Single Income Household Budget Spreadsheet

About this template

This single income budget shows how far one salary reaches when it is holding up a whole household. It is a family budget for one-earner homes, including stay at home parent households, that want the risk in numbers.

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).

A cover ratio for every month

Income divided by essentials, worked out each month and color-coded, so you can see at a glance which months the one wage covers comfortably and which it does not. In the demo it never drops below 1.49x, and the tab says so.

If the income stopped

The question that keeps one income budget households awake: if the pay stopped on Friday, how long would everything else keep running? In the demo it is 5.4 months as things stand, 6.4 if optional spending goes, and 8.6 if savings pause too. Investments are counted at half, because selling in a hurry costs money.

• One Income: monthly cover ratio against essentials, color-coded
• What you could reach if the income stopped, and how fast
• Cutting back buys time: three scenarios, months of runway each

28 connected tabs

Underneath sits a complete household 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 answers the emergency fund question directly: how many months your savings and accounts would carry the household on one income or none.

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

Does it work in Excel or Google Sheets?

Both. 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.

What is the cover ratio?

Your income divided by your essential spending for each month. Above 1 means the one income covers the essentials that month.

How does it work out months of runway?

It adds up what you could reach if the income stopped, counting investments at half, and divides by your spending under three scenarios.

Can I rename the categories?

Yes. All 40 categories are renameable, and drop-downs grow as you add accounts and categories.

Does it connect to my bank?

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