How it works
How to plan a budget
with PesewaPeeper
PesewaPeeper's free budget calculator makes it easy to plan how you spend your money — no account required, no data stored unless you choose to share. This guide walks you through each step from entering your income to exporting or sharing your finished budget.
Step-by-step guide
Five steps to a clear spending plan
Open the budget calculator
Go to the budget calculator — it opens instantly in your browser. No account is required and nothing is downloaded. All calculations happen locally on your device, so your data stays private.
Enter your total budget
Type your total available amount in the budget field. All amounts are in Ghana cedis (GHS). This is the ceiling against which all your spending items will be measured.
Tip: Use your net (after-tax) income as the total, not gross. Planning against take-home pay gives you a realistic picture of what you can actually spend.Add your spending items
Add each planned expense as a line item — label, amount, and category. As you type a label, the AI suggests the most likely category automatically. The colour-coded allocation bar at the top of the page fills as you add items and turns red if you go over budget.
Review the category chart
The donut chart groups your line items by category so you can see at a glance where your money is going. If housing costs exceed 40% of your total budget, a nudge appears to flag the imbalance and suggest you review that category.
Send or share your budget
When you are happy with your plan, choose how to save or share it. You can email yourself a PDF, Excel spreadsheet, or PNG image directly from the calculator. Alternatively, generate a share link — it is active for 48 hours, is read-only, and lets anyone with the link duplicate the budget into their own session.
Common questions
Answers to the questions you actually have
- Is this budget calculator really free?
- Yes, completely free. There is no premium tier, no paid features, and no credit card required. PesewaPeeper's calculator is fully funded as a free public tool.
- Do I need to create an account?
- No account is needed. Your budget data is stored only in your browser's memory and is never sent to any server unless you choose to email your budget or create a share link. Closing the tab clears the data.
- How do I plan a monthly budget?
- Enter your net monthly income as the total budget amount, then add a line item for each spending category — rent, food, transport, utilities, and so on. The calculator shows your remaining balance in real time as you add items.
- What does the PDF export look like?
- The PDF is a one-page summary containing your total budget amount, a line-item table with each expense, the percentage each category represents of the total, and an allocation bar graphic showing the overall budget split.
- How long do share links last?
- Share links are active for 48 hours from the time they are created. After that, the link shows a friendly message explaining it has expired. The budget data is automatically deleted from our servers when a link expires.
Start planning
Ready to try it?
Open the calculator and go from zero to a clear budget plan in under five minutes.