How to use this calculator (3 steps)
- Enter your take-home pay. The amount that hits your account on payday, after tax and 401(k).
- Fill in the bills you actually pay. Skip the lines you don't have. Replace the seed numbers with yours.
- Read the three bars. Needs, wants, savings. Whichever one is most out of line is the conversation worth having next.
Standard household budget categories
Most US household budgets cover these eleven lines. The calculator groups them into needs, wants, and savings automatically:
- Housing (rent or mortgage + insurance + property tax)
- Utilities (electric, gas, water, internet, phone)
- Groceries
- Transportation (car payment, insurance, gas, transit)
- Healthcare and insurance premiums
- Childcare and education
- Minimum debt payments
- Subscriptions and memberships
- Dining out and entertainment
- Personal / clothing / hobbies
- Savings and extra debt payoff
Calculator vs spreadsheet vs app
If you already have a working spreadsheet, keep it. This calculator is for the 90% of people who want a single page that takes 8 minutes and tells them which bucket is broken. For ongoing month-over-month tracking, export to PDF or Excel and graduate to a sheet. For automatic transaction syncing, you want an app — but apps cost money and require linking your bank.
The 50/30/20 wedge
This calculator runs the standard 50/30/20 split: 50% needs, 30% wants, 20% savings. If you specifically want a tool focused on that rule with deep FAQs and worked examples, see the 50/30/20 budget calculator. Or if you're trying to figure out how much rent you can afford, the rent-to-income calculator is the one you want.