Monthly Budget & Debt Payoff Planner: Paycheck Budget, Snowball vs Avalanche, Savings Goals (Excel + Google Sheets)

Personal budget spreadsheet built around paychecks. Plan every dollar, log spending, track savings goals, and compare debt snowball vs avalanche for up to 8 debts with month-by-month schedules and a debt-free date. Works in Excel and Google Sheets, no macros.

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Plan every paycheck, track what you actually spend, grow your savings goals and see the month you’ll be debt-free. All in one spreadsheet, no formulas to write.

What It Does

  • Paycheck-based budget: enter each paycheck and assign bills to the paycheck that covers them. See what’s left over from each check
  • Spending plan with 40 editable categories grouped as Needs, Wants, Savings and Debt, with planned vs actual and remaining
  • “Left to plan” so every dollar has a job
  • Transactions log with category dropdowns (500 rows); actual spending flows into the budget automatically
  • Savings Goals: target, target date and amount saved so far give you the monthly amount needed, a projected finish date and an On track / Behind status
  • Debt Payoff Planner for up to 8 debts: add an extra monthly payment and compare the snowball (smallest balance first) and avalanche (highest rate first) methods side by side: months to debt-free, debt-free date, total interest and payoff date for each debt
  • Full month-by-month snowball and avalanche schedules (up to 20 years), formula-driven
  • Dashboard with 6 key numbers and 4 charts: planned vs actual by group, top categories, debt balance over time, savings goal progress

What’s Included

  • 1 .xlsx file with 8 tabs: Start Here, Dashboard, Budget, Transactions, Savings Goals, Debts, Snowball Schedule, Avalanche Schedule
  • Plain-English instructions on the Start Here tab, including how snowball and avalanche work
  • Sample data so you can see it working (clearly labeled, easy to replace)

How To Use It

Excel: open the .xlsx in Excel 2016 or newer, Microsoft 365, or Excel for Mac. No macros.

Google Sheets: in Google Drive click New > File upload, choose the file, open it, then File > Save as Google Sheets. Formulas, dropdowns and charts carry over; chart styling may look slightly different.

Then: set your budget month and paychecks, edit categories, clear the sample data, and list your debts. Yellow cells are inputs, gray cells calculate automatically. For a new month, save a copy and change the month.

Please Note

Payoff dates and interest totals are estimates based on the numbers you enter (fixed rates, no new charges, on-time payments). This planner is an organizing tool, not financial advice. Check your lender statements for exact figures.

Built with AI-assisted tooling and checked for formula errors before release.

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