Renovation Budget Tracker Spreadsheet — Estimate vs Actual vs Paid, Variance & Contingency Dashboard (Excel + Google Sheets)

Renovations don't blow the budget in one big moment — they leak, one "small upgrade" at a time. This tracker catches the leaks while they're still small. Log every line item by room and category with its estimate. As quotes turn into bills, enter Actual; as you pay, enter Paid. The sheet calculates what's still owed, the variance on every line, the % of estimate used, a status flag (Not started / In progress / Paid in full / Over), and a running actual total that shows you the exact line where the project started drifting. The dashboard keeps the only numbers that matter in one place: total budget including your contingency %, total actual, total paid, still owed, remaining budget, % used, and how much of your contingency is already gone.

What's included: Renovation-Budget-Tracker.xlsx (Excel; imports cleanly into Google Sheets); Budget Tracker sheet — room/project line items, EXAMPLE kitchen + bathroom project pre-filled, blank formula-ready rows included; Dashboard — remaining budget, contingency tracking, count of lines running over estimate. No macros. Yellow cells are inputs; everything else is a live formula.

Who it's for: homeowners mid-renovation (or about to start one) who want to approve change orders with their eyes open.

This workbook is for general education and personal organization only. It is not financial, tax, legal, or investment advice.