Monthly Budget Calculator (50/30/20 Check)

Free monthly budget calculator. Enter your take-home pay and what you actually spend, and it checks your real split against the 50/30/20 targets — 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings — telling you which category is over and by how much.

Runs in your browser. No signup, nothing stored.

What the categories mean

Needs are housing, utilities, groceries, insurance, transport and minimum debt payments — the things with consequences if you stop. Wants are everything optional, including the virtuous-feeling ones: the test is “what happens if I stop for a month,” not “how good is this for me.” Savings includes investments and any extra debt payment beyond the minimum, because both build net worth.

Three things this calculator does that most do not

• It flags unaccounted money. If your categories do not add up to your take-home, the difference is being spent without a name on it.
• It catches overspending before ratio advice. If you are spending more than you earn, the gap is being financed by debt or drawdown — and that comes before any budget-percentage tuning.
• It will not lecture you about coffee. When needs exceed about 65% of take-home, the calculator says plainly that this is a cost-structure problem — usually housing — not a discipline problem. Percentage-shuffling within the remainder moves tens of dollars; the structural fix moves hundreds.

Use it as a thermometer, not a thermostat

50/30/20 is a good diagnostic and a mediocre prescription. It genuinely fits a middle band of incomes and breaks at both ends — we stress-tested it at four income levels and it fails at two of them. Measure yourself against it, then act on the specific imbalance it reveals.

Related: zero-based budgeting if you want more precision, sinking funds for irregular expenses, and the debt payoff and emergency fund calculators.

Educational tool, not personalized financial advice.