Should I use gross or take-home income?

Take-home, after tax and any payroll deductions. If you budget against gross pay, every category is overstated by your effective withholding rate, which is usually enough to make an apparently balanced plan fail.

Can I enter dollar amounts instead of percentages?

Not directly, the fields take percentages only. To work backwards from a known amount, divide it by your income and multiply by one hundred. A $1,400 rent on $4,000 income is 35%.

What if my percentages do not add up to one hundred?

That is allowed and often useful. Under one hundred leaves a positive remainder, which is sensible slack for irregular costs. Over one hundred produces a negative remainder shown in red, which means the plan does not fit your income.

Does this track my actual spending?

No. It plans allocations only and never sees a transaction. To find out whether you stayed inside the plan you need bank statements or a tracking app, and the honest comparison between planned and actual is where most of the value is.

Does the budget save between visits?

No. Categories and percentages live in the page and reset when you reload. Print or save the result if you want to keep it, since nothing is stored on a server or on your device.

How should I handle irregular annual costs?

Divide the annual amount by twelve and give it its own category. Insurance premiums, holidays and car maintenance are the classic budget breakers precisely because they are real costs that do not arrive monthly.

Can I budget an irregular or freelance income?

Yes, but base it on a conservative month rather than an average one. Enter the income you can rely on in a slow month and treat anything above that as separate, going to savings or debt rather than raising the percentage of every category.

Budget Calculator: Split Monthly Income by Percentage

Budget Calculator: Split Monthly Income by PercentageThe Budget Calculator is a free browser-based tool that splits a monthly income figure across named categories by percentage and shows the dollar amount each one receives. You set the income, name as many categories as you want, give each a percentage, and the tool returns a dollar allocation per category alongside the amount left unassigned. A running total shows how much of your income you have allocated, turning green at exactly one hundred percent. It plans intended spending only. It does not track what you actually spent, connect to a bank, or carry anything over between visits.

What people use it for

Turning a rule of thumb into real dollars

Someone who has heard of the fifty thirty twenty split can enter those three categories against their actual income and see the amounts. Fifty percent of $5,000 is $2,500 for needs, which is either obviously workable or obviously not, in a way that the percentage alone never quite conveys.

Discovering the budget does not add up

A household lists seven categories reflecting what they genuinely spend and finds the total reaches 110%, leaving a negative remainder. That negative number, shown in red, is the whole diagnosis: something has to be cut before the month begins rather than discovered halfway through it.

Deciding where a raise should go

After a pay rise, entering the new income against the old percentages shows every category rising proportionally. Comparing that against a version where the extra is directed to savings and debt makes lifestyle creep a visible choice rather than a default.

Agreeing a plan with a partner

Two people arguing about spending in the abstract rarely converge. Sitting with the category list, adjusting percentages until the running total hits one hundred, and printing the result gives both a specific agreement to refer back to.

How it works

Enter your monthly income Use take-home pay after tax rather than gross salary. Budgeting against gross income overstates what is available by whatever your withholding takes out each month.
Name your categories The tool starts with housing, food, transportation, savings and utilities. Rename them or use Add category for as many as you need, since a category with a blank name is skipped entirely.
Assign a percentage to each Enter whole percentages in the narrow field beside each category. The running total above the list shows how much you have allocated and turns green when it reaches exactly one hundred.
Press Calculate Budget The unallocated remainder appears at the top, green when positive and red when you have over-committed, followed by every category with its percentage and its dollar amount.
Adjust until the remainder is where you want it Leaving a small positive remainder gives you slack for irregular costs. A negative remainder means the plan spends more than you earn and needs fixing before the month starts.

Worked examples

Input: Income $5,000. Housing 30%, food 15%, transportation 10%, savings 20%, utilities 10%.

Result: Housing $1,500, food $750, transportation $500, savings $1,000, utilities $500. Allocated $4,250 of $5,000, leaving $750 unallocated at 85% assigned.

Input: Income $7,200. Rent 28%, groceries 12%, childcare 15%, transport 8%, savings 15%, debt payments 12%, everything else 10%.

Result: Rent $2,016, groceries $864, childcare $1,080, transport $576, savings $1,080, debt $864, other $720. Allocated exactly $7,200 with $0 remaining and the counter showing 100%.

Input: Income $4,000. Housing 35%, food 15%, car 15%, student loan 15%, savings 10%, utilities 10%, subscriptions 10%.

Result: Allocations total $4,400 against $4,000 of income, so the remainder shows negative $400 in red. The percentages sum to 110% and the plan is $400 short every month.

Frequently asked questions

Should I use gross or take-home income?: Take-home, after tax and any payroll deductions. If you budget against gross pay, every category is overstated by your effective withholding rate, which is usually enough to make an apparently balanced plan fail.
Can I enter dollar amounts instead of percentages?: Not directly, the fields take percentages only. To work backwards from a known amount, divide it by your income and multiply by one hundred. A $1,400 rent on $4,000 income is 35%.
What if my percentages do not add up to one hundred?: That is allowed and often useful. Under one hundred leaves a positive remainder, which is sensible slack for irregular costs. Over one hundred produces a negative remainder shown in red, which means the plan does not fit your income.
Does this track my actual spending?: No. It plans allocations only and never sees a transaction. To find out whether you stayed inside the plan you need bank statements or a tracking app, and the honest comparison between planned and actual is where most of the value is.
Does the budget save between visits?: No. Categories and percentages live in the page and reset when you reload. Print or save the result if you want to keep it, since nothing is stored on a server or on your device.
How should I handle irregular annual costs?: Divide the annual amount by twelve and give it its own category. Insurance premiums, holidays and car maintenance are the classic budget breakers precisely because they are real costs that do not arrive monthly.
Can I budget an irregular or freelance income?: Yes, but base it on a conservative month rather than an average one. Enter the income you can rely on in a slow month and treat anything above that as separate, going to savings or debt rather than raising the percentage of every category.

Tips

Give savings a percentage before you allocate the discretionary categories. Treating it as whatever is left over usually means nothing is left over.
Create a category for irregular annual costs divided into monthly slices. It is the single most effective fix for budgets that work on paper and fail in practice.
Aim to leave a few percent unallocated rather than hitting exactly one hundred. A plan with zero slack breaks the first time anything unexpected happens.
Rerun the split whenever your income changes rather than adjusting one category. Percentages that made sense at one income rarely hold at another.

Written by Ahsan Mahmood. Last updated 2026-07-21. This calculator runs entirely in your browser and produces estimates, not tax advice.TaxEase — Budget Calculator: Split Monthly Income by Percentage