Budget Calculator: Monthly and Yearly Household Budget

How to read your budget

A budget is a list of what comes in and what goes out. Seen over a whole year, it also catches the costs that don’t come every month: insurance, holidays, gifts, servicing the car. Spread over the months, they are often what makes a month that looked fine end short.

Essential expenses are the ones you would have to pay even without an income: housing, energy, food, getting to work. The rest can wait or be cut when needed. Their total tells you how big an emergency fund you need and how much room your budget has.

An emergency fund is money for the unexpected that you can reach quickly, kept apart from your spending money. Common advice is three to six months of living expenses, more with an irregular income or a single earner. Many people build it before they start investing.

If the year ends short, look first at the largest items and at the ones that repeat. A cheaper plan, a subscription you don’t use or a bill you can negotiate adds up over twelve months.

Frequently asked questions

How much should go on housing, food and the rest?

There is no single right split; it depends on where you live and on your household. What matters is that the year doesn’t end short and that something is left over for an emergency fund and your goals. A popular rule of thumb splits income 50/30/20 between needs, wants and saving; the calculator shows your own split.

How big should an emergency fund be?

Common advice is three to six months of living expenses. The calculator counts the essential ones, which you would have to pay even without an income. Aim higher if your income is irregular, you are the only earner or your job would be hard to replace.

Should I include yearly payments?

Yes. Enter insurance, holidays or car servicing as yearly or quarterly, and the calculator spreads them over the months. These are the costs that most often break a budget that looks fine month by month.

Is my budget saved anywhere?

Only in your browser on this device, so you can come back to it. The link to share the calculation carries your items in the address, so send it only to people who should see them.

How it is calculated and where the data come from

How the result is calculated

Every amount is turned into a yearly one by how often it is paid: weekly × 52, monthly × 12, quarterly × 4, every six months × 2, yearly × 1. A month is a twelfth of the year.
What is left over is income minus expenses. The savings rate is what is left over as a share of income.
Every expense is shown as a share of income; the essential and the other expenses are added up separately.
The emergency fund should hold the essential expenses of a month times the number of months. What is missing is filled from what is left over each month, rounded up to whole months.

Assumptions and limits

An empty amount counts as zero. The calculator uses only the amounts you enter; it knows no prices or taxes.
Every month is the same: income and expenses that change through the year are spread evenly.
The emergency fund earns no interest here, and filling it assumes that everything left over goes into it.

The starting income and expenses are our example of a two-earner household in round numbers for each currency, not statistics. An emergency fund of three months of essential expenses is our example, at the lower end of the common advice of three to six months.

Data sources and the period they hold for

Every number a calculator starts with or computes from comes from one of the sources below. Series names are given as the publisher names them. Each row shows the period the data refer to and, where we record it, the day we downloaded them. Official data can be months old when they are published, so check the current figure before you decide.

Official: Published by a central bank, a statistical office, the European Union or another public body.
Research or industry data: A dataset of a university, an index provider, an industry association or a data vendor.
Reported: A figure of an official body that we know only from the press and did not check in the primary source. Treat it as approximate.
Example: A round number of ours, not a statistic. Replace it with your own.

Example budgets and subscriptions

Source	Period	Type
ExampleA two-earner household in each currency, round numbers; its expenses together about 86 % of its net income	2026	Example
ExampleSubscriptions in round numbers in the range such services cost, not the price list of any service; if invested instead, 7 % a year for 10 years	2026	Example
ExampleA savings goal of 3 months of the example household's income, 85 % of income spent, no interest and no price growth	2026	Example

Size of an emergency fund

Country	Source	Period	Type
United States	U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.govWorld Investor Week 2026: Investor Bulletin – "Set a savings goal, such as three to six months of living expenses"	2026downloaded 2026-10-16	Official
United States	FINRAFinancial Foundations: start an emergency fund – "the equivalent of three to six months of living expenses"	currentdownloaded 2026-10-16	Official
Everywhere	Example3 months of the essential expenses (the lower end of the range above), with a month's income put aside	2026	Example

Methodology text last reviewed 2026-10-06. Data last downloaded 2026-10-16. How we work with data and sources