Borrowing
Monthly budget planner
A budget makes your money visible. Enter your monthly income and your spending across 12 categories to see your real surplus, your savings rate and where to look first if you need to trim back.
Monthly spending
You have £185 left at the end of the month.
Savings rate (money put aside or unspent ÷ income): 13.8%. A common target is 10–20% once debts are under control.
- Income
- £2,800
- Total spending
- £2,615
- Monthly surplus
- £185
| Essentials (housing, bills, food, transport, insurance, debt, childcare) | £2,030 |
|---|---|
| Non-essentials (subscriptions, personal, leisure, other) | £385 |
| Savings & investments | £200 |
| Surplus / unallocated | £185 |
A useful starting framework is 50/30/20 — 50% on essentials, 30% on wants, 20% on saving and debt repayment. Your real ratios will depend on rent or mortgage costs in your area; the goal is to make the numbers visible, not to hit any single rule.
How it works
- We add together your take-home pay and any other regular monthly income.
- We sum the 12 spending categories and subtract that total from your income. The result is your monthly surplus (positive) or shortfall (negative).
- We also calculate your savings rate — money put aside or unspent divided by income — and group spending into essentials, non-essentials and savings so you can see the shape of your budget at a glance.
Common questions
- What if my income changes each month?
- Use a conservative average of the last three to six months. Budgeting against optimistic months leads to repeated shortfalls and reliance on credit.
- Where should I cut first if I am in deficit?
- Non-essentials and any expensive debt that is feeding itself with interest. Speak to StepChange, Citizens Advice or National Debtline (all free) if essentials alone are bigger than your income.
- Should I budget weekly or monthly?
- Monthly is most common because most bills are monthly. People paid weekly often find a weekly budget for variable spending (food, fuel, eating out) easier to stick to.