If you want to track your spending, you have three common options: pen and paper, budget spreadsheets like Excel or Google Sheets, or a budgeting app that does everything for you. Everybody has their own preference and maybe you’ve dabbled in all three options to find which budgeting option works best. If you prefer to use a digital budget template, you’ll probably like Tiller Money which provides premium budget templates that link to your financial accounts and displays the information in Google Sheets.
What is Tiller Money?
Tiller bills itself as “the only service that automatically consolidates your daily financial transactions into Google Sheets.”
Here’s the #1 problem for most free budget spreadsheets and budgeting by with pen and paper, you have to enter all the information yourself.
You might be diligent in entering and categorizing your transactions for the first week, but then you wait until the end of the month after you’ve paid your bills to see if you spent less than you made.
Because Tiller links directly to your bank accounts and credit card accounts, you get to enjoy the convenience of budgeting apps while unleashing the potential of spreadsheets.
Related: Have 5 Minutes? Create a Free Budget Template in Excel
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How Much Does Tiller Money Cost?
Your first 30 days of Tiller are free. If you still like using Tiller, the service costs $59 a year or $4.92 each month. And students to get one year of Tiller free!
If you’re still not happy with Tiller 60 days after your trial end date, you can cancel your account and get a full refund! Look at it this way, you get 90 days to try Tiller to see if it helps you improve your financial situation.
Related: Summer Travel Credit Card Sign-Up Bonuses – How to Calculate the Savings for Your Travel Budget?
Is Tiller Worth the Cost?
So the question boils down to if Tiller is better than your current Excel budget spreadsheet?
Free budget templates do a good of tracking your spending and helping you project how much extra money you will have at the end of the year through your smart financial habits. But, are you reaching all your financial goals or is the free spreadsheet holding you back? And, how much time does it take to manually enter all your banking information into the spreadsheet each month while Tiller can do it effortlessly?
Surely you can scrounge $5 a month to track your spending with Tiller; all it takes is skipping the Starbucks drive-thru once a month and you’re even.
To help you make an informed decision, it’s time to see all the different spreadsheet options Tiller offers.
Budget Templates Offered by Tiller
Tiller offers the following budget templates for Google Sheets:
- Debt Snowball
- Household Budget
- Net Worth Tracker
- Weekly Expense Tracker
- Build-Your-Own
In a way, you can say there’s basically a spreadsheet for every budgeting style!
Debt Snowball Spreadsheet
If you’ve read anything by personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, you’ve most likely heard of the Debt Snowball. You will benefit most from this spreadsheet if you have multiple loans to repay and you want to become debt-free by a particular deadline. This template can double as a loan repayment calculator and tracking your spending and debt payoff progress in a single place.
Image Credit: Tiller
In the budget template, you can schedule your debt freedom date–aka when you’ll do your debt-free scream–and track your progress until that sweet day arrives.
Household Budget Spreadsheet
The Household Budget spreadsheet is probably the closest to the Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet you’ve been using. You can track your spending and saving goals and quickly see if you overspent for the month. Each tab has a different function as you can view a quick summary of your budget or see the itemized transactions pulled from your financial accounts.
Image Credit: Tiller
Net Worth Tracker
Maybe you’re debt free or you don’t like to budget. This spreadsheet is most similar to the Personal Capital budgeting app. You’re going to use the Net Worth Tracker to calculate the size of your nest egg so you can retire on-time (maybe early!) and able to make important financial decisions after looking at how much money is in your bank account. You don’t necessarily get hung up on your monthly payments, but how much you pay period; paying $20,000 for a car vs. $350 a month for the foreseeable future.
Image Credit: Tiller
Weekly Expense Tracker
If you want to track your expenses on a weekly basis, use this spreadsheet. You might prefer this option if you take 5-10 minutes once a week to make sure there are no surprise expenses. It’s also a little more detailed than the monthly tracker, but the information is presented in a way that’s more palatable and less intimidating. Instead of thinking you had a “bad month,” you can quickly pinpoint spending abnormalities to a specific week like when you need car repairs done or had to make a large down payment for your insurance, etc.
Credit: Tiller
Build Your Own
The Build-Your-Own Budget Spreadsheet is a budget pureplay and the most similar to your current, customized Excel budget template. You can create your own pivot tables, charts, and queries. Plus, you can link your bank accounts which means you can save a ton of time each month once you build the spreadsheet to your liking!
Pros of Tiller Money
- Budget templates for almost every budget style
- Get the power of budget templates with direct link to financial accounts
- Very reasonably priced
- Can save you lots of time vs. manually entering your income and expenses
- Accessible with any internet-capable device
Cons of Tiller Money
- You might not like budgeting by spreadsheet
- Some financial budgeting apps double as a robo-advisor
Summary
If you like to have a budget template with Excel or Google Sheets and use a standard template, Tiller can be well worth the $5 a month. You get the same budget template you use now and Tiller inputs your spending figures for you. Plus, you still have the option to make your own spreadsheet if the premade templates don’t meet your expectations.
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