How much can you spend a week on a ₹50,000 salary?
It depends almost entirely on what leaves your account before you spend a rupee. Here is the math for a common setup, and a calculator below to run your own.
Start with what leaves first
Your weekly number is not your salary divided by four. It is what is left after the things you cannot skip: rent, EMIs, bills, subscriptions and the amount you want to save. Take those out first, and only then think about weeks.
Say your take-home is ₹50,000, rent is ₹15,000, you have no EMIs, and phone, internet, electricity and your streaming apps come to about ₹4,000. You want to save ₹8,000.
Split it by days, not weeks
A month is not four weeks. It is 28 to 31 days, and if you divide by four you end up with two or three days at the end with nothing left. Divide by days instead.
In a 30-day month, ₹23,000 is about ₹767 a day. A full Monday to Sunday week is seven of those days, so about ₹5,367. When a week crosses into the next month, only the days inside this month count, so that week's number is smaller and the rest belongs to next month's plan.
The same salary at three rent levels
Rent is usually the line that moves the answer most. Same ₹50,000 take-home, same ₹4,000 bills and ₹8,000 saving, 30-day month:
| Rent | Free a month | A day | A full week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ₹10,000 | ₹28,000 | ₹933 | ₹6,533 |
| ₹15,000 | ₹23,000 | ₹767 | ₹5,367 |
| ₹20,000 | ₹18,000 | ₹600 | ₹4,200 |
That weekly number has to cover food, travel, going out, shopping and anything you buy on a whim. If it looks small next to how you live now, that is the useful part. Either something fixed is too big, or the saving target is more than this month can carry. Better to know on the 1st than the 25th.
Run your own numbers
Your weekly number
Filled with the example above, using the real days in this month. Change any line to your own.
Varun Thakkar, founder of VThrive. Write to me at varun@vthrive.co.in if something here is wrong.