Where your money goes
Your costs from biggest to smallest, using the numbers above.
| Cost | A month | A year | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enter your costs above to see this table. | |||
Turn any bill into a monthly amount
Some bills come weekly, every four weeks, quarterly or once a year. Enter one here to get the monthly figure to use above.
How to use this calculator
- Go through a recent bank statement and note each regular payment. Your statement is more reliable than memory.
- Enter each cost as a monthly amount. Use the bill converter above for weekly, quarterly or yearly bills.
- Add your take-home pay (after tax) to see what's left over each month.
- Look at the table to see which costs take the biggest share.
How it's calculated
Worked example
Sam rents a flat in the UK and takes home £2,400 a month. Their monthly costs are rent £950, council tax £140, gas and electricity £120, water £40, broadband and phone £55, food £300, transport £120, insurance £30, subscriptions £25 and everything else £150.
Sam spends £1,930 a month, about 80% of their take-home pay, and has £470 left over. Rent is almost half of all their costs.
Why "× 4" gets weekly bills wrong
A month is a little over 4 weeks, so multiplying a weekly cost by 4 makes it look smaller than it is. A year has 52 weeks, which is 4.33 weeks a month on average.
Bills paid every 4 weeks come 13 times a year, not 12, so one month in the year has two of them.
Freelancer or self-employed? Keep business costs out of this list so you can see your personal spending clearly. Then use your total in the emergency fund calculator to see how many months of cover to save, and in the hourly rate calculator to see what you need to charge to cover it.
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a monthly expense?
Anything you pay regularly: housing, bills, food, travel, insurance, repayments and subscriptions. Include smaller spending too, like coffees and takeaways, in "Everything else". These small costs are easy to forget and often add up to more than people expect.
How do I include council tax if I pay it over 10 months?
Take the full yearly bill and divide it by 12, even if you pay it in 10 instalments. That spreads the cost over the whole year, so the two months with no payment don't make your budget look better than it is.
My bills change from month to month. What should I enter?
Use an average. Add up the last 12 months of a bill, such as energy, and divide by 12. If you only have a few months, use the higher ones, because heating bills are usually bigger in winter.
Should I use my income before or after tax?
After tax. Take-home pay is the money you can actually spend. If you're employed, it's the amount paid into your bank account. If you're self-employed, use what's left after setting money aside for tax. Our UK take-home pay calculator can estimate it for employees.
Is anything I type saved or sent anywhere?
No. The calculator runs in your browser. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else, and nothing is stored on your device, so your numbers are gone when you close the page.