HOW TO USE: 2025 Ultimate Budget & Goal Tracker 💸

[@Danielle_Kel]

This video is such an amazing tool! Helped me understand how to use your budget tracker to fit my needs and I love it even more! You should be really proud of what you’ve created

[@GabbyPeterson17]

So glad to hear it was helpful!! That is so kind thank you so much. I appreciate your support!!

[@CourtneySherven]

Gabby, thank you so much for this video and this tracker! I’ve been on the hunt for a tracker that has all of this so I’m incredibly impressed and excited to use this tracker!!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@CourtneySherven thank you Courtney! I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoy 💕

[@KR-tr9fl]

I just purchased the budget and goal tracker last night and I can already see that it will be so helpful! (I'm actually excited to see how the year goes!) Thank you for making this video - there were a few things that I was not getting and having this video as a reference is so valuable.

[@GabbyPeterson17]

So glad to hear this video was helpful!! Let me know if there are any questions while going through!

[@GierizEverPueblo]

omg I should've known this earlier! I downloaded the 2024 tracker and had some questions and all of those were answered by this updated one! love this!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

Glad you found the video!! Unfortunate it was too late! Let me know if there are any questions, I can assist you directly in the etsy app!

[@sharimissmanmiller1185]

This was SO SO HELPFUL!! I I am beginner to intermediate user and it was so helpful to watch this. Thank you so so much!! Love your budgeting and money review videos the best!!! ❤

[@GabbyPeterson17]

So glad it was helpful! Thank you for your support, it means alot! 💕

[@sharimissmanmiller1185]

Yay so excited!!! I can’t wait to watch this after work ❤

[@John.McConnell]

Found your channel recently and have been loving your videos! I'm a huge budget/finance and spreadsheet nerd, so this was fun to watch!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@John.McConnell welcome!! So glad you’re enjoying hahah I’m a budget nerd too 🤓

[@J.D.Chopin]

Impeccable timing! Just started filling the tracker last night so i'll follow along to finish the set up! I appreciate your tracker for the spreadsheet illiterate such as myself 😂

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@J.D.Chopin great to hear! Hope this video is helpful 😊

[@nicoleconstante9172]

This made me so excited and gamified my finances. Thank you Gabby!!!!!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@nicoleconstante9172 so glad!! That was my goal 💕

[@jessssalemme]

sorry if this is a dumb question 😅 but is there a way to change the color scheme? Just curious to know if I can make it my favorite colors or if I would have to do it manually? Thanks!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

No such thing!! You can change the color scheme with the theme in google sheets, however there are a few colors used throughout that aren't from the theme since there are only a limited number in a theme. You can change most of them very easily, but there will be some manual effort still after to fully change them.

[@sublime_star]

just what I needed! Thank you Gabby!

[@dh1743]

Question - under debt set up - Where I have my mortgage, it says monthly payment. my payments are weekly. Any way to change that as some months i pay 5 times

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@dh1743 yes I would recommend setting up 5 mortgage payments in this case one for each potential one, then the monthly amount will be your weekly amount! I’d do like Mortgage 1, Mortgage 2 etc.

[@Kimmy2hope]

Question: since the monthly budget it set up on the set-up page, do we go back to this page to change our budget every month? If we do change our budget every month, would it affect the rollover number for previous months? Would changing budget on the set-up page mess with any other numbers each month?

[@GabbyPeterson17]

You can! I like to set values I will typically try to stick to there, and then I just overwrite the formulas in the monthly tabs to edit the budget as needed! The budget setup will change everywhere the formulas are used. So if you want to keep the data of your budget for year end review, I would edit the budget values in the monthly tab itself.

[@LukeOverbeek]

Question - is there a way to track refunds in such a way that it then deducts previous spending from a spending category? For instance, if i have a shopping expense category and receive a refund for a previous purchase, can have that amount deducted from my previous spend?

[@GabbyPeterson17]

Hi! Unfortunately no, it would be complex to formula as it would have to recognize the work refund or return. What you can do is remove the inital expense and refund to make it as though it never happened if you dont want to throw off your budget values.

