What is on the sheet
Three blocks in a fixed order. A summary strip across the top for income, fixed bills, variable spending and what is left. Beneath it, the fixed-bill table with planned and actual columns and space for a due date, plus two blank rows for the bill nobody remembered. Then the spending grid: a row per day or per week and a column per category, with a total column down the right and a total row across the bottom.
The daily layout runs from the 1st to the real last day of the month — 28, 30 or 31 rows, with row height adjusted so it always fits — and prints on its own page. The weekly layout groups by calendar week and fits alongside the summary on a single page. Which one suits you is a question about when you record: a daily grid works if you empty your pocket every evening, a weekly one if you sit down on Sunday with a stack of receipts.
Fixed bills and variable categories are different animals
A fixed bill is one you already know the amount of: rent, insurance, a car payment, a subscription. There is no decision left in it this month, so it belongs in a list you total once and then leave alone. Variable spending is where the month is actually decided, and it needs a grid because you want to see the shape of it — the four days in a row with nothing, the Saturday that ate a quarter of the food budget.
Write a planned amount after an equals sign and the sheet prints it and totals it for you: Rent or mortgage = 1800. Leave the equals sign off and the row still prints with an empty planned cell, which is fine for anything genuinely unknown. Dollar signs and commas in the amount are ignored, so = $1,800 works.
Keep the categories to six or fewer at first
Eight columns is the hard limit here, and it is a limit rather than a target. The failure mode of a hand-kept budget is never too little detail — it is standing in a shop deciding whether a bag of coffee is Groceries or Dining out, deferring the decision, and never writing it down at all. Six broad categories that get filled in beat twelve precise ones that get abandoned in week two.
Start with groceries, transport, household, medical, dining and other. After two or three months the one category that is both large and vague will be obvious, and that is the one worth splitting. The reverse move is worth making too: a category that sees three entries a month is not carrying its column and should fold into Other.
Filling it in, and printing it
Two habits make the difference. Record on the date the money was spent, not the date the card statement lands, or a month-to-month comparison compares nothing. And leave the row totals until the weekend rather than doing arithmetic at the point of entry — the entry has to be fast enough that you do it at all.
The print button opens the sheet in a new window and calls print on it. Set your printer to the paper size you chose here, leave the margins at their default, and switch on background graphics if the grey header bands come out white. Daily layouts are two pages and pair well with duplex printing. If nothing opens, a pop-up blocker caught the window — allow pop-ups for this site and press it again. The arithmetic in the summary is only as good as the planned figures you typed, and this is a form rather than financial advice: it does not know about irregular income, annual bills spread across the year, or anything owed.
Questions people ask
Can I have more than eight spending categories?
Not on this sheet. Nine or more columns across a portrait page leaves each one too narrow to write a dollar amount in by hand, which defeats the purpose. Use an Other column and note the detail in the margin, or run two sheets with different category sets if you genuinely track that many separate streams. In practice, most people who ask for twelve columns end up filling in four.
How do I handle irregular income?
The income field is a single expected figure, so for variable income enter a conservative number — the lowest of the last few months rather than the average — and treat anything above it as unallocated when it arrives. The sheet does not model multiple pay dates. If you need income itemised, add lines to the fixed-bills box such as "Paycheck 1" and "Paycheck 2" and use that table for both directions, since it has planned and actual columns already.
What about annual bills like insurance or property tax?
Divide by twelve and enter the monthly share as a fixed bill, noting in the due-date column when the real payment falls. That keeps the monthly picture honest and stops December looking like a catastrophe. The sheet does no accrual arithmetic itself — it prints what you tell it, so the division is yours to do.
Does February really print only 28 rows?
Yes. The daily grid is built from the actual number of days in the month you selected, so it prints 28, 29, 30 or 31 rows, and the row height is scaled so any month fits on one page. Weekends are shaded and dated with their weekday, which makes the weekly rhythm of spending visible without you having to count.