ContractLifeFixed costs calculator: your monthly total in seconds
Enter your amounts and see the monthly total and your fixed-cost ratio straight away. Annual payments are converted to a month for you. No sign-up, no cost.
Enter your fixed costs
Your entries never leave your device — the calculation runs directly in the browser and nothing is stored.
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What belongs in the calculator
- Housing – rent or loan instalment, plus utilities, electricity and gas as a monthly payment on account.
- Contracts – mobile, internet, insurance, memberships, club fees.
- Subscriptions – streaming, music, cloud, software, magazines, the gym.
- Getting around – leasing or financing instalment, car insurance, road tax, season ticket.
- Annual amounts – do not divide by twelve yourself, just switch the item to “per year”.
- Regular savings – count them in if they leave your account automatically every month.
What are fixed costs?
Fixed costs are the expenses that recur at the same amount without you deciding about them anew each month. Rent, electricity, insurance, mobile, subscriptions and membership fees are debited for as long as the contract runs. Their counterpart is variable costs such as groceries, fuel or clothes: those fluctuate, and you decide about them day by day. That distinction is precisely why the exercise pays off. You cut variable costs by going without, and you feel it immediately. You cut fixed costs once — by cancelling, switching tariff or switching provider — and the effect keeps working every month afterwards without you having to hold back at all. Knowing your fixed costs also tells you how much money is genuinely free. Most people lack that figure, because the amounts are scattered across different accounts, debit dates and payment methods — and because insurance billed once a year simply never shows up in a monthly budget.
Fixed or variable?
The classification is less obvious than it sounds. These items cause the most confusion:
| Item | Fixed or variable? |
|---|---|
| Rent and utilities | Fixed. Changes only with an adjustment or a move. |
| Electricity and gas | Fixed in the monthly payment on account, variable in the annual bill. |
| Mobile and internet | Fixed for as long as the tariff runs. Add-ons come on top. |
| Insurance | Fixed, but often debited annually rather than monthly. |
| Streaming and subscriptions | Fixed — and the item that grows most quietly. |
| Groceries and fuel | Variable. They do not belong in this calculator. |
The fixed-cost ratio
The fixed-cost ratio puts your fixed costs in relation to your income: fixed costs divided by net income, times 100. With €1,400 of fixed costs and €2,800 net, that is 50 %. The figure on its own says little — it becomes interesting compared against yourself, calculated before and after a switch or a cancellation.
As rough orientation, the 50/30/20 budgeting rule of thumb gets passed around: roughly half of net income for fixed expenses, 30 % for wants, 20 % for saving. It comes from American personal-finance writing and is not a standard: anyone living in an expensive city will almost inevitably sit above it without doing anything wrong.
Where to start
Do not work from memory — work from three months of bank statements, because only then do the quarterly and annual debits show up. The second place to look is your phone’s subscription settings: subscriptions booked through your app account slip past every household list, because they are debited as a bundle rather than one by one. Enter the large items first, then the small ones — the sum of the small ones is usually the surprise.
General orientation, not financial advice — the calculator only reflects your own entries.
How do I calculate my monthly fixed costs?
Collect every recurring payment, divide annual amounts by twelve and then add them up. The calculator above takes the second step off your hands: set the item to “per year” and enter the annual amount. What matters is completeness, not accuracy to the cent — one forgotten item distorts the result more than a rounded amount.
What counts as a fixed cost?
Everything debited regularly and without a fresh decision: rent, utilities, electricity, insurance, mobile, internet, subscriptions, memberships, leasing and loan instalments. Regular savings count too if they go out automatically. What does not count is spending whose size you decide on month by month.
What does the fixed-cost ratio tell me?
It shows how much of your net income is already committed before the month even starts. The higher the ratio, the smaller your room for manoeuvre when something unexpected comes up. What really tells you something is the change over time: the same calculation before and after switching provider shows in black and white what the switch achieved.
How do I convert annual payments to a month?
Annual amount divided by twelve. For half-yearly payments divide by six, for quarterly ones by three. In the calculator it is enough to set the item to “per year” — the conversion then happens automatically. This mainly affects insurance, club fees and annual subscriptions, which otherwise stay invisible in a monthly budget.
Do groceries and fuel count as fixed costs?
No. Both are variable costs: the amount fluctuates and you keep deciding about it. They belong in a household budget, but not in this calculation. The whole point of the distinction is to make visible the part you can only influence through contracts.
What does the fixed costs calculator cost?
Nothing. The calculator is free, with no sign-up and no email address. There is no registration and no paywall in front of the result.
Are my entries stored?
No. The calculation runs entirely in your browser. No amounts are transmitted, stored or analysed — close the tab and your entries are gone.