[@LukeOverbeek]

@GabbyPeterson17 I think I may have actually found a workaround for this! If you enter your transaction as normal, but in the amount field you use a negative number, it appears to work as intended. I just label as a refund in the description field.

[@kertmelinda]

This is my exact problem with a lot of budget trackers, that it's pretty complicated to track refunded expenses, or when you pay for the two of you and your friend pays you back etc.

[@haute_cheeto]

Hi! Love the tracker so far. I'm running into problems with getting my account balances to be accurate in the spreadsheet monthly view. It may be because I started budgeting in the middle of January, so the values I added for my starting balances (both CC and cash accounts) are throwing it off? Do you have any suggestions? Thank you! xx

[@GabbyPeterson17]

Hi!! Thanks for your purchase! This could definitely be throwing it off, what you can do is figure out the difference between what the tracker is showing and your account balance and either add or deduct that to the starting balance to make sure the value is correct in your tracker, before doing this be sure to double check your transactions are correct and up to date. The Money In and Money Out drop downs govern the balances so double check those. Also if you have pending transactions on credit cards those don't always get added on to the balance until they are confirmed.

[@haute_cheeto]

One more question: How would you recommend tracking refunds without inflating my true income? For example, I have to pay for work expenses up front (work meals, transportation, parking, etc.) and then I'm later reimbursed after I file my expense reports. And then I'm also wondering what would be the best way to track normal refunds, like the partial reimbursements I receive from my pet insurance for vet bills or when I make a return at the store. Thank you sm!

[@haute_cheeto]

@@GabbyPeterson17 Thank you so much! I'll give this a try~

[@AlexaSchirmer]

Hi thank you for this video! What would you recommend doing if you pay some of your bills with credit cards and some with your checking. Ive listed them in my transaction tracker and allocated the bank accounts/credit accordingly. However I am struggling with the budget overview, I understand that the credit expenses doesn’t get subtracted from the total. And that the bills is subtracted. However since im using credit cards also for some bills won’t that throw off the numbers and add some bills twice? Not sure if this makes sense. I’m just a bit confused and not sure where to go from here. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Loving the template otherwise.

[@cozmiiika]

This is my exact issue that I've been flagging. Thank you for elaborating on your question. Hope we can get support from

[@AlexaSchirmer]

@@cozmiiika Yes, Thank you for your comment. Glad to know it isn’t just me. I was unsure if I was just missing something. Hopefully there is a solution!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@AlexaSchirmer hi! Yeah I feel you, I pay some bills with credit and some with cash so I have this same thing. For budgeting purposes I don’t mind, it will say I have less than I do so I am happy to have the extra money. Plus with the account balances at the top I know where I stand. However if you want an accurate budget what you could do here is move some bills that are always on credit to the expenses section, so they aren’t double charged. I personally don’t bother and leave as is, total it’s a small percentage of my overalls bills on credit and I’m happy to have the extra money as a buffer. Or you could subtract off the bills on credit from the bills line in the budget overview where the totals are happening. Few ways around this.

[@AlexaSchirmer]

@ Thank you ! Yes I was wondering because I can’t pay rent with my credit card 😂 . Loving the template btw I’ve downloaded so many over the years and this one feels revolutionary for my finances . 🫶🏻

[@cozmiiika]

3:03 - do you then suggest that folks who use credit and debit interchangeably (not strict on one or the other) use the debit tracker? I think I'm misunderstanding still. Thanks!

[@GabbyPeterson17]

It really depends, there are pros and cons to both if you are split down the middle. Credit version: budgeting assumptions are you spend on credit and won't deduct expenses, so if you have a bunch of regular cash spending I would try to account for that in the debit expenses line of the budget overview. Example if you spend around $500 a month on debit, then add $500 to the debit expenses line. Otherwise when you actually log expenses you can charge to either cash accounts or credit accounts. Debit version: Budgeting assumptions are all expenses are paid on debit and then are paying down a credit balance, so if $500 of your expenses are on credit, you could be double charging yourself once when you pay on credit and again when you pay down your credit balance. To avoid this you'd have to track how much you spend on credit, remove that from the expenses table and log in the credit expenses line of the budget overview table. I personally recommend the credit version, I have a few expenses on debit or cash every month and it all works out.

