Free budget templates for South Africans

Here’s what you’ll be able to do with these templates:

✅ Plan your monthly budget in South African Rand (ZAR)

✅ Track planned and actual spending

✅ Allocate your savings to the things that matter most to you

✅ Identify areas where you need to limit spending

✅ Get an overview of your income and expense totals

Personal budget templates

Did you know that nearly all of the wealthiest people in the top 1% apply some form of budgeting? 

Don’t drop the ball and let your budget run wild – these free budget templates can help you manage your money, track your spending, and track progress towards debt repayment or savings goals. 

Download the budget template that you prefer below, then check out how to use it to start optimising your monthly budget like a pro.

Here are two free budget template spreadsheets explicitly crafted for South Africans and denoted in South African Rand (ZAR) that you can use to draw up your personal budget.

• Simple Monthly Budget Template
• Personal Budgeting Template

Tip: Check out the ultimate strategy for saving more money in South Africa and use your new budget template to start setting aside extra cash faster and better than ever before.

 Each of these templates has a different application and will suit different personalities.

Both templates were created in Google Sheets, but can be used just as easily in Microsoft Excel.

Here’s a summary that can help you decide at a glance which budget template you’d prefer:

Simple Monthly Budget Template 

• Used to track individual monthly budgets.
• Contains a balance summary.
• It also features a savings allocation widget.
• Has a debt payoff amount that you can use to lower personal loan payments and interest.
• Utilises more than one sheet.

Personal Budget Tracking Template

• Use it to track all of your monthly budgets for the year.
• This is a single-sheet template.
• It makes it easy to review and iterate your budget month-over-month.

Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these monthly budget templates and how you can use them to draw up a budget for yourself or your family.

Simple Monthly Budget Template 

Download here: Personal Budgeting Template

How to use the Simple Monthly Budget Template

1. Download the budget template.
2. Next, we suggest renaming the spreadsheet. Try adding the name of the month to your copy of the spreadsheet.
3. Then you can proceed to plan out your expenses. Under the header “Expenses”, edit the categories and planned totals to estimate your planned monthly budget for each.
4. Repeat the same process for your planned income by editing the highlighted rows under the “Income” header.
5. Next, you can start recording your transactions. Open your banking app or use your statement to view all of your transactions for the month and enter each transaction’s date, amount, description, and category. Remember to add expenses under the expenses column and income under the income column.
6. Let the budget template do its magic and populate the actual amounts on the budget summary for you.
7. Compare your planned and actual spending to see where you need to make adjustments; and
8. Decide where you want to put your savings. See if you can add it to your debt repayment to get out of debt faster 😉

Personal Budget Tracking Template

Download here: Personal Budget Tracking Template

How to use the Personal Budget Tracking Template

1. Download the budget template using the link above.
2. For this template, we recommend renaming it by including the year in the name.
3. Unlike the other budget template that compares planned and actual spending, this template allows you to plan your budget according to changes in your income or expenses month-over-month – so start by entering your income amounts next to the relevant category under the applicable month.
4. Now, you can continue to plan your budget for each of your expenses. Use your banking app or statements to get an idea of how much you usually spend in each category.
5. After entering your income and your budget for your expenses, follow the “pay yourself first” rule, and allocate your savings. Try and make these transfers as soon as possible to ensure that your spending doesn’t affect the original amounts.
6. Repeat the budgeting process as often as necessary to stay on top of your budget.

Final thoughts

Now you know how to draw up a budget like a pro, and you’ve got the budget templates (tailored for South Africans) to do it.

If you’re struggling with debt, we could help reduce how much it costs every month and free up some of your income for other critical expenses. Try our online assessment at My Debt Hero to see if you qualify.