No-Spend Challenge Tracker Spreadsheet

About this template

This no spend challenge tracker is for anyone doing a no-spend month or a whole no-spend year who wants the streak counted for them. Mark each day with a Y or an N, and the workbook counts your days, your longest run and what all those days were worth.

When a challenge ends, the number everyone mentions is the longest run they managed. A printed grid cannot work that out. This one does.

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).

The dashboard

Nothing on the dashboard is typed. Choose the full year or any month and the calendar, cards and charts follow.

• No-spend days: days you spent nothing beyond the bills, with a mini chart
• The month, day by day: a no spend calendar of ticks for the month picked
• The year in a strip: every month's no-spend days and its longest run
• What it saved: the value of the no-spend days, adding up through the year
• Hardest day and by weekday: the weekday with the fewest no-spend days, and each weekday's share
• The longest run, month by month
• Where the spend days went: the biggest optional spends for the year or month

What sets it apart

• The longest run, counted for you: it carries over the end of a month, so a streak from late January into February counts as one run
• Days a month does not have are grayed out and skipped, so February 30 is never counted as a slip
• What the days were worth: set what an ordinary day costs you and every day held becomes money, per month and for the year
• Two charts on the grid tab: days held month by month, and the longest run as it stood each month

A full budget underneath

The days you did spend still need somewhere to go, so the grid sits inside a full budget with eleven connected tabs: Start Here, Setup, No-Spend Grid, Accounts, Income, Recurring, Transactions, twelve monthly tabs, Annual Summary, Expense Breakdown and Dashboard. The worked example fills a full year of the no spend tracker: 179 no-spend days, 186 days spent, February the best month at 23 days, and a 13-day longest run from 25 January to 6 February. It works for a no buy challenge, a savings challenge or simple frugal living.

Light and dark editions

Every download includes a light edition and a dark edition. Every tab is restyled, not just the dashboard, and both use the same formulas. Each comes filled with a worked example and blank, in Excel and in Google Sheets.

Works with

• Microsoft Excel 2016, 2019, 2021 and Microsoft 365, on Windows and Mac, and LibreOffice
• Google Sheets with a free Google account. The Google Sheets version is a real workbook you make your own copy of, not a PDF with a link in it.
• No dynamic arrays, no macros, no add-ins and no subscription

What you download

• Light edition: the Excel workbook filled with a worked example, and a blank one
• Dark edition: the same two files in the dark design
• The instruction guide, which has one-click links to the Google Sheets versions (light and dark, filled and blank)
• The terms of use as a PDF

Your files are ready to download as soon as payment clears. The template is for personal and business use on your own devices, so please do not share or resell the files. Questions before or after you buy? Use our contact page and we will help.

Frequently asked questions

Does it work in Excel and Google Sheets?

Yes. You download Excel workbooks for Excel 2016 or later on Windows and Mac, and the instruction guide has one-click links to make your own copy in Google Sheets with a free Google account.

Does the streak carry over from one month to the next?

Yes. The longest run is counted across month ends, so a run from late January into February is counted as one.

How do I mark a day?

Choose Y or N from a dropdown for each day of the twelve months. Days a month does not have are grayed out and skipped.

Can I see how much I saved?

Yes. Set what an ordinary day costs you and every no-spend day turns into money, per month and for the year.

What is the difference between the light and dark editions?

Only the look. Both have the same tabs and formulas, and both are included in every download.