Before you get started
Gather up bills, bank and credit card statements or transaction history (digital or paper) for the last 3 months (or as much as you can).
Try to include cash purchases – and any annual payments, like car insurance – that might not show up on your transaction history, to create a clear picture of you’re spending.
We’ve used the 50-30-20 budget rule as a guide to help you assess your spending. It’s just a guide, but the idea is you should spend 50% of your income on needs (essentials), 30% on wants (non-essentials) and 20% on savings, or paying off debt.
Budget calculator
Use our budgeting tool to help you calculate your monthly spending. It can help you decide if you’re happy with where your money’s going and see where you could make some positive changes.
Budget planner spreadsheet
If you'd like to look at your finances in more detail, you can download our easy-to-use spreadsheet. Don't worry, you don't need to be a whiz on Excel to use this, all you need to do is put in your weekly/monthly amounts and the spreadsheet will do the rest. We also have a good old-fashioned printout option too.
Remember it's better to guess larger than smaller to give yourself a bit of a buffer.