5 Printable Budget Planners That Can Save Your Finances (and Your Sanity)!

The top 5 budgeting methods turned into simple and easy printable budget planners. Just print & go!

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Why are there different budgeting methods?

Just as some like to read a book, others like to read magazines or in their Kindle app. Some people like strict guidelines, and others like some wiggle room. It’s all personal preference and what works for your personal situation.

As a budgeting beginner, you may want to try a few different budgeting methods and see what you find to be the best.

The information you put on the budget tracker will be the same dollar amounts. Yet, it will be in a different layout with different budget planners, with importance placed on different elements.

For example, some budgets place saving money as a priority, and some don’t. With some, you spend your money in cash, and with others, you can use whatever you want.

Having options ensures that you will find the best budget plan for you!

1. Simple monthly printable budget planner

The simple monthly budget planner is as simple & easy as it gets in regards to a printable budget planner. You take income minus savings, minus debt repayments, minus the items you must spend, and then you have your discretionary spending.

There aren’t any preset spending categories to confuse you or add fluff. The main point being you lead the way with specific expenditures and savings goals!

All you need to do is make sure that the bottom left-hand section, the Monthly Budget Snapshop, has a positive number (or $0) as the last number in the actual column.

2. Cash envelope printable budget planner

Earlier, I mentioned financial goals, and if you have those, you most likely will need to be saving money. My very favorite way to save money is through sinking funds! One of the easiest ways to do this is through cash envelopes!

In a nutshell, you say, “I want to go on vacation.” So each payday, you portion out a set amount of money directly into your vacation fund (a separate bank account ideally). Then in a few months or a year, depending on where you want to go, you will have the money saved!

Sinking Funds use a Pay Yourself First model, as you pay your sinking funds before paying any discretionary bills. Here, your goals are your most important financial obligation!

The cash envelope printable budget planner for sinking funds considers this. The very first section, after your income, are your SF’s! This is important, as you want your must spends at the top of the list (while there’s money left), and then the least important expenses are down at the bottom of the list.

If you need someplace to separate out your money right now, you can find some DIY cash envelope templates and make some right now! Or use a great savings tracker so you know where you’re at with your savings goal.

I know this goes against traditional budgeting methods, where you pay your bills first. But honestly, if that were working so well, then 37% of Americans wouldn’t be in credit card debt (source).

If you want a different result, you need to try a new way of doing things!

If you love the cash envelope method be sure that you keep everything organized with a cash envelope wallet. It makes it so much easier and cleaner than having random envelopes in your purse!

3. The zero-based budget planner

The zero-based budget method is the method that I personally use for my family. I have combined a bunch of different practices into this one method, and it absolutely works! I have detailed the process out more in Part 4 of your Ultimate Guide on How to Budget – it’s a Better Budget.

** If you want the full step by step guide, then the Better Budget is what you’ll want. But if you’re looking for just a zero-based monthly budget worksheet (with no step by step guide) then this works great!

With a zero-based budget, as the money guru, Dave Ramsey says, “You give every dollar a job!” Because each and every dollar could be earning you money or putting you closer to your goals! No sense in leaving money out there to do nothing!

This printable budget planner lays out the most common spending categories, which is great as then you don’t forget any of your bills (either regular or one-off bills, like an Amazon subscription or your gym annual fee).

You start with income and then work your way down the line until you have everything filled out. This form has the spending categories and line items set up in a very specific order. The items at the top are things you must spend money on.

As you go down the list and get to the bottom, the items are more non-necessity expenses (aka things to cut if you don’t have enough in your family budget).

Then at the very bottom of the sheet, your total should be $0. If it’s negative, then check your math; if it’s not positive or zero a second time, then it’s time to cut expenses! If it’s a positive number, then putting extra in your savings is always a good idea! Especially if you don’t have a fully-funded emergency account.

To see a more detailed walk-through of this budget check out how to fill out your zero-based budget template.

Again, if you’re looking for the full meal deal of budgets (with all the bells & whistles) then go here to check out the Better Budget!

4. The 50/30/20 printable budget planner

The 50/30/20 Budget Planner is a great method to start with, especially if you’re just getting started with budgeting and want a general picture of where your money “should” be going. I say should because this is a framework that multiple experts agree upon.

Yes, it’s your money, you earned it, so you should be able to do what you want with it. Yet, you came here for guidance, so I’m going to give you the generally accepted norms for budgeting percentages.

With the 50/30/20 monthly budget template, you like to use a framework but still want flexibility.

You input your monthly take-home income at the top (not gross) and then dole out…

5. The budget by paycheck printable budget planner

The budget by paycheck planner method is simply dividing your month (the income, monthly bills & expenses) in two. Instead of a full one month budget, you have two mini month budgets (approx 2 weeks) on your monthly budget sheet.

Unlike the others, this household budget method may mean that you call some of your credit cards and bill companies and ask them to move your bill “due by date.” Which is totally common! Don’t think that you are stuck with the exact date they gave you!

