My 2026 budget spreadsheet (template included)

Happy almost-new-year everyone. I made a budget spreadsheet for 2026 and figured I'd share it since people ask about this stuff a lot.

It's a Google Sheets template. Here's what it tracks:
- Monthly income (salary, side income, investment income)
- Fixed expenses (rent/mortgage, insurance, subscriptions, loan payments)
- Variable expenses (groceries, gas, dining out, entertainment, misc)
- Savings goals with progress bars
- Net worth tracker (updated monthly)
- Year-over-year comparison

The variable expenses section auto-categorizes from a transaction log. You paste in your transactions and it matches them to categories based on keywords you set up. Not perfect but gets about 85% right in my experience.

I've been using some version of this for 4 years. It's way more detailed than most people need but I'm... like that.

Link: [removed by mod -- DM me and I'll share it]

edit: kate removed the google drive link because of forum rules about external links. Fair enough. DM me if you want a copy.

DM'd you! I've been using a really basic spreadsheet I made myself and it's getting unwieldy. Would love to see how you organize yours.

Question -- does it work for couples with combined finances? My husband and I have a joint checking account but separate credit cards and I never know how to track that cleanly.

@jenny1987 It's set up for a single account but you could easily modify it for joint finances. The transaction log tab has a "source" column where you can tag which account/card each transaction came from. So you'd just add both credit cards as sources and everything rolls up into the same category totals.

I'll add a note about this in the template. Good suggestion.

this looks really cool but honestly its kinda overwhelming for me lol. is there like a simpler version? I dont need net worth tracking and year over year comparisons, i just need to know if im spending more than i make each month

@saving_noob_2026 If Dan's template is too much, honestly just start with the 50/30/20 rule and a piece of paper:

- 50% of take-home pay on needs (rent, food, utilities, insurance, minimum loan payments)
- 30% on wants (dining out, entertainment, shopping, subscriptions)
- 20% on savings/debt payoff

That's it. Don't overthink it. Track your spending for one month in whatever way works -- Notes app, paper, a free app like Mint or YNAB's free trial. The goal at first is just awareness, not perfection.

Dan's spreadsheet is great for people who are already comfortable with budgeting and want to optimize. If you're just starting out, simpler is better. You can always level up later.

I just use YNAB honestly. I know its $99/year or whatever but its worth it for me because I know if I had a spreadsheet id stop updating it after like 2 weeks lol

but dans spreadsheet looks legit if youre a spreadsheet person. definately bookmarking this for reference