Monthly Budget Template (UK)
A budget you fill in once and can still use in month six. It starts from the money that actually lands in your account, uses the bills UK households actually get, and makes room for the once-a-year costs that quietly break most budgets.
Free, no email address, nothing saved anywhere. Download it and it is yours.
Excel workbook (.xlsx)
Five sheets. Budget, Annual costs and Variable income carry working formulas — totals, surplus or shortfall, and a percentage-of-income column that fill themselves in as you type. Instructions and Reference are written guidance.
Download the spreadsheet →PrintablePrint or save as PDF
The same budget, laid out for A4. Opens in your browser — use Print, and choose “Save as PDF” if you want a PDF copy.
Open the printable version →What is in it
- Budget — the main sheet. Income at the top, then home, getting around, day to day, life and leisure, borrowing, and saving. Every total is a formula.
- Annual costs — car insurance, the MOT, Christmas, the school uniform. Enter the cost and how often it comes round; it works out the monthly set-aside and feeds one line back into the budget.
- Variable income — for variable hours, shifts, zero-hours work or self-employment. Twelve months in, an average and a worst month out.
- Instructions and Reference — how to use it, and where to get free debt help if the bottom line will not balance.
Why this one and not a generic grid
- It starts at take-home pay. Not gross salary. Income Tax, National Insurance, your workplace pension and your student loan have already gone before the money arrives — the template says so, and tells you not to enter them again as bills.
- Student loan is treated as a deduction, not a bill. Listing it as an outgoing is the single most common way a UK budget double-counts.
- It spreads the annual costs. A budget that lists only monthly bills works for about three months, and then the insurance renewal lands. There is a whole sheet for that, and a rule for not counting anything twice.
- The categories are UK ones. Council tax, water rates, TV licence, ground rent, service charge, VED, childcare after funded hours.
- It handles income that moves. A monthly-average row, not one salary cell — and it shows you your lowest month next to your average, because those are different decisions.
- It ships blank. No pre-filled amounts, no estimate of what anything should cost, no target you are being measured against.
About these figures. A blank template, not a plan. It ships with no pre-filled amounts and no view on what you should spend, buy or switch to — every amount in it will be one you typed. The 50/30/20 proportions mentioned on the Reference sheet are a rule of thumb popularised by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their 2005 book All Your Worth; they are not a UK standard and no regulator, lender or government body requires them. If your budget will not balance and you are covering the gap with credit, free and confidential debt advice is available from National Debtline (run by the Money Advice Trust, registered charity 1099506) and StepChange (registered charity 1016630 and SC046263) — both free. You can check whether a financial adviser is regulated on the FCA Register.
Important — this is general information, not financial advice. Figures and examples are illustrative and may go out of date. This is not a personal recommendation. For advice tailored to your situation, speak to an FCA-authorised adviser.
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