How to Build Your Own Budget in Google Sheets | Step-by-Step Tutorial for Beginners, by My Productive Life Co on YouTube. 20 min 8 s.
- Video length
- 20 min 8 s
- Time to do it
- 30 minutes
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Steps
- 10
What you need
Steps
Open Google Sheets and create a blank spreadsheet. Name it something like Monthly Budget so you can find it later in Drive.
Plan your table layout. Put an income section at the top with columns for item, amount and date, then an expenses section below with columns for category, item, amount and date.
Fill in your income rows first, then list your regular expenses under clear categories like rent, food, transport and savings.
Select the header rows and use the fill color button to shade them. Color each section differently so income and expenses are easy to tell apart.
Select each table and apply borders from the border button. Then go to View and turn off Gridlines so only your tables show lines.
Add totals with formulas. In the cell under an amount column type =SUM( then drag over the cells and close the bracket, and press Enter.
Build a cash flow summary. Add cells for total income, total expenses and balance, using =SUM for the totals and a simple subtraction for the balance.
Select the summary figures, click Insert then Chart, and choose a donut chart to show how your spending splits by category.
Test the sheet by changing one amount and checking that every total and chart updates correctly.
Hide the raw data columns you do not need to see by right-clicking the column letter and choosing Hide column.
Tips and common mistakes
Type amounts as plain numbers without currency symbols so the SUM formulas work, then format the cells as currency afterwards.
Keep category names consistent, since charts group rows by exact label and small spelling differences split a category in two.
Save a copy of the finished sheet as a template so you can start each new month without rebuilding it.
Questions
Do I need to pay for Google Sheets?
No. Google Sheets is free with any Google account and runs in your browser, so there is nothing to download.
Can I use this budget for weekly instead of monthly planning?
Yes. The layout works for any period. Just label the sheet with the period and enter the income and expenses for that week.
How do I stop the formulas breaking when I add rows?
Insert new rows inside the existing table rather than below it, so the SUM ranges expand to include them.
This guide was drafted from the video's details and general task knowledge. It has not been checked against the full video. Check the video and relevant product instructions before following a procedure. Report a correction.
