Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. There’s nothing to hate about snow-covered streets, fresh hop juice, and the sound of Christmas carols. However, the month of December also brings hefty bills, year-end invoices, and considerable expenses during the holiday season.
To have a joyful and stress-free Christmas this year, you need to start planning today using budget spreadsheets. We have selected the six best free Christmas budget templates for Google Sheets for you. Let’s dive in together.
1. Free Downloadable Christmas Budget Template
This comprehensive Christmas gift list template is all you need to plan, budget, and track your Christmas gifts this year. It includes individual tables with multiple rows for each person you will be giving a gift to. It also includes purchase information, tracking/delivery dates, shipping dates, and gift receipts. Simply enter the estimated budget in the first row of each table, then list each gift and its actual price. The remaining budget in the last row of the table takes care of itself.
2. Christmas Gift Budget Template
This Christmas budget template offers a simple and customizable table that you can adapt to your unique gift needs. The key to smart Christmas budget planning is accounting for last-minute and unexpected expenses. Luckily, the last rows of this handy template cover that. The “Remaining” column automatically fills in with the difference between the planned budget and the actual expenses.
3. Christmas Shopping Budget Template
Add brightness and style to your Christmas shopping spree with this colorful and festive template from Chatbooks. The holiday shopping tracker includes three columns for gift ideas, purchase links, and estimated costs. Once you have customized the template to your needs, you can add the appropriate status for each person you are giving a gift to (ordered, shipped, received) and let this Google spreadsheet track your Christmas gifts for you.
4. Christmas Gift Tracker Budget Template
If you want a dedicated gift budget, this template is for you. It is designed exclusively for tracking gifts and includes special columns for the people you are giving gifts to, the brands and gifts, followed by the budgeted amount and actual expenses. Once you have completed your purchases, the total budget is automatically calculated at the end, allowing you to easily track your expenses.
5. Christmas Gift Budget List Template Per Person
If the Christmas holiday season is your highlight, this template from Mums Make List might be the coach that helps you stay in control of your spending. You fill in your estimated budget in the first row. Then, the columns are dedicated to the person you are giving the gift to, the gift itself, the purchase link, the expected cost per item, the actual cost, and finally, the balance. The template ensures that no information goes unnoticed, even the often overlooked delivery and receipt statuses for each gift.
6. Christmas Party Budget Template
This concise template from Spreadsheet Daddy is simple to use and visually appealing. It breaks down your expenses into three subtitles: gifts, meals, and miscellaneous fees. You just need to allocate a budget for each item, add the actual cost, and the template will automatically record the difference.
If you need another template, you can also use our step-by-step process to create your own Christmas budget template.
How to Create a Christmas Budget Template
This step-by-step guide will show you how to create your own original template in just a few minutes. So, let’s get started!
Step 1. Open a new Google Sheets document and create four columns: Expense, Budgeted, Actual, and Difference.
Step 2. Customize the font style, size, color, and other settings according to your preferences.
Step 3. If you want to merge certain cells, click on the “Merge cells” icon and select “Merge all”.
Step 4. Create clear subtitles by filling cells with colors, as shown in the image below.
Step 5. Add borders to cells by selecting the section, clicking on the “Border” icon, and choosing a border style.
Step 6. The final step is to automate the calculation using Google Sheets formulas. Simply click on the “Difference” column and enter the formula to calculate the values.
In this template, we use “=C9-B9” to get the final difference between the planned budget and the actual expenses.
That’s it! You have just created your own Christmas budget template.
Remember, smart budgeting is the key to a joyful and stress-free Christmas. As Christmas is the season of joy, it is important to have an appropriate budget before December begins. Luckily, you can start using these versatile and customizable Christmas budget spreadsheets and take control of your expenses in 2023.
For more information and resources on managing your budget and planning your expenses, visit Crawlan.com.
