Household Budget Simulator
A household's finances hang together. A rent increase eats into the saving, a cancelled subscription shows up in what you have in ten years, and another child raises several rows at once. The Household Budget Simulator lets you visualise your whole financial picture: pay in, expenses out, the monthly surplus, and what that surplus grows into by the time you reach your goal. It is a what-if budget calculator: change one figure and every number downstream moves with it. Pay goes in as take-home pay, what actually lands in the account. Nothing is sent to us, and the whole setup fits in a link. Read it as a worked example, not a verdict.
Household Budget Simulator
Describe your household on the left, read the answer on the right. Change one row and the whole chain moves with it.
Household and income
Expenses
Drag the slider or type the amount.
Only changes the rows that have a reference.
Ref €1,002
No reference
Ref €285
Ref €180
No reference
Ref €174
Ref €251
Ref €197
Ref €270
No reference
No reference
No reference
No reference
The sliders add up to €4,722. The levers below change the total.
The mark on each scale is a 2026 reference figure from the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket), worked out for your household composition. Those reference values reach only about 40 percent of what a household spends: housing, transport and loans have none. Your own amounts are counted in the chain either way. Rescaled to Ireland with Eurostat price level indices for 2024. An index moves prices and not quantities, so the same shopping is assumed.
Saving and goal
What is left at the end of the month flows straight down here.
Following the surplus: €369.
Type an amount and the goal line appears.
Advanced: saving and returns
Zero means the same amount every year.
Return per scenario
Seven percent is a historical average for a global index fund before tax and fees, not a promise. All three are yours to change.
A worked example, not financial advice. Neither tax nor fees are modelled.
What if
Pull a lever and follow the ripple through the chain.
Counted with Savings account 2 %.
Income: €5,091 - Expenses: €4,722
Expenses are larger than income. The shortfall is drawn as its own band on the way in.
What the saving grows into
€369/month over 20 years, three assumptions.
- Under the mattress 0 % In 20 yr €93,018 Goal in 10 years
- Savings account 2 % In 20 yr €115,452 Goal in 9 years
- Index fund 7 % In 20 yr €210,390 Goal in 7 years
Enter an income or an expense and the flow appears.
Who pays what
The shared expenses split between the adults.
- Adult 1 Share 50 % Pays €2,361 Left of own pay €366
- Adult 2 Share 50 % Pays €2,361 Left of own pay €3
Allowances and other income sit outside the split, so the rows do not add up to what is left over.
No pay is filled in, so the shares are shown equally.
See the figures year by year
| Year | Under the mattress | Savings account | Index fund |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | €4,545 | €4,545 | €4,545 |
| 2 | €13,393 | €13,750 | €14,693 |
| 4 | €22,240 | €23,329 | €26,361 |
| 5 | €26,664 | €28,265 | €32,835 |
| 7 | €35,511 | €38,436 | €47,221 |
| 9 | €44,358 | €49,022 | €63,762 |
| 11 | €53,205 | €60,040 | €82,781 |
| 13 | €62,053 | €71,507 | €104,649 |
| 15 | €70,900 | €83,442 | €129,794 |
| 16 | €75,324 | €89,591 | €143,745 |
| 18 | €84,171 | €102,263 | €174,746 |
| 20 | €93,018 | €115,452 | €210,390 |
Share the setup
The link carries the whole configuration and stays editable.
The figures are kept in this browser. No account, and nothing is sent anywhere.
A worked example, not a verdict. The figures are your own and the example households are illustrations with round amounts.
Amounts are converted to EUR at an approximate rate (about 11 kr per €). The tool computes in Swedish kronor and converts only what you see.
From a worked example to daily life Planning is what moves the figures The simulator shows what a change would do. EpiHem is the tool for making it: the meal plan that writes the shopping list, the receipts that show where the money went, and the shared expenses worked out for you. Read more about EpiHemSources for the reference marks: the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket), calculated household costs 2026, rescaled to your country with Eurostat price level indices for 2024. Every other amount is one you entered.
Where the reference marks come from
Seven of the thirteen expense rows carry a reference mark. It is the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) and their calculated household costs for 2026, worked out for your composition of adults and children. Those are calculated norms for Sweden: what a household may need to spend, not statistics on what households actually spend, and not a figure measured where you live. Housing, transport and loans have no reference at all, which is why their tables reach only about 40 percent of what a household spends.
