New Parent Budget and Baby Costs Spreadsheet

About this template

This new parent budget starts with the real money problem of a new baby: the income during leave, not the price of the pram. It is for expecting and new parents who want to see, month by month, what parental leave does to the household.

Please read: This is a tracker tool only, not financial, tax, legal, medical or any other professional advice or advisory service. It records and calculates what you enter; you are solely responsible for checking all figures, rates, dates and results and for every decision you make. By purchasing, downloading or using it, you accept these terms (your statutory consumer rights are not affected).

Parental leave, modeled

The leave-pay ramp shows pay coming in, spending going out and a running balance for twelve months. In the demo, full pay runs to the end of March, then statutory leave pay at 55% for the nine months after. The household goes from 8,280 a month to 6,498, runs a small deficit from April, and still finishes the year 2,190 ahead, and you can see exactly which bills made that possible.

Baby costs, done properly

• A one-off baby costs list with budget against actual for every item, a second-hand column, and what you still have left to buy
• Every monthly baby cost, with the yearly figure beside it
• Leave-pay ramp: pay in, spend out and a running balance for twelve months

27 connected tabs

Around the baby tabs sits a complete family budget. Everything reads from one transaction list, so nothing is typed twice and there are no pivot tables to refresh.

• 2,000 transactions and 40 categories, all renameable
• Every figure calculated: budgets, variances, totals and percentages
• Over-budget and overdue amounts color themselves
• Drop-down lists that grow as you add accounts and categories
• Charts that redraw from your own numbers, not pictures

It works as a baby budget for the shopping list and as a monthly budget for everything else, from one set of numbers.

You get a filled-in copy as well as a blank one: a full demo year you can click through, and a blank ready for your own money, in Excel and Google Sheets. It uses no dynamic arrays, no macros and no add-ins, so it behaves the same in every supported version, and the Google Sheets version is a real workbook, not a PDF with a link in it.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice. No Microsoft 365 subscription required.
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. No Google account is needed for the Excel files.
• No add-ins, no macros, no subscription and no bank connection

What you download

• The Excel workbook filled with a worked example, and the same workbook blank and ready for yours
• The instruction guide, which has one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready to download as soon as payment clears. The Start Here tab walks you through setup in a few minutes. The files are for your own household; please do not share or resell them. Questions before or after you buy? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use it in Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes. You get Excel files for Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac, and the instruction guide has one-click links to make Google Sheets copies with a free Google account.

Can I change the leave pay to match my own situation?

The demo uses full pay to the end of March and then 55% for nine months. You enter your own pay in and spending out, and the twelve-month running balance follows.

Does it include a baby shopping list?

Yes. The Baby Costs tab lists one-off items with budget against actual, a second-hand column and what is still left to buy.

Does it track ongoing monthly baby costs?

Yes. Every monthly baby cost is listed with its yearly figure beside it.

Does it connect to my bank?

No. There is no bank connection, no add-ins and no macros. You enter or paste your own transactions.