How this number is made
A budget leftover is income minus the bills you named. “Everything else” has to include the subscriptions, the kids, and the spending you pretend is irregular, or the leftover is fiction. This is one month. The 50/30/20 page sorts the same income into three buckets instead of naming the bills.
- Income should be the take-home you actually deposit, if the bills are paid from take-home.
- A yearly bill belongs here as a twelfth if you do not want it to ambush you.
Formula
Leftover = income − housing − food − transport − debt − everything else.
Worked example
With the figures already in the form, left this month is $1,200.00.
Questions
What if the leftover is negative?
The month spends more than it takes in. The pie still shows the bills. The headline is the hole.
Where do savings go?
In everything else, if you mean to save. A leftover you do not move is not savings yet.