Custom Budget Planner

A blank-sheet budget: assign your income across your own categories and see exactly what is left.

Sometimes you want the calculator to stay out of the way. This planner gives you one income line and six spending slots you fill with whatever your life actually costs — then shows the leftover.

At a glance

What you enter: Monthly income (net), Your category 1, Your category 2, Your category 3, Your category 4, Your category 5, Your category 6
What you get: Left to save or spend freely, Effective savings rate
Formula shown: Yes — every step, right below your results.
Cost and privacy: Free, no account needed, and nothing you type is stored.

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Monthly income (net)

Your category 1

Your category 2

Your category 3

Your category 4

Your category 5

Your category 6

Reset

Results are estimates for general information only — always verify with a professional or official source before acting on them.

How to use the Custom Budget Planner

1 Enter Monthly income (net)
2 Enter Your category 1
3 Enter Your category 2
4 Enter Your category 3
5 Enter Your category 4
6 Enter Your category 5
7 Enter Your category 6
8 Press Calculate. You get Left to save or spend freely, Effective savings rate, and every intermediate step stays visible under “How is this calculated?”
9 Change one number at a time to see what moves the result — that is usually the most useful thing a calculator can tell you.

Worked examples

Real numbers run through this calculator. Open any example to load it into the form above and change it.

A full six-slot month with a deliberate savings line

$4,000 of income spread across rent, groceries, transport, utilities, fun and savings.

You enter

Monthly income (net): $4,000.00
Your category 1: $1,300.00
Your category 2: $450.00
Your category 3: $200.00
Your category 4: $150.00
Your category 5: $300.00
Your category 6: $400.00

You get

Left to save or spend freely: $1,200.00
Effective savings rate: 30.0%

Six categories totalling $2,800 leave $1,200 — a 30% effective savings rate. Because the categories are small and specific, there is very little room for a surprise to hide.

Open this example in the calculator →

A leaner income with heavier commitments

$2,500 of income where the first four slots absorb most of it.

You enter

Monthly income (net): $2,500.00
Your category 1: $900.00
Your category 2: $350.00
Your category 3: $150.00
Your category 4: $120.00
Your category 5: $200.00
Your category 6: $500.00

You get

Left to save or spend freely: $280.00
Effective savings rate: 11.2%

Assignments total $2,220 against $2,500 of income, so only $280 is left — about 11% of income. The $500 savings line is deliberate: it is protected upfront rather than left to whatever survives the month.

Open this example in the calculator →

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Frequently asked questions

What should I name the six categories?

The boxes are deliberately unnamed so the planner fits your life, but the most useful set usually follows this order: housing, food and groceries, transport, utilities and bills, a discretionary line, and savings. Naming them after decisions you actually make — “work lunches”, “car” — beats generic labels, because a specific category is much harder to overspend without noticing.

Why does the leftover count as my savings rate?

Because in this planner anything you have not assigned is by definition not being spent, so income minus assignments is what remains available to save. That is honest only if the leftover really is transferred to savings or investments; money that stays in your current account tends to get absorbed. If you want savings treated as a fixed commitment rather than a residue, use the Zero-Based Budget Calculator, where savings is an assigned bucket.

What if my total assigned is more than my income?

The leftover goes negative and the savings rate turns negative with it. The number is not an error — it means the plan as written is impossible and one of the six categories has to come down by at least the size of the shortfall. Shrink the category with the most slack rather than shaving all six by a little; small trims are the first thing to be abandoned when the month gets hard.

Can I use fewer than six categories?

Yes — leave the unused slots at 0. The planner adds whatever is there and simply ignores the empty lines. Three or four well-used categories with real numbers beat six half-guessed ones, and you can always split a category later once you have data on what is actually inside it.

Terms used here

Short, plain-language definitions of the words this calculator uses.

Budget A budget is a plan for how you will use the money you expect to receive over a period, usually a month. Envelope budgeting Envelope budgeting means dividing your spending money into categories and limiting each one to a set amount for the period. Variable expenses Variable expenses change from one period to the next. Zero-based budget A zero-based budget gives every unit of income a job, so planned spending, saving and debt payments add up to exactly the income you expect.

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