Monthly expense calculator for Pakistan
Most budget calculators are built for someone in another country, in another currency, with no bijli slabs and no school fees. This one starts from a Pakistani salary and gives you the whole month back.
Written for Pakistan · Prices in PKR · Updated August 2026
What this calculator does differently
A normal expense calculator hands you an empty grid and asks what you spend. If you knew that, you would not be searching for a calculator. That is the whole problem — the blank sheet asks you the question you came to have answered.
Guzara works the other way round. You tell it three things it can build on — what you take home, which city you live in, and who lives with you — and it fills in a realistic month before you touch anything. Rent, grocery, electricity, gas, water, internet, petrol, school fees, medical, savings. Then you drag whatever looks wrong, and everything else rebalances around it.
So you are never staring at an empty box. You are correcting a draft, which is a far easier thing for a person to do.
What a Pakistani monthly budget is actually made of
These are the lines that decide almost every household month in this country. If your sheet is missing one of them, your sheet is wrong.
| Category | What sits inside it | Typical share |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | Rent, or upkeep and repairs if the house is owned | 10–30% |
| Grocery | The full trolley — atta, meat, sabzi, dairy, masala, cleaning | 12–25% |
| Electricity | Slab-priced units, plus fuel adjustment, taxes and meter rent | 5–12% |
| Gas & water | Sui Gas, the water bill, bottled water | 1–3% |
| Internet & mobile | Broadband, and one package per working adult | 1–3% |
| Transport | Petrol, servicing, any car or bike installment, rides | 6–15% |
| School fees | Fees, van, books, uniforms — per child | 0–20% |
| Medical | Regular medicines, doctor visits, a real buffer | 2–6% |
| Family support | Money sent to parents or relatives every month | 0–15% |
| Lifestyle | Eating out, shopping, subscriptions, gym, trips | 5–20% |
| Savings | What survives the month on purpose, not by accident | 8–30% |
How much rent your salary supports, by city
Rent is the single decision that shapes everything after it, and it does not scale in a straight line with income. At Rs 100,000 a month, housing eats about 28% of what you take home. At Rs 600,000, the same standard of living costs about 11% — because rent rises much more slowly than salaries do.
| Take-home salary | Karachi | Lahore | Islamabad | Rawalpindi | Faisalabad | Multan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rs 60,000 | Rs 22,000 | Rs 20,000 | Rs 25,500 | Rs 16,500 | Rs 13,500 | Rs 12,000 |
| Rs 100,000 | Rs 28,000 | Rs 26,000 | Rs 32,500 | Rs 21,500 | Rs 17,500 | Rs 15,500 |
| Rs 150,000 | Rs 34,000 | Rs 31,500 | Rs 39,500 | Rs 26,000 | Rs 21,000 | Rs 19,000 |
| Rs 200,000 | Rs 39,500 | Rs 36,000 | Rs 45,500 | Rs 30,000 | Rs 24,500 | Rs 21,500 |
| Rs 300,000 | Rs 48,000 | Rs 44,000 | Rs 55,500 | Rs 36,500 | Rs 30,000 | Rs 26,500 |
| Rs 400,000 | Rs 55,500 | Rs 51,000 | Rs 64,000 | Rs 42,000 | Rs 34,500 | Rs 30,500 |
| Rs 600,000 | Rs 67,500 | Rs 62,000 | Rs 78,500 | Rs 51,500 | Rs 42,000 | Rs 37,000 |
| Rs 1,000,000 | Rs 86,500 | Rs 80,000 | Rs 100,500 | Rs 66,000 | Rs 54,000 | Rs 47,500 |
These are comfortable mid-points, not ceilings. You can pay more; the calculator will simply show you what it costs you elsewhere, in real rupees, on the same screen.
Why imported budget calculators fail here
- Electricity is not a flat rate. Pakistani tariffs are slabbed, so unit 601 costs more than double what unit 90 costs. A calculator with one "utilities" box cannot model that, and it is the difference between a Rs 28,000 bill and a Rs 50,000 one.
- School fees are a household bill, not a rare event. For a family with two children in private school, this is regularly the second-largest line after rent.
- Family support is normal. A large share of salaried Pakistanis send money to parents or siblings monthly. Almost no Western budgeting tool has a field for it.
- Household help is normal too, and so is a bike installment, a water tanker, and bottled water because the tap is not drinkable.
- Prices move fast. A budget built on last year's grocery bill is a budget built on a number that no longer exists.
Guzara has a field for every one of those, because it was built for here.
Stop guessing. See the actual number.
Answer a few questions about your salary, your city and your household. Guzara builds the whole month for you — and you can drag any line to see what it costs you elsewhere.
Build my plan — freeQuestions people actually ask
Is this expense calculator free?
Yes. It is completely free, there is no sign-up, no email and no payment step. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Do I need to create an account?
No. You open it and start answering. There is no login, so there is also nothing to remember or lose.
Does it work for a single person as well as a family?
Yes. You tell it how many adults, children and dependants live with you, and the whole plan — grocery basket, electricity units, medical buffer — scales to that household. A bachelor in a one-bed and a family of six get very different plans.
Are the prices current market rates?
They are realistic reference points for Pakistani cities, calibrated to be close to what things actually cost — not a live market feed. Treat the output as a well-informed estimate you then correct with your own real bills.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. It is built mobile-first, which is how most people in Pakistan will open it.
Can I use it if my income is irregular?
Use a conservative average of your last three to six months rather than your best month. A plan built on your best month will fail in your worst one.