College Budget Template: Free Printable for Students

I’d be lying if I said I had all of my finances figured out when I was a college student. I’m actually laughing just thinking about how lost I felt trying to figure out my financial aid and what to do with the little money I actually had.

Looking back, I could have really used a college budget template to help me keep things organized.

I know that a lot of college students don’t really have budgeting in the forefront of their mind, but it’s just one of those important things that everyone needs to get a grasp on. It’s not as easy as getting finance homework help. Without proper preparation and financial understanding, students could find themselves waist-deep in student loan debt by the time they finish their degree.

That’s why I want to offer this free College Budget Template Printable (click to download).

I understand that sometimes you just need a little guidance to make sure you budget everything appropriately. To help keep things clean, I created three separate budgeting sheets for college students: one for the overall budget, one for tracking expenses, and one for keeping track of financial aid.

The College Student Budget Printable Sheet

To make the college budget template work for you, you’ll need to know your various income sources, as well as any expenses that you’ll have. The typical college student budget will vary based on various factors, so keep that in mind! For example, you’ll want to figure out how much financial aid you’ll receive each semester, how much your tuition is, what your dining pass is going to cost, and so on.

For the expenses, I created the following categories:

• Tuition
• Fees
• Housing
• Dining
• Health (to be used for your health insurance, medication, and anything else that fits)
• Phone
• Car/Bus (some schools offer free transportation, so this may not apply to you)
• Fuel (again, if you don’t have a car, you won’t have to worry about this one)
• Insurance
• Other (the catch-all category for all your miscellaneous expenses)

The Expense Tracker

No college budget template is complete without an expense tracker! You can print as many of these as you want and use them for things such as:

• Tracking how much is left on your dining card (possibly in the form of flex bucks)
• What you used any extra financial aid for
• Keeping up with your bank account
• Documenting credit card purchases

The Financial Aid Sources Sheet

Finally, I included a financial aid sources sheet in this college budget template so that students know just how much aid they’ll receive for a semester. There are columns to enter the award name, the amount, the type of aid (i.e. grant, scholarship, loan), and if it needs to be repaid or not.

One of the perks of having a financial aid sources printable is that you’ll always know where your money is coming from and if you need to worry about paying it back in the future. I would recommend printing a new one of these out every semester and then keeping any old copies in a folder of some sort. By doing this, you’ll be able to track how much financial aid you earned over your degree, as well as any student loans that will need to be repaid.

Who Doesn’t Love a Free Printable?

Although this college budget template is geared toward students, it can still be used for people from all walks of life. Take the expense tracker for example –we could all use a little help when it comes to tracking where I money goes!

If you know any students, I hope you’ll share this free budgeting printable with them! Let’s all get financially fit together!

Want more financial resources? Check these out!

• College Financial Aid Advice: Must-Know Tips
• Financial Advice for College Students: A Graduate’s Tips