Use this free online budget calculator to compare your monthly income against your expenses across custom categories like rent, food, and transportation. Add or remove categories as needed to see your total expenses, remaining surplus or deficit, and a percentage breakdown of where your income goes.
Expense Categories
How to Use the Budget Calculator
Enter your take-home pay in the "Monthly Income" field.
Fill in a label and amount for each row under "Expense Categories" (e.g. Rent/Housing, Food).
Use "Add Category" to add more expense rows, or the × button to remove one.
Click "Calculate Budget" to see your total income, total expenses, and remaining surplus or deficit.
Check the "Breakdown" table to see what percentage of your income each category consumes.
How the Numbers Are Worked Out
The calculator adds every category amount to get total expenses and subtracts that from your monthly income. Each row's share is its amount ÷ income × 100, rounded to two decimals. Note that "Savings" is treated like any other row: money you plan to put aside is counted as spoken for, so the surplus shown is what is left over after your planned saving, not your total saving.
Example: A ₹60,000 Monthly Take-Home
Category
Amount
% of income
Rent
₹15,000
25%
Groceries and food
₹9,000
15%
Transport and fuel
₹4,000
6.67%
Electricity, phone, internet, gas
₹3,000
5%
Eating out and entertainment
₹4,000
6.67%
Savings (SIP, RD, PPF)
₹12,000
20%
Two-wheeler loan EMI
₹8,000
13.33%
Total expenses are ₹55,000, leaving a surplus of ₹5,000. Since ₹12,000 is already being saved, the household is actually putting away ₹17,000 a month, or about 28% of income, if the surplus is also kept aside.
A Starting Point: the 50/30/20 Split
A widely used rule of thumb divides take-home pay into roughly 50% for needs (rent, groceries, utilities, loan EMIs, insurance), 30% for wants (dining out, shopping, travel, subscriptions) and 20% for saving and investing. On ₹60,000 that is ₹30,000, ₹18,000 and ₹12,000. It is a guide, not a target: in high-rent cities needs may take 60% or more, and in that case trimming wants is usually the realistic way to protect savings.
Making the Budget Realistic
Use take-home pay, after TDS, PF and professional tax, not your CTC.
Spread yearly bills across the months. A ₹24,000 health insurance premium becomes a ₹2,000 monthly row, and ₹36,000 of annual school fees becomes ₹3,000. Do the same for festival spending, vehicle servicing and gifts at weddings.
Base the amounts on what you actually spent. Two or three months of bank and UPI statements give a far better picture than estimates.
Before investing for long-term goals, many planners suggest building an emergency fund of a few months' expenses in a liquid form such as a savings account or fixed deposit.
A deficit is a signal to act early: look first at the largest flexible rows, then at expensive debt such as credit card balances.
Frequently Asked Questions
It adds up the amounts in every expense category to get your total expenses, then subtracts that from your monthly income. If the result is positive it's labeled "Savings/Surplus"; if it's negative, it's labeled "Deficit" and shown as a positive amount.
Yes. The calculator starts with common categories like Rent/Housing, Food, Transportation, Utilities, Entertainment, and Savings, but you can rename any of them, add new rows with "Add Category," or remove rows you don't need (at least one category must remain).
Each category's percentage is its amount divided by your monthly income, multiplied by 100. If your monthly income is zero, this column shows "N/A" for every category since the percentage can't be calculated.
Yes, if you want to "pay yourself first". Listing a fixed amount for SIPs, RDs or PPF means the budget only balances once that saving is covered. If you leave it out, the surplus figure shows the most you could save in total.
There is no single rule, but many lenders become cautious once total EMIs go much beyond 40 to 50% of take-home income, and a lower share leaves more room for savings and emergencies. The Debt-to-Income Calculator shows your current ratio.