Money and household finance

Sinking Funds and Savings Goals Spreadsheet

The big irregular costs — the car service, the insurance renewal, Christmas — broken down into what you need to set aside each month to be ready for them.

Download the spreadsheet · 11 kB

.xlsx · 3 tabs · opens in Excel, LibreOffice, Numbers and Google Sheets · no sign-up

What it works out for you

How much is still needed for each goal
How many whole months are left until the date you set
The monthly amount that gets you there in time
Progress on each goal as a percentage, and across all of them together

Who it is for

Anyone tired of being ambushed by a cost they knew was coming.

What is inside

3 tabs: Read me, Goals, Paid in. The first is a Read me that explains the file in plain words and says what it deliberately does not contain.

Cells come in two colours. Cream cells are yours to fill in. Grey cells work themselves out — leave them alone unless you want to change the sum, in which case go ahead, nothing is locked.

It opens blank, and that is correct

This is an empty workbook, so every grey cell is empty until there is something to work from. Type into two or three cream cells and the grey ones beside them fill in straight away. If you download it, open it and see nothing but headings, nothing has gone wrong — the sheet simply has no figures yet.

One thing worth knowing: a file preview — in Google Drive, in a phone’s file browser, in Windows Explorer — often shows calculated cells as blank even after you have filled the sheet in, because a preview does not run formulas. Open the file properly in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice or Google Sheets and the figures appear.

Amounts and figures

Amounts are plain numbers with no currency symbol, so the same file suits any country. Format the column as your own currency if you would rather see one. There are no rates, intervals or targets of ours anywhere in the file — every figure of that kind is a cell waiting for the one that applies to you.

The printable versions

The same job on paper, for a folder or a clipboard. Free PDFs, A4 and US Letter.

Debt Repayment Record

Get every debt onto one page with the real figures from the statements, and keep a record of what has actually been paid off.

IM-15 2 pages

Budget Tracker Sheet

Set a budget out on paper and record what actually happened next to it, so the gap is visible line by line rather than only at the bottom.

IM-10 1 page

Questions

Is it really free?

Yes. No sign-up, no email address, no trial. Download it, use it, change it, keep it. The site is paid for by advertising elsewhere on it, not by this file.

Will it work in Google Sheets?

Yes. Google Drive → New → File upload → pick the file, then open it with Google Sheets. Every formula is deliberately a plain one, so nothing breaks in the move.

Does it work in Excel, LibreOffice or Numbers?

Yes. It is an ordinary .xlsx file with no macros and no add-ins. Anything that opens spreadsheets will open it.

Can I change the formulas?

Please do. Nothing is locked or password protected, and the formulas are ordinary ones you can read. If your situation needs a different sum, change the sum.

Are there any figures built into it?

No rates, intervals, targets or thresholds of ours. Where a figure like that is needed there is a cell for you to enter your own, taken from your handbook, lender, insurer or tax authority. We do not know your circumstances and will not guess at them.