Budget percentages: how much of your income to spend on each category

The short answer: good budget percentages, based on take-home pay, are about 25-35% for housing, 10-15% for food, 10-15% for transportation and 10-20% for savings. Pick a spot in each range that fits your life.

• Other ranges: utilities 5-10%, insurance and health 5-10%, debt payments 0-10%, fun and entertainment 5-10%
• Starter split: housing 30%, utilities 6%, food 12%, transportation 12%, insurance and health 7%
• Treat every number as a starting point, not a grade
• Examples at three incomes and what U.S. households really spend are below
• Next step: Plan it with the Annual Budget Spreadsheet ($6.99).

A good set of budget percentages, based on take-home pay, looks like this: about 25-35% for housing, 5-10% for utilities, 10-15% for food, 10-15% for transportation, 5-10% for insurance and health, 10-20% for savings, up to 10% for debt payments, and the rest split between personal, family, giving and fun. Those ranges add up to more than 100%, so you choose a spot in each range that fits your life. Below is the full list by category, a starter version that adds up to exactly 100%, examples at three incomes and what the average U.S. household really spends.

The Annual Budget Spreadsheet ($6.99) tracks planned vs. actual spending by category for all 12 months, so you can see each category's real share of your income instead of guessing.

What budget percentages are (and why they help)

A budget percentage is the share of your income that goes to one category. If you take home $4,000 a month and rent is $1,200, housing is 30% of your budget. That's all it is: category ÷ take-home pay × 100.

Percentages are useful because they travel. A dollar amount that works for one family is useless for another, but "housing is eating 45% of our pay" tells you something no matter what you earn. They also give you a quick way to spot the one or two categories that throw everything else off.

Two ground rules for this guide:

• Use take-home pay (what lands in your account after taxes and payroll deductions). If retirement comes out of your paycheck before you see it, count it toward savings.
• Treat every number as a starting point, not a grade. Your city, family size and debts matter more than any chart.

If you want the simple three-bucket version first, read our guide to the 50/30/20 budget. This page goes one level deeper, category by category.

Recommended budget percentages by category

Here's the big grouped list. Each group shows a typical range as a share of take-home pay, plus what belongs in it. For the full list of line items to choose from, see our budget categories list.

1. Housing: 25-35%

• Rent or mortgage payment
• Property taxes and homeowners or renters insurance (if not in the payment)
• HOA or condo fees
• Basic repairs and maintenance

2. Utilities: 5-10%

• Electric, gas, water, sewer and trash
• Phone and internet
• Streaming only if you count it as a utility (most people put it in fun)

3. Food: 10-15%

• Groceries and household staples
• School lunches and work lunches
• Takeout, restaurants and coffee runs

4. Transportation: 10-15%

• Car payment
• Fuel or charging, car insurance, registration and parking
• Maintenance, tires and repairs
• Bus, train and rideshare

5. Insurance and health: 5-10%

• Health insurance premiums not taken from your check
• Copays, prescriptions, dental and vision
• Life and disability insurance

6. Savings and investing: 10-20%

• Emergency fund
• Retirement contributions
• Sinking funds for irregular costs (car registration, holidays, back-to-school)
• Education savings

7. Debt payments: 0-10%

• Credit card payments
• Student loans
• Personal loans and medical payment plans

8. Personal and family: 5-10%

• Childcare and kids' activities
• Clothing and shoes
• Haircuts, toiletries and personal care

9. Giving: 0-10%

• Church, charity and causes you care about
• Birthday and holiday gifts (or keep these in a sinking fund)

10. Fun and entertainment: 5-10%

• Streaming, hobbies and outings
• Date nights and family days out
• Travel and vacations

11. Miscellaneous buffer: 2-5%

• Small surprises that don't fit anywhere else
• A cushion so one odd expense doesn't break the month

Savings and debt work together. If you're paying down credit cards, debt might take 10% and savings 5% for a while. Once the debt is gone, move that money to savings so the total stays the same.

A starter budget that adds up to 100%

If you'd rather start with one set of numbers, use this. It lands in the middle of each range and adds up to exactly 100% of take-home pay.

Treat this as your first draft. After a month of real numbers, move a few points between categories until it fits.

Budget percentages in dollars: three examples

Here's the same starter split at three monthly take-home amounts.

