Household Budget Planner
Build a monthly budget, see where the money goes and whether the savings target holds.
A budget only works if it reflects what you actually spend. This planner takes real figures across ten categories, compares each against a typical share of income, and tells you whether your savings target survives — with the shortfall stated plainly if it does not.
Income and spending
Result
Fill in the fields above and your result will appear here.
What the Household Budget Planner does
The typical shares shown are conventional planning guidelines, not rules. A household paying metro rent will exceed the 30% housing benchmark and can still be perfectly healthy if other categories are modest. What matters is the total, and whether a savings rate emerges from it.
The two figures worth watching are the combined housing-and-EMI share, which measures how locked-in your commitments are, and the savings rate, which measures whether the household is building anything.
How to use this tool
- Enter combined monthly take-home income for everyone in the household.
- Fill in each spending category from your bank and card statements over the last three months rather than from memory — the gap between the two is usually substantial.
- Include annual costs divided by twelve: insurance premiums, school fees, festival spending and vehicle servicing.
- Set a savings target as a percentage of income. Twenty percent is a common benchmark.
- Look at the status column: any category flagged high is where a change would make the most difference.
Formula and method
Total income = Take-home + Other income
Total spending = Sum of all categories
Surplus = Total income − Total spending
Savings rate = Surplus ÷ Total income × 100
Housing + EMI ratio = (Rent or home EMI + Other EMIs) ÷ Income × 100
Emergency fund = Total monthly spending × 6
Each category is compared with a typical share of income;
above 1.4× typical is flagged high, below 0.5× is flagged low.
Worked example
Example: ₹90,000 income
| Rent | ₹25,000 — 27.8% |
| Groceries | ₹14,000 — 15.6% |
| Utilities, transport, education, health | ₹27,000 — 30.0% |
| Eating out, help, EMIs, other | ₹22,000 — 24.4% |
| Total spending | ₹88,000 |
| Surplus | ₹2,000 — 2.2% |
A 2.2% savings rate against a 20% target is an ₹16,000 monthly gap. Nothing here is extravagant; the total simply exceeds what the income supports, which is the most common budgeting problem.
What your result means
Savings rate above 20% is healthy. 10–20% is workable but leaves little margin. Below 10% means one unexpected expense becomes debt.
Housing plus EMI above 45% of income is the point at which a household becomes fragile. A job loss or a rate increase then has no absorber.
The emergency fund figure — six months of spending — is the target to build before anything else. It is what turns a crisis into an inconvenience.
Important considerations
- Track for a month before trusting your estimates. Almost everyone underestimates eating out, online shopping and small daily spending by a wide margin.
- Divide annual and irregular costs by twelve and budget them monthly: insurance, school fees, festivals, vehicle servicing, travel.
- Pay yourself first. Move the savings amount out on the day salary arrives rather than saving what is left, which is usually nothing.
- Health insurance is not optional in the Indian context. Hospitalisation is the most common cause of household financial distress.
- A dual-income household should test whether the budget survives on one income. If it does not, the commitments are too large.
- Increasing income helps only if spending does not rise with it. Reviewing this budget after every increment is what makes a raise count.
Limitations of this tool
- Typical shares are planning conventions rather than survey data for Indian households, and vary widely by city and family stage.
- It is a monthly snapshot and does not model inflation, income growth or long-term goals.
- Investment returns, tax planning and debt repayment strategy are outside its scope.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I save every month?
Twenty percent of take-home is a widely used benchmark, split between an emergency fund and long-term investments. Below 10% leaves no room for the unexpected; above 30% is excellent if it is sustainable.
What percentage of income should go on rent?
Around 30% is the usual guideline, though metros often push households to 35–40%. What matters more is the combined housing and EMI figure — above 45% of income is where a household becomes fragile.
How large should an emergency fund be?
Six months of total monthly spending, kept somewhere liquid. For a single-income household or variable income, nine to twelve months is safer.
Does the 50-30-20 rule work in India?
As a rough frame, yes, but the proportions rarely fit. Indian households typically carry higher education and family support costs and lower discretionary spending than the rule assumes. The category comparison above is more useful than a single formula.