Buckingham Palace should be opened to more paying visitors when the Queen is not in residence to fund improvements to the royal estate, MPs have said.
The influential Public Accounts Committee criticised the Royal Household for mismanaging its finances.
Chairwoman Margaret Hodge said there was "huge scope for savings" on the annual £31m of taxpayer funds given to the Queen to spend on official duties.
But a spokeswoman for the royals said spending was now more transparent.
The Sovereign Grant replaced the old Civil List and grants-in-aid system in 2012 and is used to fund royal duties, pay staff and maintain palaces.
The report said Buckingham Palace had overspent on the grant by £2.3m last year and had to dip into its reserves, "leaving a balance of only £1m at 31 March 2013 - a historically low level of contingency".
'Dangerous condition'Mrs Hodge said the committee's report was the first time the grant had been scrutinised and that it was an opportunity to check how the Queen's funds were being managed by the Royal Household and the Treasury.
"I don't think we'd accuse anybody of profligacy but, what we are saying, is that we don't think the Queen is served well either by the Royal Household or, indeed, by the Treasury," the Labour MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"They're not balancing books and they're dipping into their reserves," she said.
The committee's report found royal estate properties were in a "dangerous or deteriorating condition".
And it said there had been no estimate for how much the backlog of repairs would cost
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While the committee praised the Royal Household for generating £11.6m last year - up from £6.7m in 2007/08 - it said more could be done.
Mrs Hodge said the Royal Household had escaped public sector austerity, only reducing spending by 5% in the past six years.
"They've kept the same amount of staff in there that they had five years ago, so we think that they can eke more money and they certainly should deal with the heritage properties."
She added: "The Queen can attract income - visitors to Buckingham Palace - but Buckingham Palace is only open 78 days a year, they only have about half a million visitors.
"Compare that to the Tower of London - they have over 2 million visitors."
She said boosting annual visitor numbers would help pay for upgrades to cut electricity and gas bills.
It would fund improvements both to Windsor Castle and to the Victoria and Albert Mausoleum, which had been waiting 18 years for repairs, she added.
She said the committee "wouldn't dare to look at" whether there were too many palaces, adding "it may be a thing for another year".
Art collectionBuckingham Palace's "state rooms" - those designed for monarchs to "receive, reward and entertain their subjects and visiting dignitaries" - have been open to the paying public during August and September since 1993.
End Quote Treasury spokesmanThe new arrangements established by the Sovereign Grant Act have made the royal finances more transparent than ever"
Profits initially helped to pay for the restoration of Windsor Castle, which was fire-damaged in November 1992, and now go to the Royal Collection Trust charity, which manages the Royal Collection - "one of the most important art collections in the world".
A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: "The move to the Sovereign Grant has created a more transparent and scrutinised system, which enables the Royal Household to allocate funding according to priorities.
"This has resulted in a more efficient use of public funds."
She added that it was a priority for the Royal Household to "reduce the backlog in essential maintenance across the occupied royal palaces".
A Treasury spokesman said "The new arrangements established by the Sovereign Grant Act have made the royal finances more transparent than ever while providing the long term stability necessary for good planning."
The committee had not properly taken these changes into account, he added.
The Sovereign Grant was £31m last year and is set to rise to £37.9m by 2014-15.
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