Free Interactive Budget Calculator Spreadsheet for Canadians
Easy to Use Excel Template to Help You Create a Personal Budget
To make budgeting easier for you and your spouse, family or household, we’ve created an intelligent, interactive Canadian budget calculator spreadsheet in Excel that you can download and use for free as your personal budget template (it’s now available on the Mac too).
Many people put off creating a household budget because they think that they don’t really know how to budget. Maybe you’re one of them. If you have doubts about how much to spend on certain expenses, aren’t sure if you did your budget right, or want help planning your monthly budget so that you can manage money better, this is the free Excel budget calculator spreadsheet to download now! (the Mac version works great too)
Visualize your budget by category
Features of Our Free Budget Worksheet and Calculator
Our free budgeting worksheet will help you manage your money better. The features of the calculator include:
- A calculator spreadsheet that is smart and interactive, to guide you through the budgeting process
- User-friendly, even if you don’t really know how to use Excel
- Simple, helpful graphs let you see your monthly spending in a whole new way (just in case you’re not a numbers person)
- Provides guidelines for how much to spend in each category of your budget. This allows you to compare your spending to what’s “normal”
- Clear graphs, dollar values and percentages so that you can adjust things as you go
- Stand-alone Excel or Open Office file keeps your information private on your own computer
- It does all the math for you
- Drop down menus let you tell it whether each expense occurs weekly, monthly, annually, etc.
- Keeps a running tally of how much you’re planning to spend versus your income
- Identifies common budgeting pitfalls and offers tips and solutions to fix them
- If you want to reduce your expenses, it can suggest dozens of places where you could consider reducing your expenses to save money
- Easy to use with more personalized expense categories than other similar templates
Below is a sample screenshot from the budget calculator.
Download
You Can Download the Budget Calculator in Many Formats
Select the download option that works for you. You can also download the standard Excel version of this budget calculator and open it in Google Sheets (Google Sheets is a free, online version of Microsoft Excel).
For Microsoft Excel (also works on Google Sheets)
For computers with older versions of Microsoft Excel
You can also download OpenOffice for free and then download this file
For Macbooks and Apple iPhones & iPads with the Numbers app
Compare your spending to budgeting guidelines
What Does a Normal Personal or Household Budget Look Like?
Budgeting and money management guidelines for after-tax income and to avoid debt
There’s no such thing as a “normal” budget, but based on tens of thousands of credit counselling appointments, we’ve been able to create Canadian guidelines for how people will generally want to spend their after-tax income to avoid getting into debt.
Everyone allocates their money for personal or household expenses and savings a bit differently. This free spreadsheet includes our very popular budgeting guidelines so that you have an idea about how your spending compares to that of other Canadians with similar sized households.
The math is done for you and prefilled menus make things easy
Use the Savings Calculator to Plan for Annual, Emergency and Unexpected Expenses to Avoid Debt
A savings calculator is built right into the worksheet so that it’s easy to see the amount of money you need to set aside for annual, emergency and unexpected expenses. Expenses that you don’t expect, or which don’t occur on a monthly basis, can cause you to reach for a credit card. Then it can feel like your spending plan is off track as you try to get out of debt.
Using the budget calculator spreadsheet will help you identify the different types of expenses that you need to plan for and what to save for each. It will also help you learn where to trim your spending so that you have the money to set aside in savings for short term goals and long term plans.
Provides you with sound guidelines to follow
Free Online Budgeting Apps & Tools
Track Your Expenses to Make Money Management Easier
If you’ve searched for free online budgeting apps and tools, you’ve likely discovered that there are some great tools available to help you plan your spending and track your expenses. However, if you are worried about divulging too much information about your spending, or are hesitant to allow an app read-only access to see your bank account transactions, you are not alone.
Depending on your financial institution’s debit card holder agreement and electronic banking terms and conditions, you may be in violation of your agreement if you disclose your passwords and PINs to a third party. Using our spreadsheet will not put you in violation of your banking agreements.
It warns you if your expenses are too high or low
Excel Personal Budget Template Is Secure
Our free Excel personal budget template is as secure as you make it. It’s up to you to download it, use it on your laptop, PC or Mac, and save it securely. You do not need special permissions to use the spreadsheet nor do you need to allow it any access to your bank account. It is easy to use even if you don’t really know how to use Excel.
It helps you find places to reduce expenses
This Budgeting Assistant is Probably the Next Best Thing to Sitting Down with a Real Expert
While nothing beats sitting down one-on-one with a budgeting expert to craft your budget, this budgeting assistant is the next best thing.
As you fill out your budget, it will alert you to anything it thinks is off and then offer suggestions to help you build a solid budget.
In addition to helping you throughout the process of creating your budget, when you’re finished, it can look for dozens of opportunities to help you further improve your budget and save money.
It helps you find places to reduce expenses
Screenshot of a Sample Budget on the Budget Calculator
Click on the image below to see a larger view.
Free Excel Budget Calculator Spreadsheet for Canadians – Personal Help to Create a Budget and Deal with Debt
As you fill in the free Excel budget calculator spreadsheet, tips will alert you to areas of your spending plan that may be cause for concern. If you would like personal help from a qualified, professional Credit Counsellor to balance your budget and deal with debt, contact a non-profit credit counselling organization in your area today.
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