Setting up your categories
Categories turn a long list of receipts into a few numbers you can act on. Start with broad ones; the defaults are Housing, Food, Transport, Utilities, Health, Fun, Other. Seven to ten categories are easy to keep apart, while twenty make you stop and think at every receipt. If one area matters to you, such as eating out or a hobby, give it its own category so its total stands on its own line.
Type your own names into the field above, one per line, before you download. The spreadsheet then lists them on the Summary sheet and repeats them next to the expense list as a reminder, and the PDF prints them in the boxes at the bottom of every month page. You can still rename or add categories in the spreadsheet later.
Logging an expense
Each expense gets one row on the Expenses sheet. The spreadsheet has 400 empty rows. If you need more, insert new rows above the last row of the list, so the summary formulas include them.
| Column | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Date | The day you paid, typed as a date, for example 2027-03-14 |
| Description | The shop or what you bought, in words you will recognize later |
| Category | One of your category names, spelled as on the Summary sheet |
| Payment method | How you paid: cash, debit card, credit card, bank transfer or another method you add |
| Amount | What you paid, as a plain number without the currency sign |
| Notes | Anything that helps later: a refund to watch for, who you shared the cost with, a warranty |
The habit that makes a tracker work is writing things down soon. A few minutes at the end of the day, with your receipts and banking app open, is easier than sorting a month of card statements at once.
Reading the summary
The Summary sheet adds up every expense by category and month, with a Year column on the right and a Total row at the bottom. Change the year at the top and the sheet reads the same list for another year, so one file can hold January of next year too.
The row called Not in a category catches anything the categories miss: an empty Category cell or a typo such as "Fod". It keeps the Total row honest, and when it shows an amount you know there is a row to fix. Below the categories, a second table adds up the year by payment method, which shows at a glance how much went on cards and how much in cash.
The printable version
The PDF gives you a month page with lines for your expenses and a box for each category at the bottom. As the month ends, add up each category and write the sums into the boxes, plus the month total. Choose 12 months to get one page per month with the month already printed, and a thirteenth page that collects the category totals of every month and the whole year on one sheet.
Print a single blank month if you only want to try it out, or keep one page in your wallet or on the fridge and copy it into the spreadsheet once a week.
Related tools and templates
Once you know where your money goes, the budget planner helps you set a target for each area, and the budget spreadsheet puts that plan next to your income. Recurring charges show up best in the subscription cost tracker, with their monthly and yearly cost. The bill tracker keeps due dates in view. If you find room in your spending, the savings goal calculator shows how quickly it adds up toward a goal.
Frequently asked questions
Is the expense tracker free?
Yes. Download it as often as you want, for your household, a trip or a small side project. No account, no email address, no watermark. A single small line with our web address sits at the bottom of each sheet and page.
Can I change the categories later?
Yes. In the spreadsheet, type a new name over a category in column A of the Summary sheet, then use that name in the Category column of the Expenses sheet. There are empty rows for more categories. On this page you can set up to 10 of your own before you download, so the PDF prints them too.
What does Not in a category mean?
It is the part of a month that no category picked up: expenses with an empty Category cell, or with a name that is spelled differently from the list on the Summary sheet. If the row shows an amount, look for the expense with the odd category and fix it; the row drops back to zero.
Why does an expense not show up in the summary?
The summary counts an expense in the month of its date and in the year typed on the Summary sheet. If the date is missing, or was typed in a way your spreadsheet stores as text, the expense still counts in Total spent on the Expenses sheet but not in any month. Retype the date, for example as 2027-01-15, and it moves into place.
Which currencies can I use?
Any of the 20 currencies in the list. The spreadsheet formats every amount in the one you pick, and the PDF names it under the title. To switch later, download the file again, or change the number format of the amount cells in your spreadsheet program.
Why are some characters missing from my categories in the PDF?
The PDF uses a basic font that covers English and most Western European letters, but no emoji and no other scripts such as Greek, Cyrillic or Chinese. Those characters are left out, a few rare accented letters print without the accent, and a note under the field tells you when that happens. The spreadsheet keeps your names exactly as typed.