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Monthly budget planner

Add up what comes in and what goes out, at whatever frequency you pay it, and see what’s left each month and each year.

  • No sign-up. Figures stay in your browser.
  • Reviewed
Example figures

Replace the example figures with your own. Choose how often each amount is paid, and the planner converts everything for you. Leave anything that doesn’t apply blank.

Money coming in£2,200 a month

What reaches your bank account after tax, National Insurance, pension and student loan. Work it out from your salary.

If you share costs and want to plan together.

For example Universal Credit or Child Benefit. Choose how often it’s paid.

Side work, a lodger, maintenance payments.

Home£1,155 a month

Enter your yearly bill and choose Yearly. It’s usually collected in 10 monthly payments, so a yearly figure spreads it fairly.

If you need one. Enter the yearly fee.

Everyday costs£475 a month

Supermarket shops, toiletries and cleaning products.

Fuel, fares, parking, car tax and servicing.

Car, home, life and pet cover.

Debt repayments£50 a month

Enter what you pay, not what you owe.

Overdraft, buy now pay later, or money owed to friends or family.

Lifestyle£250 a month

Streaming, apps, gym and memberships.

Birthdays, Christmas and trips away.

Savings£150 a month

Money you move into savings or an ISA yourself.

Only payments you make yourself. Workplace pension taken from your pay is already left out of take-home pay.

Left over each month £120See results

How your income becomes what’s left

Each bar starts where the last one ended. Follow it from what comes in, take away each group, and you arrive at what’s left.

Monthly amounts, from the figures entered above.

Your budget, line by line

Every amount converted to monthly and annual figures, with each line’s share of what comes in.

Your budget, line by line, monthly and annual
ItemMonthlyAnnualShare of income
Enter your figures above to build the table.

How the planner works

No rates, thresholds or estimates are built in. Every result comes only from the figures you enter, using the arithmetic below.

1. Every amount becomes a yearly figure

Each amount is multiplied by the number of times it’s paid in a year:

Payments per year for each frequency
How oftenPayments a yearExample: £100
Weekly52£5,200 a year, £433.33 a month
Every 4 weeks13£1,300 a year, £108.33 a month
Monthly12£1,200 a year, £100 a month
Yearly1£100 a year, £8.33 a month

The monthly figure is the yearly figure divided by 12. That’s why £100 a week is £433.33 a month, not £400: most months contain more than four weeks.

2. Totals and what’s left

  • Money coming in is the sum of every income line.
  • Going out is Home + Everyday costs + Debt repayments + Lifestyle + Savings.
  • Left over is money coming in minus going out. If it’s negative, that’s your shortfall.

3. The 50/30/20 comparison

The 50/30/20 rule was popularised by Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi in their 2005 book All Your Worth. It suggests about 50% of take-home pay for essentials, 30% for everything else and 20% for savings and paying off debt. The planner groups your lines like this:

  • Essentials: Home and Everyday costs.
  • Lifestyle: the Lifestyle group.
  • Savings and debt: Savings and Debt repayments.

Each share is that group’s total divided by money coming in. It’s a rule of thumb, not a target set by any UK regulator, and UK housing costs often push essentials well above 50%.

4. Rounding

Sums are worked out in full and only rounded for display, to the nearest penny. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place under 10% and to whole numbers above.

The calculation code is published with the page and covered by automated tests.

Assumptions and limitations

Read these before relying on the result for a decision.

  • Use take-home pay, not salary. The planner doesn’t calculate tax, National Insurance or student loan repayments. If you only know your salary, use the salary calculator first.
  • Don’t count workplace pension twice. Contributions taken from your pay are already missing from take-home pay. Only add pension payments you make yourself.
  • A year is treated as 52 weeks. A calendar year is 52 weeks and a day (two days in a leap year), so weekly figures can be very slightly lower than reality.
  • Irregular costs need spreading. Enter yearly or occasional costs, such as car servicing or gifts, with the Yearly option so they’re shared across every month.
  • Variable income needs caution. If your pay changes month to month, use a typical lower month rather than an average.
  • It’s a snapshot, not a forecast. Prices, bills and income change. Review your budget when anything changes.
  • It isn’t financial advice. The planner doesn’t assess whether you can afford new borrowing or recommend any product. For advice about your situation, use a firm on the FCA Register, or free guidance from MoneyHelper.

Questions

Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?

No. Everything is worked out in your browser. Nothing is stored, so refreshing or closing the page clears your figures. To keep a copy, use Print or save as PDF.

What counts as an essential?

Here, essentials are the Home and Everyday costs groups: the things you’d struggle to cut, like housing, energy, food and getting to work. If you’d sort a line differently, the totals and what’s left don’t change, only the 50/30/20 comparison.

How should I budget for bills that aren’t monthly?

Enter the amount as you pay it and pick the matching frequency: Weekly, Every 4 weeks or Yearly. The planner spreads it evenly across the year, so a £600 yearly car insurance renewal counts as £50 a month.

My plan shows a shortfall. What should I do first?

Check your figures, then look at the biggest groups in the chart. If the gap is there most months, free and confidential help is available from MoneyHelper and Citizens Advice, and GOV.UK’s benefits calculators can check whether you could claim support.

Next steps