Methodology

You should be able to check our arithmetic. Here's exactly how the "available to spend" figure is produced, what it assumes, and where it stops being reliable.

The calculation

available = income − fixed costs − savings and goals − planned future costs

• Income — take-home pay and other reliable income, normalised to a month. Weekly × 52 ÷ 12; four-weekly × 13 ÷ 12. Irregular income is best entered at a conservative level.
• Fixed costs — recurring commitments: housing, utilities, insurance, travel, subscriptions, minimum debt repayments.
• Savings and goals — amounts you've chosen to keep funding, treated as committed, not spare.
• Planned future costs — a known one-off is divided by the number of months before it's due. A £1,200 trip six months away contributes £200 a month from now.

Forward view

The 3, 6 and 12-month figures multiply the monthly amount by that number of months, after any dated one-off costs falling inside that window have been deducted. When you add a new goal, the same projection re-runs so you can see the effect of the decision before you make it.

Assumptions

• Income and fixed costs continue at the level you entered.
• Amounts are treated as monthly unless you give them a date.
• No inflation, interest or investment growth is modelled.
• Nothing is spent from savings unless you tell us it is.

Limits

The output is only as good as the input. Costs you haven't recorded won't appear, variable income will make the forward view less certain, and no plan can anticipate a genuine emergency — which is why we always suggest keeping a buffer outside the spendable figure. This is a planning tool, not financial advice, and nothing here is a guarantee about your finances.

See it in action

Run your own numbers in the future spending planner, or read how it works.