Debt Payoff Tracker Spreadsheet | Snowball and Avalanche Plans, Extra Payment Simulator, Payment Log

Snowball or avalanche? Most people pick a debt payoff order on vibes, then pay for that guess in interest for years. This tracker settles it with your real numbers: list your debts once, set what you can pay each month, and the sheet simulates BOTH orders month by month — minimums on every debt, then every spare dollar cascading to the priority debt — and shows you the total interest and the debt-free month each order actually produces. Then it answers the next question too: what does an extra $50, $150, $300 a month actually buy you, in dollars saved and months cut?

Transparency note: this spreadsheet was designed with AI assistance, then hand-built and formula-tested by our shop.

THE 7 TABS

• Start Here + Dashboard — two shaded settings (your monthly payment budget and a sample extra $/month) drive the whole file. The Dashboard shows total debt, original total, paid off so far, paid-off progress %, total minimums, the debt-free countdown, and both plans' interest at a glance

• Debt List — one row per debt: creditor, type, original balance, current balance, APR and minimum payment, with Paid So Far and % Paid Off figured per debt

• Snowball Plan — your debts ordered smallest-balance-first. A real 60-month simulation grid: every month interest accrues, every debt gets its minimum, and the leftover budget cascades to the priority debt (and rolls to the next when a debt dies mid-month). Payoff month per debt, total interest and debt-free date in the summary

• Avalanche Plan — the identical simulation in highest-APR-first order, same debts, same budget

• Comparison — total interest, months to debt-free and the debt-free date for each method side by side, plus exactly what the order alone saves or costs you

• Extra Payment Simulator — the avalanche plan with budget + your extra $/month: new debt-free month, new total interest, interest saved and months sooner, all re-figured the moment you change the extra

• Payment Log — a monthly check-off grid (Nov 2026 – Oct 2027 columns) so every payment you actually make gets ticked off, debt by debt

THE SAMPLE DEBTS

It comes loaded with one fictional household — $38,400 owed across 8 debts: a $650 BNPL plan and a $1,200 medical bill at 0%, three credit cards up to 26.99% APR, a personal loan, an auto loan and a student loan, paying $1,000 a month against $730 of minimums. On those numbers the sheet's own simulation says: snowball costs $6,727.04 in interest and finishes in month 46; avalanche costs $6,389.00 and finishes in month 45 — $338.04 saved by order alone. Add $150 a month in the simulator and interest drops to $5,177.64, debt-free in month 38. Delete the samples and type your own debts — every formula, including the whole simulation grid, stays in place and re-runs on your numbers.

A note on honesty: this is a planning tool, not financial advice. It does the arithmetic exactly as described — interest accrues monthly at APR/12, minimums are paid on every debt, extra money cascades in plan order — and it does not promise any outcome beyond that math.

A FINISHED FILE, DELIVERED INSTANTLY

This listing is a digital item, delivered instantly as a file at checkout. The file is a finished template, ready to use as it is. If a formula or number in the file is wrong, message us and you'll receive a corrected copy free — forever, no time limit.

REQUIREMENTS: a free Google account. Your tracker lives in Google Sheets — nothing to install, and your debt-free date is right there on your phone.

This is a digital product — no physical item will be shipped, and all sales are final (we can't accept returns or cancellations on digital downloads). Your files are available instantly after checkout. But don't worry: if anything isn't working right, message us anytime and we'll fix it for you — no time limit.