Christmas Budget Spreadsheet in Excel From Scratch: Gift Tracker, Countdown and Weekly Limit

Christmas gets expensive one little purchase at a time. Build a Christmas budget in Excel from a blank sheet: it tracks every gift, flags anything that goes over, counts down the days to Christmas, and tells you exactly how much you can spend each week. Every step works in Google Sheets too. What you will learn: ✅ Set one total budget first (from money you actually have) ✅ A gift list with budget, spent and what's left for every person ✅ SUM totals for planned, spent and left ✅ A status dropdown (Idea, Ordered, Wrapped) with Data Validation ✅ Conditional formatting with a formula, so any overspent gift turns red ✅ Other holiday costs: food, decorations, travel, cards, wrapping and stocking stuffers ✅ Planned vs budget, and what to do when your plan is over ✅ Money left and percent spent with IFERROR ✅ A countdown to Christmas with DATE and TODAY ✅ Gifts still to buy with COUNTIF, and a weekly spending limit with ROUNDUP Chapters: 0:00 Intro: what we are building 0:25 Start with one number 0:52 The gift list 1:30 What you actually spent 1:55 What's left on each gift (and SUM totals) 2:35 A status dropdown with Data Validation 3:15 Make overspending turn red (conditional formatting formula) 3:54 Everything that isn't a gift 4:37 The big picture: planned vs budget 5:19 How much is left (IFERROR percent) 5:55 Countdown to Christmas with DATE and TODAY 6:31 Weekly spending limit with COUNTIF and ROUNDUP 7:17 Three habits that keep Christmas paid for 7:47 Recap Example used in the video: a $1,200 budget, 8 gifts and 6 other holiday costs. The first plan came in $100 over budget, so travel was cut to fix it. Recorded on October 28, 2026, which is 58 days before Christmas. Rather skip the setup? The Sheetified Christmas Command Center has all of this built in, plus shipping and wrapping status, a stocking stuffer tracker, food, travel and decor budgets, and a holiday calendar. 🛒 sheetified.etsy.com Subscribe for more Excel made simple. Get your sheet together. 📊