Goals

Targets, progress bars, and estimated finish dates for the emergency fund, the vacation, and Christmas.

Debt Payoff

Balances, months to payoff, and your debt-free date for every debt you list.

Monica Froese
Hi, I'm Monica

I built this for my own kitchen table first

In 2016 I was the mom doing math at 9pm, moving numbers between tabs and hoping I hadn't missed a bill. So I built a spreadsheet that matched how families actually get paid and actually spend. Then other moms asked for it, and it's been quietly helping families ever since.

This 2.0 version is everything I've learned in ten years of hearing from the moms who use it. Every "I wish it did this" went into the rebuild. You log your money once, and the spreadsheet does the rest.

One-click add-on at checkout

Add the Debt Payoff Tracker™ 2.0 for just $9

A quick heads up so there's no confusion: your budget spreadsheet already includes a Debt Payoff tab, and it's great for tracking balances and payoff dates inside your monthly budget. The Debt Payoff Tracker™ 2.0 is the deep dive for the journey itself: a full snowball simulator that shows exactly how many months and dollars your extra payments save you, the famous Debt Crusher wall that crosses itself off as your balances drop, and milestone rewards that keep you motivated for years, not weeks. If debt-free is the goal, tick the box on the checkout page and it's yours for $9 instead of $17.

Add It at Checkout — $9
Get instant access

One spreadsheet. Your whole money life.

The Family Budget Spreadsheet™ 2.0
$27
One-time payment · Instant download
  • All 5 automatic dashboards, including the Bill Calendar
  • 12 pre-built monthly budget tabs
  • One-place transaction log, no formulas to touch
  • Paycheck Projections, the classic method rebuilt
  • Savings Goals and Debt Payoff trackers
  • Guided 15-minute setup + full User Guide tab, no video needed
  • Works with Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel
Get the Spreadsheet — $27

Delivered instantly: click your link and your own copy saves straight into your Google account. Excel download included.

Questions, answered

Before you ask

Both. Your purchase link saves a personal copy directly into your Google account — no downloads, no importing, you're budgeting 30 seconds after checkout. Prefer Excel? One click inside the spreadsheet (File → Download → Microsoft Excel) and you have the .xlsx version. Every formula and chart works in both.

This was built for you specifically. Every calculated cell is locked so you can't accidentally type over a formula, every choice is a dropdown, and the columns that fill themselves in are labeled "(auto)" so you always know where to type. The User Guide includes a troubleshooting section for the handful of things that can go sideways, and Undo fixes almost everything else.

The original asked you to update three tabs after every paycheck. In 2.0 you log each transaction once and everything updates automatically. It also adds five dashboards, twelve pre-built monthly budgets, savings goal tracking, debt payoff tracking, and a bill calendar that builds itself.

Perfect, that's what the Paycheck Projections tab is for. It has 26 paycheck columns, enough for a full year of bi-weekly pay, and you simply ignore the columns you don't need if you're paid differently.

Yes. Rename any category or account on the Lists tab and it updates every dropdown, every month tab, and every dashboard instantly. Categories you don't use just sit quietly at zero.

No. The Start Here tab is a guided setup: it walks you through a 15-minute practice run, naming the exact cells to click and telling you what you should see at every step. Then the User Guide tab covers every tab in depth, your 10-minute weekly routine, and a fix-it section. Open the spreadsheet and it teaches you itself.

Your money, finally in one place

Ten years of real families, rebuilt into the budget spreadsheet that does the work for you.

Get the Spreadsheet — $27