My NEEDS / WANTS / KEEP system, rebuilt for life in Germany & the EU: plan your months in euros, track spending in one line a day, and watch your savings rate — not your guilt — grow.
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Four sheets. No macros, no fluff — opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets.
Plan all 12 months across INCOME, NEEDS, WANTS and KEEP — with EU-ready categories like Rent & Nebenkosten, health insurance, broadcast fee and the Deutschlandticket. A "left to allocate" row shows when every euro has a job.
One line per expense: date, type (dropdown), category, amount. That's the whole habit — everything else calculates itself.
Plan vs. actual per month, your savings rate, your year against the 50/30/20 rule, and how many months your emergency fund covers.
Euro formatting, German cost realities, and a KEEP section that treats ETF savings plans and pension contributions as bills you pay yourself first — the accountant's way.
13+ years in finance across Germany, New Zealand and the Gulf — Big 4 audit, bank risk, finance director roles. I've budgeted my life in three currencies and three cost-of-living realities, and this NEEDS/WANTS/KEEP file is the one system that survived all of them. It's what I actually use every month, rebuilt so it works for you too. Questions? I answer every email personally.