50/30/20 Budget Calculator: Split Your UK Take-Home Pay
Free 50/30/20 budget calculator: enter your monthly take-home pay and see how much to put towards needs, wants and savings each month. Adjust the split to suit you.
The 50/30/20 rule is the simplest way to turn a monthly pay packet into a plan: 50% on needs, 30% on wants, 20% on savings and debt. Enter what actually lands in your account after tax and pension, and this tool splits it for you. You can nudge the percentages if the classic split does not fit your rent or your goals.
Your monthly budget split
Percentages should add up to 100%.
What goes in each bucket?
Needs (50%) are the things you cannot skip: rent or mortgage, council tax, utilities, a basic food shop, transport to work, insurance and minimum debt repayments. Wants (30%) are the lifestyle extras: eating out, streaming subscriptions, hobbies, holidays and upgrades you could live without. Savings (20%) covers your emergency fund, pension top-ups, investing and clearing debt faster than the minimum.
The split is a starting point, not a rule of physics. In much of the UK, high rent pushes needs well above 50%, so many people run something closer to 60/20/20 or 70/20/10 while housing costs are high, then rebalance later. Use the boxes above to model your own version, then set up standing orders or app pots to move the savings slice on payday before you can spend it.
