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Expense tracker

A one-month spending log for a person or family. Each purchase gets a line with its date, description, category, how it was paid and the amount. A box at the bottom has a blank for every category, so you can add up the month by hand.

By Paul Gunder. Free to print for home, classroom and office use; see how our printables are made.

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Tracker type
15 to 34
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Expense Tracker1 page · US Letter

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Expense TrackerMonthMonthly budgetDateDescriptionCategoryPaid withAmountTotal this pageCategory ideas: Housing, Utilities, Groceries, Eating out, Transportation, Health.TOTALS BY CATEGORYHousingUtilitiesGroceriesEating outTransportationHealthPersonalKidsEntertainmentGiftsOtherPrintablePal.com · free printable money templatesExpense Tracker
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On this page

What prints

The sheet is headed Expense Tracker, with write-in lines for the month and your monthly budget. The table has five columns: date, description, category, paid with and amount. A Total this page box sits under the last row, and a small hint line lists a few category ideas to get you started.

Below that is a Totals by category area with a blank line for each of 11 categories: Housing, Utilities, Groceries, Eating out, Transportation, Health, Personal, Kids, Entertainment, Gifts and Other. Nothing is calculated for you. Every amount, and every total, is written in with a pen.

The settings

  • Heading. Type your own title, or leave it blank for the standard one.
  • Tracker type. Personal or household for this page. The small business expense tracker uses the same layout with business columns.
  • Rows. From 15 to 34 purchase lines. Fewer rows make taller, easier-to-write lines; more rows suit people who buy a lot of small things.
  • Category totals box. On or off. Turn it off if you prefer a full page of purchase lines and will total the month somewhere else.

Making the habit stick

A tracker only works if the lines get filled in close to the moment of spending. Keep the sheet on the fridge or clipped inside a kitchen drawer, and write the purchase down when you unload the bags. Receipts are a good backup. If you forget a day, your bank or card app can fill the gap at the end of the week.

Pick your categories once and keep them for the whole month. A grocery run that includes a birthday gift is easiest to log as two lines, one for each category.

Worked example: a week of spending

Say your Monthly budget line reads $900. Early in March you log five purchases. On March 2 you spend $84.50 on groceries with a debit card. On the 5th, $38.20 on gas, which you file under Transportation. On the 9th it is $61.75 for groceries, on the 12th $27.40 on eating out, and on the 15th another $72.10 on groceries.

Groceries come to 84.50 + 61.75 + 72.10 = $218.35. Add the gas and the restaurant meal and the page total is 218.35 + 38.20 + 27.40 = $283.95. Write 218.35 on the Groceries line of the category box, 38.20 on Transportation and 27.40 on Eating out. Against the $900 budget, $616.05 is still unspent for the rest of the month.

Keeping the pages

Staple a month together and keep it with your bank statements. If some spending might matter at tax time, such as medical bills or gifts to charity, the IRS recordkeeping page explains why receipts and a written record are worth saving. This is a simple log, not financial or tax advice.

Sources

  1. IRS: Why should I keep records? irs.gov