Student Budget Planner Spreadsheet

About this template

This student budget runs the way a student year does: in terms, not months. It is for college and university students who want to know which term will come up short before it does, and what each teaching week really costs.

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 Semester Plan

Three terms, each with its real number of teaching weeks, so tuition, fees, books, housing and living costs land where they actually fall, and cost per week is a figure rather than a guess. The plan sets grant or loan, family money and what your work pays against each term, and shows which term comes up short.

• Three terms with real week counts and cost per week
• Funding by term: grant or loan, family, and work
• Money in against money out for each term's own months

25 connected tabs

Around the Semester Plan sits a full budget, with transactions, student income lines, recurring bills, a bill calendar, accounts, twelve monthly tabs, an annual summary, expense breakdown, savings goals and a no-spend challenge. 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

So the same file is a semester planner, a monthly budget and an everyday expense tracker, and the college budget and the month-to-month spending never disagree. For student finance that arrives in lumps, seeing it term by term is the point.

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.

Why plan by term instead of by month?

Because tuition, grants and housing often land per term. The Semester Plan uses each term's real teaching weeks so cost per week and any shortfall show up per term.

Can I include money from family and a job?

Yes. Funding is split into grant or loan, family, and work for each term.

Can I rename the categories?

Yes. There are 40 categories and all of them can be renamed, with drop-downs that 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.