A spreadsheet to keep track of spending/budgets

[FudgeFridays]

Hello MN - determined that this will be the year I finally become more organised and in control of my money. I want to draw up a spreadsheet - probably Excel because it's the only platform I know, though only very vaguely.

Here are my questions:

• there was a recent thread with a title of something like "if you keep track of personal spending with a spreadsheet what are your categories?". I can't find it. Can anyone point me to it?

• I'd be so grateful for any advice/tips on how to go about this. I'd love to hear what's worked and hasn't worked for you.

TIA for any help

Have a look at ynab. Even if you don’t want to use their platform (I love it) they have a lots of useful guidance about how to properly capture all your expenses.

Assuming you pay for things mostly by card, download all your transactions from 2025 into your spreadsheet - there will already be some categorisation, but it's often a bit off, eg McDonalds is sometimes categorised as 'entertainment'.

You'd also not have any data for non grocery shopping such as clothes or small appliances bought as part of a supermarket shop, but it's a good start in showing where your money is going.

I'm not sure I see the point of YNAB, I'd just set up some standing orders to divide my money into different categories and ensure that savings are put aside as necessary and different types of spending come from the right account (bills, day to day essentials like groceries and petrol or bus fares, adult personal spends etc).

I use an excel spreadsheet I made about 5 five years and I've got it down to a tee but it's taken a while and a lot of adjusting. I kind of enjoy it! First of all you need you need to know (to the penny) what comes in and what goes out. Spend a little while going through your bank statements and write everything down on a piece of paper. Everything! Have two columns for IN and OUT. IN is your wages, and any of income you have. OUT is your rent / mortgage, bills, food, petrol, MOT, tax, treats, takeaways, coffees, makeup - EVERYTHING. I personally have two out columns but they're linked and it basically gives me a 'what's left' after all the important things have gone out. Only then will I know what is left for takeaways, coffees and makeup etc. Just have a play around and update it on a regular basis. It's really good to see where your money goes and see what you've got left to play with. I include savings as well, doing this as meant I actually save more money and spend less on fun things. Although, obviously don't go without all the fun things. Do not pay for apps, when you can do it yourself.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/money-matters/5470551-if-you-are-someone-who-keeps-a-spreadsheet-of-your-spending-can-you-share-how-you-categorise-things?page=2&reply=149736565

Many thanks for these helpful responses.
@Renovatingourhome - apologies if I'm being dense, but do you mean you write down everything on paper before committing the info to a spreadsheet?

I just have an excel spreadsheet set up some very basic formula’s to add / subtract etc.

I start with income
Then fixed monthly costs such as rent / mortgage / bills
Then any monthly costs that month such as haircut etc.
Will include some miscellaneous spends - £100 or more if have a few meals out booked with friends.
I always buy a £50 Amazon voucher on pay day.
I move money for later dated direct debits to my second current account them move it over as it comes out of my account late in the month.
Then I will work out how much is remaining
I then work out how much to put into each of my savings pots: house deposit / holiday / christmas&bdays etc.

I just update it monthly on pay day and I check my bank acc most days to check everything is ok.

Doesn't sound dense. That's just how I did it. You'll have a lot to work out and then when you've organised all your categories you can start on your spreadsheet. It's really helped me over the years - seeing it in front of your eyes makes you realise how much you spend. I've cut down on subscriptions, buying lunch for work etc and saved more. Good luck

I have been doing mine over the last few weeks and I’m sure I’m doing it a very long winded way, but have gone through my bank bank statement's line by line and I put each amount next to the relevant category- so food/mortgage/fuel/childcare/kids activities etc down one column, and then every amount listed next to the relevant one, and then added up. Going through the process like that was slow, but really did make me appreciate how many times I was inputting something from Amazon for example! I’ve caught a few recurring subscriptions I wasn’t even aware of too. Going forward I probably need to find a less clunky way of doing it, but it was simple to do and very helpful

Save a separate copy, perhaps a PDF, from time to time, maybe email it to yourself. PCs/Macs/tablets etc do break down or become life expired.

You can probably download the transactions from your bank account into your spreadsheet that will be mostly already correctly categorised but might need some tweaking.

I'd do that into a 'draft' page, sort by retailer/category, and then go through all the transactions. Pick off the easy wins like DDs, groceries, petrol etc first and then you'll be left with the ones that will need a bit of cross checking, eg the Amazon transactions that could fall into many categories.

I have needs, wants and savings and debt- 3 columns where I track my 50:20:30 ratio.

I use YNAB. Spreadsheets of spending are great for tracking what you've spent, but with YNAB the focus is on prioritising future spending.

I tried YNAB and I’m not sure what’s wrong with me but I found it so confusing and couldn’t work it out. You could try Snoop if you need something easier alongside a spreadsheet. Snoop will categorise everything you spend so you don’t need to manually do this and you’ll know your overall balance of savings / credit cards etc

Pocketsmith is good but the downside is you pay. If, like me, you spend everything on credit cards it takes feeds from all of those and breaks it down.

I asked ChatGPT to create one for me! You need to tell it what format you want - Excel, Google Sheets etc, then be very specific. Something like
‘create a Google spreadsheet that has X columns. Column A date, column B income from salaries, column C any other income, column D total income B+C columns E, F, G (these columns are your categories, you can tell GPT what headings to use) expenditure, Column X total expenditure, column F column D - Column X’

Are you trying to track bills like gas electric and mortgage or individual purchases like coffee, treats?

There's nothing wrong with you. It just takes a while to get your head around it because traditionally, people keep spreadsheets to track past spending, whereas YNAB is used to plan future spending. To use YNAB effectively, you have to follow the 4 rules, which includes dynamically adjusting your plans as your circumstances change. So you might plan to save £100, but if you have an unexpected expenditure, that might change to saving £50. Equally, you might plan to spend £400 on groceries, but then you get a bill that you didn't expect so you change your plan and have beans on toast for a few meals, so you only spend £360 on groceries and cover the bill.

YNAB is essentially a magnifying glass on your true expenditure, so you can keep to your budget. By splitting down spending into details categories, it's amazing how your mindset can change and suddenly something that seemed essential doesn't seem worth buying.

Feeling so daunted by this, and every one of these responses is useful. But not always easy to follow: I have much to learn.

This is the best of MN - people contributing experiences to help others. Thank you all!

If most of your spending is by card you could consider using an app like Snoop or Moneyhub which has been suggested above - they link to your bank account and credit cards and can categorise all your spend each month as it happens. You can also set custom categories and budgets for each type of spend. I have stopped using a spreadsheet as it is just so much easier and quicker to do it using the apps.

Look for an app that is regulated by the FCA and then it will have the same security standards as banks when it comes to personal financial data.

I would seriously recommend YNAB for a few reasons. There's a free 34 day trial. There are hundreds of tutorials, so you can go step by step. It links to your bank accounts, so you get accurate balances. If you want to try it, I'm happy to start a thread dedicated to setting it up, and there are loads of people on MN who use YNAB who will join in with tips. It does cost money (about £80 per year) but it will save you much, much more than that. I've been using it years and I never worry about money despite being a modest income family, because I know where every penny goes and I always know how much money I truly have available to spend, not just what the balance of my bank account is. I set aside money for future annual and quarterly bills, so it's waiting to be spent, so I never have 'big bills', I just have 'that money that I was saving has gone out of the account now'.

i always recommend the Martin Lewis budget planner spreadsheet

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Thank you for that offer @Lougle - it's much appreciated. But for me, right now, I feel I need to understand the principles, and prove to myself that I have the discipline and consistency required to do this, before I turn to an app. But the app may be just what I'm need in the future. Thank you !