Household budget receipts to Excel

Less typing, a budget that lasts

Most spreadsheet budgets die in the first month because entering every purchase is a chore. Instead of logging each receipt as you get it, just take a photo, then add the week's photos here in one go. Twenty receipts become rows in a few minutes, and you only need to check the yellow cells.

Files download as budget-receipts_date_time.xlsx with a sheet called Budget. You can use that file as your budget or paste the rows into the one you already keep.

Pasting into your budget file

1. Open the downloaded file and copy the Date, Store and Total columns.
2. Paste them at the bottom of your budget's transactions sheet. Dates and amounts arrive as real dates and numbers, so totals and sorting keep working.
3. Pick a category and payment method for each row. A drop-down list made with Data Validation makes this a single click.

Let the store name pick the category

The same store almost always means the same category. Build a small lookup table once and the Category column can fill itself.

With that table on a sheet named Categories, use =XLOOKUP(C2, Categories!A:A, Categories!B:B, "Other"). In older versions of Excel without XLOOKUP, =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(C2, Categories!A:B, 2, FALSE), "Other") does the same job. Only new stores show up as Other, which is your cue to add a line to the lookup table. Lookups need exact matches, so it helps to tidy store names in the table before you download.

Don't forget spending without a receipt

Subscriptions, online orders and transit top-ups don't come with paper receipts, so photos won't catch them. Once a month, put your card statement next to your budget and add anything missing, either with "Add row" in the table or directly in your budget file. The most common mistake is the opposite one: logging a purchase from its receipt and again from the statement.

Frequently asked questions

Do long grocery receipts work?

Yes, but shooting a long receipt from far away makes the text too small to read well. Fold the item list back so the store name at the top and the total at the bottom fill the frame.

Why use a spreadsheet instead of a budgeting app?

A spreadsheet lets you choose your own categories and calculations, and your records stay with you if you switch apps. The downside is typing, which is exactly what turning receipt photos into rows takes care of.

Can I include receipts from other people in my household?

Yes. Collect their photos through a shared album and add them all at once. Add a Spent by column if you want to see who spent what.