Size an emergency fund from your own essential outgoings, see the gap from what you have, and the months it takes to close at your saving rate.
An emergency fund is priced in months of essentials, not a round number. On the example figures — £1,960 a month of rent, utilities, food, transport, debt minimums and other essentials — 6 months of cover is a £11,760 target. With £2,500 already saved, the gap is £9,260, and saving £250 a month at an example 4% closes it in about 2 years 10 months. The calculator below itemises the essentials half of the split the budget planner describes into six lines you can total, and runs the date through the same engine as the savings goal calculator.
Your essential outgoings, itemised into six lines, then how many months of them to hold.
Saving £250.00 a month at 4% closes the £9,260.00 gap in about 2 years 10 months — the same arithmetic as the savings goal calculator.
The six lines itemise the essentials half of the budget planner's split, so a total worked out there can be checked here. Months of cover is your choice — three to six is a common rule of thumb, not a rule.
The rate is yours to set, not a market rate. A planning estimate, not financial advice.
| Tax/source year | 2026/27 |
|---|---|
| Region | UK-wide: savings interest is taxed on the UK bands and thresholds in every UK nation, including for Scottish taxpayers |
| Account rates | Never assumed. Any interest rate in a savings calculation is an input you set, stated beside the result. |
| Your other income | Wages and pension income decide how much Personal Allowance and starting rate are left for interest, and which Personal Savings Allowance band applies. |
|---|---|
| The interest itself | Interest counts towards the income that sets your band, so a large interest year can shrink the allowance that was meant to cover it. |
| The account's wrapper | The same balance at the same rate is taxed outside an ISA and untouched inside one; the wrapper, not the rate, decides whether the allowances are needed. |
| What is not decided here | PayBreakdown does not decide payroll correctness, lender approval, benefit entitlement or employer compliance, and does not give regulated financial, mortgage, debt, tax, payroll or legal advice. |
|---|
The fund exists to keep the essential bills paid with no income, so it is sized from outgoings, not from salary. A high earner with low fixed costs needs less cover than the salary suggests; a modest earner with high rent needs more. Only the committed lines belong in the total: housing, utilities and council tax, food, transport, minimum debt payments, and whatever else genuinely cannot pause. Discretionary spending stops in an emergency, so counting it inflates the target and delays the point where the fund is real.
Three to six months of essentials is a common rule of thumb, not a rule — contractors and single-income households often hold more, and the months field is yours to set from 1 to 24. Wherever the fund lives, the constraint is access: this is money that must be reachable in days without penalty, which is why the account rate here is a minor input and always your own. The fund's job is to exist, not to earn. Interest on it may be taxable once it outgrows your allowances; the savings interest tax calculator works that position.
Change any figure above and the result moves with it. A payslip can differ from any calculator because payroll works pay period by pay period, so a tax-code change, a bonus, arrears or a refund can land in one month and not the next. See how each deduction is worked out.
That is a judgement this page does not make for you. The calculator includes minimum debt payments in the essentials because they must be paid in an emergency regardless; whether spare money beyond the minimums goes to the fund or the debt depends on rates, risk and circumstances — the debt calculators here show the cost side of that comparison.
The essentials half. The budget planner splits take-home pay into essentials, everyday spending, and savings, but keeps the essentials as one figure; this page itemises that figure into six lines so the total can be checked. If you worked out what your essential bills come to there, those are the amounts to enter here.
Barely, over the horizons that matter — the monthly saving does the work, which the time-to-fund figure shows if you try the rate at zero. That is deliberate: an emergency fund is chosen for access, not yield.
Last updated 2026-08-28. Checked by Sean Elsmore. Rates last checked against GOV.UK on 2026-08-07. Estimates are for planning and should be checked against official records where the decision matters.