The Travel-Fund Tracker
One spreadsheet that turns one income into your next trip: your money plan, your sinking funds, and a 52-week savings challenge — with a progress bar that fills as your fund does. Free, in your inbox in about a minute.
Educational tool, not financial advice. The Travel-Fund Tracker is a free educational spreadsheet: it organizes your own numbers and does the arithmetic, nothing more. It does not know your full financial picture, and nothing in it is personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Big money decisions — debt payoff order, retirement accounts, investing — deserve a licensed, preferably fee-only professional. Full disclaimer here.
5 tabs, zero fluff
One-income money plan
The 3-line plan — what comes in, what must go out, what’s left — with categories that match real life, kids and irregular bills included.
Travel fund + progress bar
Enter your goal from the calculator, log each transfer, watch the bar fill. This tab is the reason the plan sticks.
52-week challenge
The classic challenge, adjustable to your number — check off weeks, see the running total, never wonder where you are.
Sinking funds
Car repairs, holidays, kid expenses — the predictable surprises get their own small funds so they stop raiding the travel fund.
Trip cost estimator
Flights, stays, food, and fun by destination — so the goal you set in Tab 2 is a real number, not a hopeful one.
Google Sheets & Excel
Open it in either, on any device. No macros, no plugins, nothing to install — a plain, fast spreadsheet.
Get the free Travel-Fund Tracker
Drop your email and it’s yours — plus one short letter a week with the money plan or travel guide I’d send a friend. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Your email is used for the tracker and the newsletter — nothing else. Privacy policy.
Built for exactly one situation
This tracker assumes one income, real bills, and a trip you keep postponing. It was built for the reader rebuilding after divorce who wants one thing that’s just hers, the mom whose paycheck covers everything and needs the fund to be automatic, and the 50-something planning her first women-only tour. If a spreadsheet with a partner’s second salary column has ever annoyed you — this one doesn’t have it.
Quick questions
Is it really free?
Yes — the tracker costs nothing and always will. You’re subscribing to the weekly newsletter to get it; unsubscribe with one click and the tracker is still yours.
Do I need Excel?
No — it works in free Google Sheets or in Excel, on a laptop or a phone. File → Make a copy (Sheets) or plain download (Excel), and it’s yours to edit.
What if my savings amount is tiny?
Start anyway — the tracker works at $25 a month just like at $425. The progress bar doesn’t judge; it just fills. Most readers raise the amount after the first three months, once the habit feels normal.