With this bi-weekly budgeting method, you would ideally take your total bills amount for the entire month and have 1/2 of them (by dollar amount, not by the number of bills) due at the beginning of the month and then half at the end of the month. This way, you always have money left over from paying bills, and you never have too much month left and not enough money.

I know it can sound confusing, but having a monthly budget calendar and writing in your bills can make it much easier to understand. Remember, we all learn in different ways! Be it auditory (reading this blog out loud so you can hear it), simply reading it, by watching someone else do it, or by actively doing it (kinesthetic learning).

Sometimes, if a concept is confusing at first, I will read it a few times. Then do something else for a few hours (or a few days) and let it marinate in my brain a bit.

In the background of doing other things, my brain continues to process this info, and eventually (hopefully), when I come back to it, it makes more sense. OR, I think of a different way to ask my question, which pops up a new and different answer!

What makes a monthly budgeting planner the “best”?

Some key things make a method the “best” for you. But remember, it may not be the best for your friend. So don’t try to force something that isn’t working for you!

Your budget planner should…

• Be on one page so you can see everything at once (don’t overcomplicate it).
• Have you come out to $0 at the end of the month or a positive number. Constantly overspending your budget isn’t good.
• Be tweaked! Nothing is a perfect fit on the first try. It may take you a few months to get all the kinks smoothed out.
• Challenge but not crush your spending habits. Yes, you will most likely need to cut back but do it strategically!
• Not confuse you or be too complicated. If it takes you half a day to do your budget planning, then something isn’t right.
• Reflect your financial goals! If your goal is to save to buy a house, then why is your clothing budget $200 a month?
• Be as complete as possible with your expenses, find the complete budget categories list right here. If you want a lot of bells & whistles consider making a budget binder.

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My best advice on which is the best budget planner

If you’re brand new to having a personal budget and don’t have an immediate need (aka bank collectors are at your door), then try the 50/30/20. It’s a great place to start because it gives good common-sense guidelines on spending amounts by a percentage of your income.

Yet, if you’ve tried budgeting before, and ended up frustrated and annoyed, then maybe it wasn’t a “you” problem. Maybe it was just the budgeting method you tried. Remember, even those that find the “right” way for them have to do it still do a decent amount of tweaking in the first three months, and then they find a rhythm and pattern.

An easy way to find the best budget planner is to try them all! Seriously, just grab the printable Budget Planner Sampler Pack, grab your financial numbers, fill out the printable budget planners, and see which form…

• Makes the most sense to you
• One that you will be likely to stick to in the long run
• Isn’t too complicated for your lifestyle
• Keeps your financial goals up in front

The printable Beginning Budgeter’s Planner Sampler Pack has each of these budget templates in there so you can try them out. I’ve made this pack so it would be super easy for you to experiment with budgeting and finally find the right fit. I fully believe in the corny saying…

“If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again.”   (ya, super corny, but it fits!)

When should you switch budgeting methods?

It’s time to try a different method when…

• You are hating your money life
• You have no idea what’s going on with your money
• You are constantly overspending

That will be the key with all of the budgets! That you come out at the end of the month with a $0 or a positive number! If you are continually overspending, it may not be a “budget problem,” but an “I want everything” issue that you’d need to dig into.

Heck, it would be great to afford everything that we wanted, but that’s probably not possible for 99.9999998% of us! (dang it!)

Remember, almost every budget sheet will need to be tweaked and adjusted. Nothing comes out perfect the first time! By month 3, you should have it down (if it’s a good method for you).

Another great tool can be a physical budget planner, like the mini books, or folios. These planners help guide you down a path, and can be a great resource to help broaden your financial perspective!

For the DIY budgeters

I get it, I totally do. Sometimes you just need to put pen to paper and scratch it out on your own. Yet, you can still grab my free budgeting templates, which has 13 pages of free printable budget planner worksheets for you to get started! In addition to a free budget template, it has a debt tracker, expense tracker, budget category list, monthly calendar, and more! You can print them off and make your own mini-budget binder!

Or, if you already have a bullet journal, you can make your own finance spreads in just a few minutes! Check out Making Money Management Motivating with a Finance Bullet Journal.

At the end of the day

Budgeting can be hard initially, especially when you feel like you don’t “get it.” But I am living proof that anyone can learn about and master their money! (I used to buy shoes like they were tic tacs!) I found some ways that worked for me, Googled a bunch of stuff, I used available resources, and I practiced and practiced some more!

Again, there’s no need to make things harder than they need to be. Be smart and use things that others have already worked the kinks out of! Using a printable budget planner could mean that you get the hang of things 6 months sooner, and you reach your financial goal that much sooner! So do it! Buy the dang flour!

Posts related to Printable Budget Planner:

• It’s a Better Budget
• The Top 7 Budgeting Methods
• Making Money Management Motivating with a Finance Bullet Journal
• Budgeting 101
• 15 of the Best Budget Planners to Help Run Your Empire!
• The Easiest Cash Envelope Templates (that anyone can make!)
• The Ultimate Budget Categories List for the Perfect Budget

It doesn’t matter which printable monthly budget planner you try, just start! Start right now!