Free monthly budget planner
Start with the month you actually live. Not a perfect ratio.
See what is left after essentials, debt payments, flexible spending, saving and the annual bills that tend to “unexpectedly” arrive every year.
No sign-in. Entries stay in this browser and are not added to Compass.
Map a typical month
Add the amounts that fit your household. There is no prescribed split or ideal percentage here.
Your result
- Planned outgoings
- £0
- Monthly margin
- £0
- Annual margin
- £0
- Margin of take-home
- —
per month
after all entries
monthly margin × 12
add take-home to calculate
Your entries stay in this browser and are not sent to Compass. This plan is a simple snapshot, not financial advice.
See the rest of your finances in CompassA budget that survives contact with reality
Five habits matter more than a fashionable split.
01
Choose the household
Budget for yourself or for the household, but do not mix one person’s income with everybody’s costs.
02
Use evidence
Check payslips, statements and real bills. Memory is unusually generous about small spending and unusually vague about annual renewals.
03
Make irregular costs monthly
Divide yearly insurance, servicing, school costs, gifts and similar bills by twelve so the calendar does not ambush the budget.
04
Name the margin
A positive remainder is not automatically spare. Decide what protects the next month, funds a known goal or stays flexible.
05
Review, do not restart
Spend ten minutes comparing plan with reality. Adjust the weak estimate; do not declare the whole budget a moral failure.
Budget is not net worth
Healthy assets can hide a fragile month. A tight month can hide long-term progress.
Cash flow asks whether income covers current outgoings. Net worth asks whether the value of everything owned exceeds everything owed, and how that position changes over time. You need both views; neither rescues bad assumptions in the other.
Calculate the other side of the picture →Useful official help
A more detailed free planner using income and spending categories, with guidance on what to do next.
Context on building a buffer, priority debts and the often-used three-to-six-month rule of thumb.
Confidential help if payments are being missed or the budget cannot be made to balance. A calculator is not debt advice.
Links and wording reviewed 10 August 2026. MoneyHelper is separate from Compass.
From one month to the longer view
Keep the budget honest. Let the balance sheet show what it is building.
Compass tracks the household position, goals and decisions around your money. It is not a transaction-level budgeting service and will not pretend to know spending you have not recorded.