A budget in Excel is not an accounting system. It is a list of things you spend money on, a number next to each one, and one box at the bottom that adds them up. That is the whole idea. Excel's only job here is the adding, and it never gets that wrong.
Lay out the page
Open Excel and choose Blank workbook.
A blank sheet is easier than a template here, because a template guesses categories that are not yours.
Click cell A1 and type Category, then press Tab and type Amount in B1.
Tab moves you one box to the right. Headings in row 1 mean you always know what each column holds.
Click A2 and type your first expense — Rent, say — then press Enter and keep going down: Groceries, Phone, Transport, and so on.
Enter moves down one box, so you can type a whole list without touching the mouse.
Click B2 and type the amount for the first row, pressing Enter after each one.
Type plain numbers with no currency symbol yet — 240, not £240. You will format them as money in one go later.
Leave one empty row under your list, then type Total in that column A box.
The blank row is a visual breather, and it keeps the total from being swept up if you later sort the list.
Let Excel do the adding
Click the empty cell in column B next to the word Total.
The answer will appear wherever you are standing, so pick the box first.
On the Home tab, click AutoSum (the Σ symbol on the right), then press Enter.
AutoSum looks up the column, guesses the numbers you meant, and writes the formula for you.
Change any amount in the list and watch the total change on its own.
This is the moment Excel earns its keep. You never re-add anything by hand again.
Two rows under the total, type Income in column A and your monthly income in column B. Under that type Left over, and in the box beside it type = then click the income box, type -, click the total box, and press Enter.
You have just written your first formula: income minus spending. It updates itself too.
Make it readable at a glance
Select row 1 by clicking the 1 on the left edge, then press Ctrl+B.
Bold headings separate labels from data instantly, with no thinking required.
Select your amounts in column B and click the currency button (the coin or £/$ symbol) on the Home tab.
Now everything lines up on the decimal point and reads as money rather than as maths homework.
Select the Total row and give it a fill colour from the paint-bucket button.
The one number you look for most should be the easiest one to find.
Double-click the line between the A and B column letters.
That auto-widens column A so no category name is cut off mid-word.
Save it as your template
Press Ctrl+S, name the file Budget – Template, and save it somewhere you will look — Documents is fine.
A file you cannot find again is a file you will rebuild from scratch next month.
Each month, open it and immediately use File then Save As with a new name, like Budget – March.
Save As keeps the clean original untouched and gives you a fresh copy to fill in, so you build the layout once and reuse it forever.
Check yourself
If you can say yes to each of these, you have finished.
- I have a list of categories with amounts beside them.
- My total updates by itself when I change a number.
- I can see at a glance how much is left over.
- I know where the file is saved and how to make next month's copy.