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Build a Google Sheets budget template with ChatGPT (it overspent the income)
PartialEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked
ChatGPT built Jeffrey Trull a $5,000-a-month budget template, but it only partly worked: the budget overspent the income.
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Can you create a Google Sheets budget template for someone making $5,000/month with a goal to save $500/month? Please suggest some common categories of spending for me to include.
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Optional stronger version
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Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish. Goal: Build a monthly budget spreadsheet that fits my real income and savings goal, with formulas that work in Google Sheets. Questions to ask me first: - What's your monthly take-home pay? - How much do you want to save each month? - Which bills and spending categories do you already know? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - Monthly take-home pay: [AMOUNT] - Savings goal: [AMOUNT] - Fixed bills: [LIST WITH AMOUNTS] - Other spending categories: [CATEGORIES] - Spreadsheet app: [GOOGLE SHEETS / EXCEL] Rules: - Total spending plus savings must not be more than my income. - Use formulas for totals and percentages, not typed numbers. - Mark any amount you estimated. - Give me an Excel (XLSX) file if formulas may not paste cleanly. Checkpoint: Show me the category list with amounts and the total and wait for my OK before building the file. If you get stuck: If a formula won't work in my app, tell me and give me the formula to paste myself. Verify before you finish: Add up every category yourself and confirm the total equals my income minus savings. Output: A downloadable budget file with categories, formulas, each category's share of income and a summary. Done when: The budget balances to my real income and my savings goal is built in.
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Your prompt
Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish. Goal: Build a monthly budget spreadsheet that fits my real income and savings goal, with formulas that work in Google Sheets. Questions to ask me first: - What's your monthly take-home pay? - How much do you want to save each month? - Which bills and spending categories do you already know? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - Monthly take-home pay: [AMOUNT] - Savings goal: [AMOUNT] - Fixed bills: [LIST WITH AMOUNTS] - Other spending categories: [CATEGORIES] - Spreadsheet app: [GOOGLE SHEETS / EXCEL] Rules: - Total spending plus savings must not be more than my income. - Use formulas for totals and percentages, not typed numbers. - Mark any amount you estimated. - Give me an Excel (XLSX) file if formulas may not paste cleanly. Checkpoint: Show me the category list with amounts and the total and wait for my OK before building the file. If you get stuck: If a formula won't work in my app, tell me and give me the formula to paste myself. Verify before you finish: Add up every category yourself and confirm the total equals my income minus savings. Output: A downloadable budget file with categories, formulas, each category's share of income and a summary. Done when: The budget balances to my real income and my savings goal is built in.
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AI tool
Outcome
Jeffrey Trull, who writes the Money Meets AI newsletter, asked ChatGPT for a Google Sheets budget template for a $5,000 monthly income with a $500 monthly savings goal. ChatGPT laid it out like Ramit Sethi's Conscious Spending Plan, with fixed costs, investments, savings and guilt-free spending, and Trull asked for a working Excel version to upload to Google Sheets. The final template had editable categories, built-in totals, each category's share of income and optional summary tables. Trull liked how quickly the categories could be changed but says it took more back-and-forth than hoped: ChatGPT didn't always understand the request, formulas didn't carry over well (downloading an Excel file worked better than CSV), and its budget spent more than the $5,000 income.
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Known limitations
PartialThe source says it only partly worked, or had a significant problem a person had to deal with.
What went wrong: It took extra back-and-forth, formulas didn't import cleanly, and the budget spent more than the $5,000 income.
Source
- Posted
- by Jeffrey Trull (Money Meets AI)
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
https://moneymeetsai.com/p/i-asked-ai-to-build-me-a-budget-here-s-what-happened
Context: Original prompt: quoted in the newsletter. The issue is sponsored and also reviews budgeting apps.
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