Budget Breakdown Calculator
Enter your monthly income and expenses to see your full budget breakdown, what's left over, and how your spending compares to the 50/30/20 and 70/20/10 rules.
Income & expenses
Enter your monthly income and expenses
Use your take-home (after-tax) pay, not your gross salary.
Budget summary
Your monthly financial overview
Remaining budget
$2,650
Total income
$5,000
Total expenses
$2,350
Savings rate
53.0%
Target: 20% or more
Spending breakdown
Where your money goes
Expense comparison
Compare your spending categories
Popular Budgeting Rules
50/30/20 Rule
The most popular framework: 50% for needs (housing, food, utilities), 30% for wants (entertainment, dining out), and 20% for savings and debt repayment. Great for beginners who want a simple, flexible structure.
70/20/10 Rule
Spend 70% on living expenses (needs and wants combined), put 20% toward savings and investments, and give 10% to debt repayment or charitable giving. Useful if you're already saving aggressively and want a cleaner two-bucket split.
Zero-Based Budgeting
Every dollar gets assigned a job, so income minus expenses equals zero. You're not spending everything; you're intentionally directing every dollar to a category, including savings. Championed by Dave Ramsey and EveryDollar. Best for detail-oriented people, or anyone who has struggled with overspending.
Pay-Yourself-First
Before paying any bill, automatically transfer your savings target to a separate account. Spend the rest however you like. Popularized by David Bach's "Automatic Millionaire," this method works because it removes willpower from the equation entirely.
80/20 Rule (Pareto Budget)
Save 20% of every paycheck first, then spend the remaining 80% however you choose without tracking categories. Simpler than 50/30/20 and ideal for people who find detailed budgets overwhelming but still want to build wealth consistently.
How to build a monthly budget that actually works
How to use this budget calculator
Enter your monthly take-home pay first, then add every expense you can think of. The budget calculator shows what is left at the end of the month, and it compares your spending against the 50/30/20 guideline so you can see which categories run heavier than you expected.
Use take-home pay rather than your salary. Taxes come out before the money ever reaches your account, so a monthly budget built on gross salary makes every category look affordable when it is not.
Why most monthly budgets fail
People do not fail at budgeting because they are bad with money. They fail because the first budget they write is too strict, and a budget with no room for anything enjoyable falls apart in about three weeks. Someone sets their restaurant category to zero, breaks it on the first Friday, and decides that budgeting does not work for them.
Budgets also fail because they only count the bills that arrive every month. Car registration, holiday gifts, a vet visit, a new set of tires. None of those show up in a normal month, so they wreck a budget that had no room for them. A good rule to follow is to add up your irregular yearly costs, divide by twelve, and treat that number as a monthly expense like rent or utilities.
What to do with the money left over
The number at the bottom of this budget calculator is the one that decides your financial situation a few years from now. Money left over does nothing on its own, and money sitting in a checking account tends to get spent, so it needs somewhere to go before the month starts. Set up an automatic transfer on payday, so the money moves before you have a chance to spend it.
Start with a small emergency fund. One month of expenses in a savings account is enough to keep a car repair from turning into credit card debt. Emergency funds earn very little and they are not exciting, and they are still the thing that keeps a budget from collapsing the first time something goes wrong.
After that, put the extra toward paying off debt, starting with whatever charges the highest interest rate. Credit cards commonly charge around 20% or more (interest is the fee the lender charges you for borrowing its money), and paying off a balance at that rate is worth more than almost anything else you could do with the money. Once the high-interest debt is gone, that same amount can go toward retirement accounts and investing.
Making the budget survive past month one
Most first budgets are guesses. You do not really know what you spend on groceries until you look, and the real number is usually higher than the one you entered here. Check the budget once a week for the first month and correct the categories that were wrong.
Money management gets easier after that, mostly because the guessing stops. A budget you have corrected twice is built on your real spending, and that is the one you can actually follow.
How this is calculated
It adds up your monthly expenses and subtracts them from your income to show what's left.
Money left over = income − the sum of every expense you enter. Your spending is also compared against the 50/30/20 guideline (needs / wants / savings) to show where you sit.
What it assumes
- All figures are monthly, so convert anything annual first.
- Use take-home (after-tax) pay for the truest picture.
- The 50/30/20 split is a rule of thumb, not a rule.
Frequently asked questions
What is the 50/30/20 rule?
A simple guideline that splits after-tax income into roughly 50% needs (rent, groceries, utilities, minimum debt payments), 30% wants (dining out, subscriptions, entertainment), and 20% savings and extra debt payoff. It's a starting point to compare your own numbers against, not a strict rule.
Should I use gross or take-home pay?
Take-home (after-tax) pay gives the truest picture of what you actually have to work with each month, since taxes are already gone before that money ever reaches your budget.
What if my income is irregular?
Budget against your lowest reliably expected month, and treat income above that baseline as a bonus to save or invest rather than something to plan fixed expenses around. Averaging several months of past income can help set that baseline.
What counts as a 'need' versus a 'want'?
Needs are costs you'd have to pay even in a lean month: housing, groceries, utilities, minimum debt payments, basic transportation. Wants are everything comfortable but skippable: dining out, streaming subscriptions, upgraded versions of things you already have. The line is a judgment call, be honest rather than generous with yourself.
A guideline based on the numbers you enter, not financial advice.