The One-Page Month: A Free Budget Planner

This is the whole planner. One page, twelve months at a time if you want it, and nothing to install. Print it, or press Ctrl + P (Cmd + P on a Mac) and save it as a PDF — it is laid out to fit Letter and A4 without changes.

It is built around one idea: write the floor, not the average. The floor is what the month costs when nothing good happens. Everything above the floor is a decision, and decisions are easier when you can see the line they sit above.

Month _____________

CENTS & CHAPTERS · ONE-PAGE MONTH

Money in

Paycheck 1$

Paycheck 2$

Other$

Total in$

Fixed — the floor

Rent or mortgage$

Utilities$

Phone and internet$

Insurance$

Transportation$

Childcare$

Debt minimums$

Subscriptions$

Total fixed$

Variable

Groceries$

Gas$

Going out$

Household$

Personal$

Gifts$

Medical$

Everything else$

Total variable$

Set aside first

Emergency fund$

Debt, above the minimum$

Sinking fund: ____________$

Total set aside$

The floor: fixed + set aside$ ______________

Left to decide: total in − the floor$ ______________

One line you leave blank on purpose. Every month has something in it that you did not plan for, and a budget with no blank line is a budget that breaks the first time the month is normal.

CENTSANDCHAPTERS.COM

How to use it

Fill the fixed column first. These are the lines you cannot stop paying inside a month. The total is your floor, and it is the number that matters in a bad month — not your average spending, and not your income.

Then set aside, before the variable column. Whatever goes to the emergency fund, to debt above the minimum, and to the sinking funds that stop an annual bill from ruining a good month. If it waits until the end of the month, it does not happen.

The variable column is what is left. Eight categories is usually the right number. Fewer and it tells you nothing; more and you spend the month sorting receipts instead of making decisions.

Leave the blank line blank. It is the most useful line on the page.

If you are not sure which budgeting method to put underneath it, we compared ten of them in budgeting for beginners. The planner works with most of them, and it works best with the two-account method.