Put your monthly income in one box and your monthly spending in the other, press Calculate, and get three things back: what went out, what is left, and where it went by category. If the number at the bottom is negative, it tells you straight rather than hiding it.
It is for students on their first real budget, the kind where rent comes out on the first and there is a quiet week every month before payday. It needs no login, no bank connection and nothing gets saved when you close the tab, so you can be as honest as you like about the coffee line.
The one detail worth knowing up front: categories are free text and the tool matches them exactly. Put “Groceries” on two lines and they merge into one bucket; put “groceries” on a third line and it becomes its own bucket worth looking at twice.
Track your monthly income and expenses. See where your money goes and how much you have left at the end of the month.
How it works
Enter your monthly income, the money you actually receive after deductions, from a job, OSAP or other aid, family support, or any mix of those. Then list expenses one per line in the form Category, Amount, for example Rent, 800. It refuses to run without an income above zero, and it refuses without at least one line it can read, telling you the format instead of returning zeros.
Everything after that is arithmetic. Lines are split on the comma, the amount is parsed, and each valid line joins a running total while its category gets its own subtotal. The summary table shows income, total expenses and the remaining balance, labelled Surplus when it is positive and Deficit when it is not. A second table breaks spending by category with each one’s share of total spending to one decimal place. A third table lists every line as entered.
Underneath sits the guideline the tool works to: keep expenses under 80% of income, and if there is a surplus, put it toward an emergency fund or debt. Reset clears both boxes.
A worked example
Income of $2,000 and five lines: Rent 800, Groceries 320, Transit 96, Phone 45, Coffee 60. Total spending comes to $1,321.00, leaving $679.00 and a Surplus label. As a share of what went out: rent 60.6%, groceries 24.2%, transit 7.3%, coffee 4.5%, phone 3.4%, which adds to 100.0%. Against income, $1,321 of $2,000 is 66.0%, comfortably inside the 80% guideline, where 80% would be $1,600.
Now a tighter month. Income $1,200 with six lines: Rent 700, Groceries 300, Transit 96, Phone 45, Eating out 150, Textbooks 60. Total is $1,351.00, so the balance is -$151.00 and the label flips to Deficit. The category shares are rent 51.8%, groceries 22.2%, eating out 11.1%, transit 7.1%, textbooks 4.4%, phone 3.3%, and those round to 99.9% rather than 100% because each is rounded separately. That is rounding, not missing money.
Try the merge case as well: Groceries 120, Rent 800, Groceries 65 gives two Groceries rows collapsing into one at $185.00, so the category table shows two rows totalling $985.00 instead of three.
Honest limits and the mistakes people make
This is a snapshot of one month, not a tracker. There is no history, no chart from February to March, and nothing to compare against last term. Run it again whenever you want, but the comparison is yours to keep.
The usual mistake is mixing timescales: a $600 laptop and a $40 textbook haul are real costs, but they are not monthly ones, and putting them in a monthly list makes a perfectly normal month look like a crisis. Note them separately, or spread them over the months they actually belong to.
The other mistake is entering gross pay instead of take-home. If your payslip says $1,400 but $310 goes to tax and deductions, your budget runs on the $1,090 that arrives. And be strict about the category names, because “Groceries” and “groceries” will not add up together.
Finally, 80% is a guideline and a decent one, not a rule. A month with a course fee or a flight home can blow past it without meaning your budget is broken. Check the category table first: if the overspend is in one identifiable line, that is a decision you made, and if it is spread across everything, that is a different problem.
Other tools
- student discount calculator — work out what you save before it disappears into the coffee line
- student loan repayment — for the month when the grace period ends
- T2202 tuition credit — the tax side of what you are spending on school
Frequently asked questions
How much should a student budget per month?
It depends entirely on the city and on whether rent is in the list, but most students land between $1,500 and $2,500. Housing usually takes 40 to 50% of it, food 15 to 20%, transport around 10%, and the rest splits between supplies, subscriptions and whatever is left to save.
What counts as income here?
Money you can spend: after-tax wages, loans and grants that actually land in your account, and support you can rely on. A number that includes tax you will never see will produce a surplus that does not exist in April.
Should savings be an expense line?
Treat it as one if you can. Moving $50 to savings the moment you are paid makes it a fixed cost like rent, and you stop thinking of it as available. Even $50 to $100 a month builds a buffer that stops a surprise bill becoming a credit card balance.
Why does my category percentage not add to 100?
Because each share is rounded to one decimal on its own. Six rows can land at 99.9% or 100.1% while the dollar figures are exact. The money is all there, the display just lost a tenth at the end.