Pick your country and each mark is rescaled to it, with Eurostat price level
indices for 2024 (dataset prc_ppp_ind, EU average = 100): the Swedish figure times
that country's price level for the row, divided by Sweden's. Pick Sweden and the factor is
exactly one, so the figures are Konsumentverket's own. A price level index scales
prices, not baskets, so the same shopping is assumed either way. Where Eurostat
publishes no price levels per category, the tool shows no marks at all.
The mark is a starting point to drag away from, never a score. Every other amount here is one you typed, and no benefit or tax rule is assumed.
Read the proportions, not just the totals
Because the amounts are yours, the interesting part is the shape. The flow diagram shows where the monthly budget goes, in bands sized by what you spend, so an expense that felt small can turn out to be one of the widest. The split view answers the question two adults with different pay keep coming back to: what is a fair share of the shared bills, and what is left of each person's own pay afterwards. Neither view scores you. Colour here says which row a band or a curve belongs to and nothing else: no result is painted as a pass or a fail, and there is no scolding anywhere in this tool.
What the saving grows into
The monthly surplus flows down into the saving on its own, and three curves show what the same amount becomes under three different assumptions: money sitting still, a savings account, and an index fund at a long-run historical average. All three percentages are editable, because they are assumptions, not forecasts. The tool models neither tax nor fees, and this is a worked example, not financial advice. If the expenses exceed the income, that is drawn as a deficit and the curves fall. A minus is information, not a grade.
Want to cut the food bill for real?
Food is the biggest row in the simulator that you can actually move in the week ahead, unlike rent and loan payments. Run the numbers on that part in the meal planning savings calculator, which splits it into packed lunches, less food waste and smarter shopping (its amounts are built on Swedish reference prices, so read its percentages if you live elsewhere). For the routine step by step, the guide weekly meal planning walks through it.
And when the figures have to become daily life: the receipts show where the money actually went, the statistics show how the months move, and the household sees the same figures at the same moment. The simulator is a worked example. Following up is what makes it true.
Now you know the figures. Here is how you work with them.
Common questions
What does the simulator work out?
One chain, end to end. What comes in each month, what goes out per category, what is left over, how the shared expenses divide between two adults, what the surplus grows into under three different return assumptions, and which year a goal amount is reached. Change one expense and the surplus, the flow diagram, the curves and the goal year all move with it. Treat it as a worked example, not a verdict.
Are my figures saved anywhere?
No, nothing is sent to us. The figures stay in this browser and in the share link you choose to create. That link carries the whole configuration, so whoever opens it gets a living, editable view and can share it back. Clear the browser storage and the figures are gone; there is no account to delete.
Where do the reference marks come from?
From the Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket) and their calculated household costs for 2026. The mark on each expense slider is worked out for your composition of adults and children, from the agency tables per age band and household size. They are calculated norms for Sweden, not statistics on what households actually spend, and not a figure measured where you live. Seven of the thirteen rows carry one; housing, transport and loans carry none. The mark is a starting point to drag away from, and nothing in the result is scored against it.
Are the return figures a forecast?
No. The three scenarios are assumptions you set and can change: zero for money sitting still, a low rate for a savings account, and a long-run historical average for a broad index fund. A historical average is not a promise about the future, and the tool models neither tax nor fees. It is a worked example, not financial advice.
How do we split the expenses if we earn different amounts?
The simulator shows both of the usual ways and picks neither for you: split equally, or split in proportion to income. For each adult you see the share of the shared expenses and what is left of their own pay.
What does the country selector change?
Two things, and neither of them is an amount you entered. Each reference mark is rescaled to the country you pick, with Eurostat price level indices for 2024, one index per expense row: the Swedish figure times the price level for that row in your country, divided by the Swedish one. And the amounts are shown in the currency of that country, converted from Swedish kronor at an approximate rate from the European Central Bank reference rates, refreshed about once a year rather than live. A price level index scales prices and not quantities, so a rescaled mark still assumes the Swedish shopping list it was calculated for. Where Eurostat publishes no price levels per category, including for the United Kingdom and the United States, the tool shows no marks at all rather than a figure with a guess inside it. It opens on Ireland, and therefore in euro.