Budget Calculator
Plan a monthly budget with income, category limits, and expense tracking. Built on the 50/30/20 framework. Free, instant, no signup.
What is a Personal Budget?
A budget is a plan for the money you expect to receive and the money you intend to spend — the magic is in the categories. The 50/30/20 framework, popularized by Senator Elizabeth Warren, allocates after-tax income across needs (housing, utilities, groceries, transportation), wants (dining, entertainment, subscriptions), and financial goals (savings, debt repayment, investments). Other approaches like zero-based budgeting force every dollar to a job, while pay-yourself-first prioritizes savings before discretionary categories. This calculator handles all three styles — set per-category limits, log expenses, watch the savings rate, and surface over-budget warnings before they hit your bank balance. Pair it with the Debt Calculator to model payoff plans, or the Cost Calculator to plan one-off purchases.
How to use this tool
- 1Add your incomeEnter every income source (salary, side gigs, dividends) with its frequency — weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or annually. The tool normalizes everything to a monthly figure.
- 2Set category budgetsAllocate monthly limits to housing, utilities, groceries, transportation, savings, and any custom categories you want to track.
- 3Track expensesLog spending against each category as it happens. Expense entries roll up automatically into per-category actuals.
- 4Read the insightsThe summary shows total income vs total spending, your savings rate, and which categories are over budget — color-coded for quick scanning.