How to fill in the worksheet
Start with income. Enter your take-home pay for the month, the amount that reaches your bank account after taxes, plus any other money you can count on, like child support or a steady side job. If you are paid every two weeks, multiply one paycheck by 26 and divide by 12 to get a monthly figure.
Then go through last month's bank and card statements and fill in what you expect to spend in each category. Rename, add or remove lines so they match your life. The sheet adds up each group and works out the percentages for you.
You can also print a blank worksheet. It keeps the common category names but leaves every amount empty, so you can fill it in by pen, which is handy if you would rather not type your numbers into a website or you are handing copies out in a class.
The three groups
The worksheet sorts spending the same way as the 50/30/20 budget rule:
- Needs (50%) — rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, insurance, transportation to work, and the minimum payment on each debt. Things you would still have to pay if you lost your job tomorrow.
- Wants (30%) — eating out, entertainment, subscriptions, shopping, travel. Things you could cut for a month if you had to.
- Savings and debt (20%) — your emergency fund, retirement, other savings goals, and anything you pay on debt beyond the minimum.
Some lines are a judgment call. A basic phone plan is a need; the newest phone is partly a want. Groceries are a need; the coffee shop is a want. Sort it however feels honest to you, and keep it the same each month so the numbers are comparable.
Reading the 50/30/20 check
With the example filled in above, $4,000 of take-home pay splits into $2,200 of needs (55%), $1,000 of wants (25%) and $800 of savings and debt (20%). Needs are a little over the 50% target, wants are under 30%, and savings land right on 20%. That is a healthy budget, even though it doesn't match the rule exactly.
The Left to assign line shows income minus everything you planned. Aim for $0: every dollar has a job before the month starts. If it is positive, add the difference to savings or a debt. If it is negative, you have planned to spend more than you earn, and something in wants is the place to cut first.
Planned versus actual
A budget is a plan; the Actual column is what happened. Keep the sheet somewhere you will see it, and fill in the actual amounts as bills are paid, or sit down once a week with your bank app. At the end of the month, compare the two columns. The lines that ran over tell you where to adjust next month's plan, and the totals at the bottom show your real 50/30/20 split.
Most people find the first two or three months are off by quite a bit. That is normal. Each month the plan gets closer to reality.
Putting the 20% to work
Once you know how much you can set aside each month, the other TidyCalcs printables help you track it. The printable emergency fund tracker logs each deposit toward a cushion of three to six months of expenses, and the printable debt snowball worksheet turns your extra debt payment into a payoff plan. To see what you need to save each month for a specific goal, try the savings goal calculator.
For classes and workshops
If you teach personal finance or run a money workshop at a library, school or community program, you are welcome to print and photocopy the worksheet. The blank version works well as a group exercise: give everyone the same made-up monthly income and list of expenses, have them sort each one into needs, wants or savings, and then compare where each person ended up on the 50/30/20 check.