Weekly Budget Sheet

Who this is for

One week of money on one page. What came in, what you meant to spend, what you actually spent, and the difference line by line. A week is short enough to remember and long enough to show a pattern, which is why some households budget this way rather than by the month.

Anyone paid weekly or fortnightly, households on a tight margin where a month is too long to wait before checking, and people who have tried monthly budgeting and lost track by the third week.

What this helps you track

• What came in this week and what was carried over from last
• What you planned to spend on each line before the week started
• What actually went out, and on which day
• The lines where plan and reality parted company
• What is left to carry into next week

How to use it

1. Write the date the week begins, who the sheet is for and the balance carried in from last week.
2. Enter the income you expect or have received for this week in the income field.
3. List the spending lines you can foresee — food, fuel, the weekly shop, a bill falling this week — and put a planned amount against each before the week starts.
4. Fill the actual column as money goes out, with the day it went, so the sheet is written from receipts rather than memory.
5. The difference column and the totals are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, subtract across each line and add down.
6. At the end of the week carry the closing figure forward and set next week's planned column using what this one showed.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

Why budget by the week rather than the month?

Because a week is close enough to see. If you are paid weekly or fortnightly, a monthly sheet makes you hold four weeks of arithmetic in your head. If you are paid monthly, the monthly budget spreadsheet is the better fit.

What does the difference column show?

Planned minus actual, so a positive figure means the line came in under and a negative figure means it went over. The totals row adds the column up, so the week's overall drift is a single number.

What do I do with the balance carried in?

Write what was actually in the account or purse at the start of the week. The summary adds it to the income and takes off what you spent, which gives the figure to carry into the next sheet.

Can I keep a run of weeks?

Print one per week and keep them together, or duplicate the browser version, which saves in your own browser. Four or five in a row show more than any single week does.