[@daniellebouchard104]

@@GabbyPeterson17 This is kind of confusing since editing the budget overview prompts the "Heads Up! You’re trying to edit part of this sheet that shouldn’t be changed accidentally." error. I'm also having this issue with the resulting "left to budget" and "left to spend" are in the negatives/inaccurate.

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@daniellebouchard104 You can select okay when that pop-up comes up, and check the don't remind me for 5 minutes option. That is just to prevent people accidentally editing the formulas. But you can overwrite any of them at any time. Are you using the debit version of the tracker? Your left to budget/ spend is likely double counting some things. The debit version assumes all expenses in the expense table are on debit, and therefore if you are using credit for a good chunk of these expenses then you are double charging yourself. To resolve this for the budget column in budget overview table, click into the formula in the Debit Expenses line (pop up will come up) and subtract your typical credit spend, then add credit spend value in credit spend line. The totals will automatically be correct after this. Because you are using both equally it is an additional step.

[@michikoxo]

Hi Gabby!! I really want to use your tracker (even though i think i missed the big sale) but i track my spending and start my finance month from when I get paid which is the 28th of every month. Can i adjust anything in the sheet to make it fit my schedule?

[@GabbyPeterson17]

Yes of course!! I do something similar and budget between the 27th to 27th every month! It's not a problem.

[@michikoxo]

@ do i have to change anything or just start inputting the dates like this in each month’s sheet?

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@michikoxo You dont need to change anything! I just add transactions between the two dates. I still log my rent at the end of that month even tho I pay after the 27th, hope that makes sense

[@StephanieStoven]

Should my monthly Home Mortgage payment go under Debts or Bills? It's not really tracking it as a monthly expense and using it as Debt.

[@GabbyPeterson17]

I answer this in the FAQ!! 25:28 :)

[@StephanieStoven]

@@GabbyPeterson17 Thank you so much!

[@RedheadSorceress]

34:29 I can’t find the values in the description box. I might just be missing them, but if anyone knows please let me know. 🤗

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@RedheadSorceress oh you are correct I am missing them! Let me add

[@RedheadSorceress]

@@GabbyPeterson17thank you. 🤩

[@natalieshelswell3247]

how does this spreadsheet compare to the previous one you made?

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@natalieshelswell3247 very similar! The savings account balances are new, along with more accounts with balances. New visuals, the net worth tracker is new, and the goal tabs are reformatted. But otherwise very similar, not necessary to get the new one if you don’t need these features.

[@debchaffin]

My only question is, I updated my income but I don’t know why on the monthly view oh the top tab it shows a total amount that’s not right. I’ve checked the input in the tracker but I can’t find what is wrong

[@GabbyPeterson17]

Hi! I can hopefully help, is this the value at the very top of the monthly tab? That value reflects actual logged income in that month. Does that line up with the amount in the income table? You can send me a message on etsy and we can sort out what the problem is.

[@Channyreads]

Hi lovely, when I enter my budget amount for expenses in Jan tab, it doesn’t effect the “left to budget” so I found I have over budgeted and can’t get it to work 😢

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@Channyreads hi! Are you using the credit version? If so, I explain in the video but expenses for this month are not deducted from income ONLY credit card payments. So after budgeting add how much you expect to spend to the credit card budget so you can check if it all balances out (if you pay your cards in the same month). If you pay at the due date, then you’ll need to budget credit card pay to be what you spent last month. Hope that makes sense

[@Channyreads]

@ oh ok amazing thank you x

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@Channyreads Not a problem, let me know if that doesn't seem to fix it.

[@Channyreads]

@@GabbyPeterson17is there also a way to have more lines for bills in the set up tab? Xx

[@GabbyPeterson17]

@@Channyreads hi! Unfortunately no, there isn’t an easy way to add more. I try to consolidate some of the bills together, so maybe subscriptions instead of each individual one.

[@codycabral8267]

Hi Gabby

[@AaronVillatoroLuna]

Hello gabby.