Monthly Budget Planner

Plan your monthly budget using the 50/30/20 rule for needs, wants, and savings.

Monthly Income (after tax)

Needs

50% target · $2,500

$2,650

53% of income

53% of income used · target at 50%

Wants

30% target · $1,500

$500

10% of income

10% of income used · target at 30%

Savings

20% target · $1,000

$700

14% of income

14% of income used · target at 20%

Budget Breakdown

Needs

Wants

Savings

Unallocated

Summary

Needs

$2,650(53%)

Wants

$500(10%)

Savings

$700(14%)

Total allocated$3,850

Surplus+$1,150

23% of income unallocated

About the Monthly Budget Planner

The 50/30/20 rule divides your after-tax income into three buckets: 50% for needs (housing, groceries, utilities, transport, insurance), 30% for wants (dining out, entertainment, subscriptions), and 20% for savings and debt repayment. Add or remove line items in each section, edit the amounts inline, and the progress bars and pie chart update instantly. The coloured bars show how much of your income each category uses versus its target — red text flags categories that have exceeded the guideline. All calculations run locally in your browser.

Built and maintained by Meet Shah · Last updated 1 August 2026

What this tool is used for

Splitting income across needs, wants and savings on the 50/30/20 rule.
Seeing how far actual spending diverges from the rule.
Testing whether a savings target is achievable on current income.
Categorising a month's spending to find where it goes.
Producing a starting budget to adjust rather than a blank sheet.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the 50/30/20 rule?: 50% of after-tax income to needs, 30% to wants, 20% to savings and debt repayment. It comes from Elizabeth Warren's work and its value is as a starting allocation — in high-cost housing markets the needs half is frequently impossible, which is itself informative.
What separates a need from a want?: Whether skipping it has a real consequence. Rent, utilities, minimum debt payments, basic groceries and transport to work are needs; the streaming tier, the restaurant version of a meal, and the upgraded phone are wants. Most disputed items are wants with a needs-shaped justification.
Should the budget use gross or net income?: Net — what actually arrives. Budgeting from gross overstates capacity by 25–35% depending on jurisdiction, and it is the single most common reason a carefully built budget is unachievable from the first month.
How do irregular expenses fit?: As monthly sinking funds. Annual insurance, car servicing and holidays are predictable in total and unpredictable in timing, so dividing the yearly figure by twelve and setting it aside turns a recurring crisis into a line item. Omitting them is what makes a budget fail in month four.
Why does a budget usually not balance at first?: Because spending is systematically underestimated from memory, typically by 20–30%. The fix is a month of actual tracking rather than a better estimate — the gap between remembered and recorded spending is the most useful number the exercise produces.

Common errors and gotchas

Treating the 50/30/20 split as a rule rather than a heuristic, which fits some incomes badly.
Misclassifying wants as needs, which is where most budgets quietly fail.
Budgeting on gross rather than take-home income.
Omitting irregular annual costs, which then arrive as a surprise.
Building a budget and never comparing it against what actually happened.