What survives the month?
Salary in, real life out. We compute your take-home with the same GOV.UK-verified engine as the calculator, then subtract what your month actually costs.
What’s actually left
each month?
Enter your salary and monthly costs, we work out your real take-home first, then show what survives the month.
How this calculator works
Most budget tools ask what you earn and take your word for the tax. This one computes your take-home first, with the same GOV.UK-verified engine as the main calculator: income tax band by band, National Insurance, and your tax year and country. Your costs then come off the number you actually receive, not the number on your contract.
Every cost is monthly. The weekly figure divides the month by 4.345 (the average number of weeks in a month), and the yearly figure multiplies by 12. Nothing you enter leaves your browser: the amounts live in the page address only if you copy a share link, which makes a saved budget as simple as bookmarking the URL.
Questions people ask
Why does it start from salary rather than take-home pay?
Because most people know their salary precisely and their take-home only roughly. Computing the deductions removes the biggest source of error in a budget. If you have a pension or student loan, set them in the main calculator first and the same options carry through the link.
What counts as a reasonable amount left over?
There is no single right answer, and this tool deliberately does not score you. A widely used starting point is the 50/30/20 shape (needs, wants, saving), but housing costs vary so much by area that the split only makes sense against your own numbers. The affordability pages show what housing actually costs where you live.
Is anything I type saved anywhere?
No. The maths runs in your browser and nothing is sent to a server or stored, as set out in the privacy policy. Close the tab and it is gone, unless you copied the share link.