• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Home
About Us Contact Us Advertising
Articles
Budgeting Debt Frugal Insurance Investing Making Money Retirement Saving Money
Tips
Money Saving Tips Trash Audit
Make Money Forums Blogs
Create a Blog Control Panel All Entries All Blogs
Tools
Calculators Prescription Drug Coupons Online Savings Accounts Test Your Knowledge Financial Directory Credit Cards

SavingAdvice.com Blog

Bridging the gap between saving money and investing

Subscribe

 

Welcome Back, !

  • Home
    • Advertising
  • Tips
    • Money Saving Tips
    • Recycle, Reuse and Repurpose
  • Make Money
  • Credit Score Guide
  • Forums
  • Blogs
    • Create a Blog
  • Tools
  • Financial Basics
    • Back to Basics: Saving Money
    • Back to Basics: Beginners Guide to Retirement
    • Back to Basics: What Every Child Under 10 Should Know About Personal Finance
    • Back to Financial Basics: Investing In Stocks

How to Set Budget Percentages

March 22, 2017 by Amanda Blankenship

Budget Percentages
Setting up a budget can be difficult, especially if you are trying to budget for an entire family. When you sit down to set up a budget for the first time you may have a lot of questions. The sole purpose of setting a budget is to get your spending habits into check and identify areas where you can save money. One of the most difficult numbers to come up with while making a budget are the percentages of your annual or monthly income that should go to certain categories within your budget.

To find your personal budget percentages you can identify the average spending percentages nationally. For instance, if the average American spends 24 percent of their monthly income on housing you can use that percentage in your budget as a guideline. You can also track your spending and create percentages off what you already spend. So, how should you go about setting up your personal budget percentages?

Setting Budget Percentages

The amount of money you need for the “perfect” budget depends on a number of factors. Where you live, if you have small children, health issues, etc. For example, a married couple with no kids will spend far more money on clothing and entertainment than a married couple with three children. Also, lower income families tend to spend more money on food than higher income families. Spending from family-to-family and even between individuals varies by income level, family size and your overall location. Since these three things can differ greatly from situation-to-siutation there is no truly perfect combination of budget percentages.

Average Budget Percentages

Average budget percentages across the United States are figured out by taking a look at the budget percentages of everyone in America. These percentages include individuals as well as families in the U.S. Here are the national average budget percentages in the U.S.:

CategoryPercentage of Overall Spending
Housing24%
Utilities8%
Food14%
Clothing4%
Medical6%
Donations4%
Savings/Insurance9%
Entertainment5%
Transportation14%
Personal/Debt Payments12%

The percentages in the table were gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey. These numbers are simply the national average. They may not work for everyone’s personal budget. Along with family, location and overall income, your other personal finance goals may come into play. For instance, if you are trying to pay off debt your budget may look a lot differently than someone who holds no debt. What budget percentages should you use if you are trying to get out of debt? Dave Ramsey, hailed a financial guru, weighed in on the budget percentages and how much each category should be allocated. Here are his numbers:

CategoryPercentages
Housing25-35%
Utilities5-10%
Transportation10-15%
Healthcare5-10%
Food5-15%
Investments5-10%
Debt Payments5-10%
Donations5-15%
Entertainment5-9%
Personal2-7%

How to Create Budget Percentages

Budget Percentages
No budget will ever be the same, however, everyone has to start somewhere. You can use the national average percentages or even the percentages Dave Ramsey charted out to begin your budget. You will likely have to do some tweaking to fit your personal needs but these percentages provide a good guideline. You will be able to identify within weeks areas where you can spend less and areas where you may have to spend more. Where budgets are concerned you will have to alter everything to whatever works best for you.

Budgeting Apps

There are a few budgeting apps and other tools readily available to you that may help with your budget. One of the most popular apps, Mint, helps you create a budget with personalized percentages. It gives you alerts to areas where it thinks you can trim your budget and it will also give you alerts when bills are due. You can get the Mint app for most devices (both Android and Apple products). If you don’t like the Mint app there are a number of other apps you can use to help create a budget for yourself and your family.

What budget percentages do you use? Do you think these percentages are accurate? Let us know in the comments.

Photos: CafeCredit.com and jridgewayphotography

Amanda Blankenship
Amanda Blankenship is a full-time stay-at-home mom. Her family recently welcomed their second child, a baby boy, into the world. She loves writing about various topics, including politics and personal finance. In her spare time, Amanda loves to play with her kids, make food from scratch, crochet, and read.

Reader Interactions

What did you think about this article?
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading...

Comments

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Primary Sidebar

    • Articles
    • Tips
    • Make Money
    • Credit Score Guide
    • Forums
    • Blogs
    • Tools
    • About
    • Contact

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
    Your subscription has been successful.
    Copyright © 2025 SavingAdvice.com. All Rights Reserved.
    • Privacy Policy