At $3,000 a month, $900 for housing is hard to find in many cities. That's normal. When housing runs high, the money has to come from transportation, fun and savings rather than from the grocery budget. The adjustment section below shows how.

What the average household actually spends

It helps to compare your numbers with real data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditures 2025 release reports that the average household spent $81,905 in 2025. Here's how that spending broke down:

Three things to notice:

1. These are shares of spending, not income. Average income before taxes was $110,847, so the gap includes taxes and anything households saved.
2. Housing in the BLS data includes utilities and furnishings. Your 30% housing line plus 6% utilities lines up closely with that 33.9%.
3. Transportation is bigger than most people expect. At 16.5%, it's often the second-best place to look for savings after housing.

Is 30% of income for housing still realistic?

The 30% guideline comes from federal housing policy. As the Census Bureau explains in its release on renter households that are cost burdened, HUD considers households cost burdened when they spend more than 30% of income on rent, mortgage payments and other housing costs, and severely cost burdened above 50%. The same release found that 49.7% of renter households paid more than 30% in 2023, so if you're over the line, you have a lot of company.

Two details matter when you use it:

• The 30% guideline is usually measured against gross income. Thirty percent of take-home pay is a stricter target, so don't panic if you're a little over on a take-home basis.
• It's a warning line, not a pass or fail. In high-cost areas, many families pay 35-40%. If that's you, keep transportation, debt and fun lower so the whole budget still works.

How to find your own budget percentages in 6 steps

1. Write down your monthly take-home pay. If your income changes, use your lowest normal month.
2. Pull last month's spending. Bank and card statements are enough.
3. Sort every expense into the categories above. Keep it to 10-15 categories.
4. Divide each category by your take-home pay. Multiply by 100 to get the percentage.
5. Compare with the ranges. Circle anything far above its range.
6. Set next month's targets. Move a few points at a time. Big cuts rarely last.

The Zero-Based Budget Spreadsheet ($6.99) has grouped categories (housing, food, saving and more) and a "Left to budget" counter that turns green when every dollar has a job, so your percentages always add up to 100%.

How to adjust the percentages for your life

No chart knows your situation. Here's how the numbers usually shift:

• High-cost city: Housing 35-40%. Trim transportation (one car, transit) and fun, and keep savings at 10% or more.
• Paying off debt: Debt 10-20% until the balances are gone. Fun and personal spending drop to the low end for a season. Our guide to the debt snowball vs. avalanche helps you choose the order.
• Young kids and childcare: Personal and family can jump to 15% or more. Housing, fun and giving usually come down to make room.
• Single income: Build a bigger emergency fund first. The Federal Reserve's Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 report found 63% of adults would cover a $400 emergency with cash or its equivalent, so a cushion puts you ahead.
• Irregular income: Base your percentages on your lowest normal month, and put anything extra straight into savings.
• Big earner: Try to raise savings to 20-30% instead of letting housing and lifestyle grow with every raise.

Other budget percentage rules you'll hear about

All four use the same idea: decide the share first, then spend inside it. The category percentages on this page simply break "needs" and "wants" into smaller pieces you can actually track.

Starter version: if your numbers look scary

If your first look shows housing at 45% and savings at 0%, start smaller:

1. Cover the four walls first: housing, utilities, food and transportation.
2. Save 1-5%, even if it's $25 a paycheck. The habit matters more than the amount.
3. Pick one category to bring down, usually food away from home, subscriptions or fun.
4. Revisit the percentages every month. Slow progress is still progress.

For more on where your savings line should land, see how much of your paycheck to save and how to build an emergency fund.

Tools that do the percentage math for you

The Annual Budget Spreadsheet ($6.99) starts with a setup tab where you name your categories and plan amounts, then shows planned vs. actual for each category across 12 monthly tabs, with over-budget alerts in red. The Budget Planner Printable ($5.99) gives you the same plan on paper, with budget, bills, spending, savings and debt pages. For irregular costs, the Sinking Funds Tracker ($4.99) works out a monthly amount for each goal.

If you want them all, the Ultimate Budget Bundle has all six budget spreadsheets plus both printable planners for $19.99 (reg. $46.42 bought separately). Browse the full line in our Spreadsheets shop.

This guide is general education, not financial advice. Your best budget percentages are the ones you can keep month after month.

Percentages set the targets; habits keep them. See our budgeting tips for 50 ways to make the numbers hold month after month.