Zero-Based Budget Spreadsheet — UK Monthly Payday

Most zero-based budget templates are built for American fortnightly paychecks. This one is built around a real UK monthly payday: enter one date and the whole year of budget periods builds itself, running payday-to-payday rather than calendar month to calendar month. Then you assign every pound of your pay until 'Left to assign' reads £0 — zero-based budgeting done properly.

The workbook includes:

• A live counter showing whether every pound is assigned, still needs assigning, or is over-assigned
• True category rollover — each category's 'Left' balance carries into the next period, growing on an underspend and carrying a shortfall forward on an overspend
• UK categories built in, not bolted on — council tax, TV Licence, road tax, MOT, plus sinking funds, with Universal Credit as a first-class income line
• An Annual Bills Planner turning yearly costs into a monthly set-aside
• A Dashboard showing the whole year at a glance with a built-in reconciliation

Every formula was checked against a hand-worked example — 24 transactions across four payday periods, including a refund, month-boundary dates and an overspend that carries forward — then independently re-checked cell by cell: 90 checks, 90 passed.

This is a self-directed budgeting tool, not financial advice. It works identically in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.