Spending benchmarks

What a household your size actually spends each month, by category, for your ZIP code.

BLS CEX · Census ACS · HUD FMR

Your household

Household size

ZIP code

Without a ZIP you get the US average. With one, rents and prices are adjusted to your metro.

What you spend

$/ mo

Median monthly spend, two-person household

$5,750

Total household spending nationally

The three tiers

Median 50th percentile$5,750/mo

Comfortable 75th percentile$8,050/mo

High 90th percentile$10,550/mo

Median is the middle household. Comfortable and high are the 75th and 90th percentiles: not targets, just the shape of the distribution. A household spending at the 90th percentile is not overspending if the income supports it.

Where it goes

Enter a ZIP code to break the median into categories. The national totals above hold without one, but the split depends on local rents.

Carries your ZIP, household size, and monthly spending over, so you don’t retype them. Nothing else is saved.

Synthesized from BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey quintiles, scaled to household size, then adjusted to your area with BEA regional price parities, Census ACS housing costs, and HUD fair market rents. It describes what households like yours spend, not what they should.

This answers one question in isolation. The playbook puts your answers in order and tells you which one to act on first.

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