The 50/30/20 Rule Adapted
The traditional 50/30/20 budgeting rule suggests putting 50% of your income toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings. However, when raising a family, the "needs" category easily balloons beyond 50% due to childcare, housing size requirements, and pediatric healthcare.
The Family Adaptation (60/20/20)
For most families, shifting to a 60% needs, 20% wants, and 20% savings model is far more realistic. The key is strict adherence to defining a "need". Groceries are a need; weekly takeout because you are exhausted is a want.
Step 1: Audit The Last 90 Days
Print out your bank statements. Grab a highlighter. Highlight every mandatory fixed expense. What remains is your discretionary baseline.
Budget Compiler Tool
Input your monthly figures below. This client-side tool calculates your baseline and outputs a downloadable text summary without saving any of your data to our servers.