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Freelancer Finances ( 2025 Penny Version )

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Use of AI

Penny uses AI to analyse the details you share and highlight possible spending patterns. The insights are generated automatically from your inputs and may contain errors, be incomplete, or inaccurate. They’re intended to guide your thinking, and are not financial advice. None of your inputs are used to train AI models.

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Finances: Calculating Your Individual Living Budget

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To calculate your individual living budget, you’ll need to look closely at all areas of your spending. This is about understanding what you need to live the life you want to lead, not how frugal you can be.

Add the details of your monthly spending into the boxes below. It’s important that every figure is monthly or your results won’t give you an accurate picture.

If you have annual costs, divide them by 12 to find the monthly amount.

If you have weekly costs, multiply by 52, then divide by 12.

The more accurate you can be at this stage, the more accurate your overall calculations will be.

Hi, I’m Penny, your friendly freelance finances guide.

Your Individual Living Budget

Your individual living budget is about calculating what you need to live the life you want to lead, it's not an exercise in how frugal you can be.
Here are the answers you gave.

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Household Costs

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Which region do you currently live in?

London

South East

South West

East of England

West Midlands

East Midlands

Yorkshire and the Humber

North West

North East

Scotland

Wales

Northern Ireland

Where do you currently live, and what’s your housing situation?

(Choose the one that best describes your best setup)

I rent a property and pay full rent myself

I rent a property and share rent with others (e.g. house share or living with a partner)

I own my home and pay a mortgage

I own a home and share the mortgage with someone else (e.g. partner or co-buyer)

I live in a council house/flat and pay rent

I live with family or friends and pay some rent or contribute to bills

I live with family or friends and don’t currently pay rent or bills

I live in student accommodation (e.g. halls or university-arranged housing)

Other (please describe)

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Mortgage or Rent

Per month

Council Tax

Per month

Gas and Electricity

Per month

Water

Per month

Home Insurance

Per month

Broadband

Per month

Mobile Phone

Per month

Other Household

Per month

Total Monthly Household is

Total Annual Household is

This system uses artificial intelligence to support your use of the Freelancer Finances Tool. The guidance provided is general in nature and based on publicly available information. It is intended to help you think through your spending and creative working patterns, but should be treated as a starting point rather than definitive advice. All information is provided on an “as is” basis and may not always reflect the most current figures or your individual circumstances. You remain responsible for any decisions you make and should verify details independently or consult a qualified professional if you need tailored financial or legal guidance. Your data is not stored on our servers or used to train AI models.

Would you like a help from Freelancer Finances helper Penny ?

Please tick here:

I understand I need to check results

Your Freelancer Finances Assistant:

Transport Costs

You have to be able to get out and about.
Put in this section all the costs associated with your transportation. Include any finance or leasing costs you pay on your vehicle, road tax, insurance and any parking and servicing costs.
Allow for consumables, such as new tyres. Think about whether your annual mileage will increase or fall are freelancing and adjust accordingly.
If you plan to use your car for work you must make sure that your insurance policy covers 'own-business' use.
If you use public transport regularly, estimate how much this costs you per month.

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Car/Motorbike HP/Lease

Hire purchase payments

Car/Motorbike Tax

Insurance and road tax

Car/Motorbike Fuel

Fuel per month.

Car/Motorbike Service

Servicing and maintenance per month.

Car/Motorbike Parking

Parking permits and charges

Bicycle Costs

Servicing and maintenance per month.

Public Transport

Season tickets and regular costs per month.

Other Transport Costs

E.g. Hire cars, trains, flights etc. per month.

Total Monthly Transport Costs

Total Annual Transport Costs

Personal Costs

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Groceries and Household Supplies

Your monthly grocery shop per month.

Eating Out

Restaurants, cafes and fast food per month.

Entertainment

Theatre, cinema, pubs/bars, sporting events and any other social events per month.

Clothing and Beauty

All clothing and beauty purchases not forgetting the incidentals per month.

Health and Fitness

Gym membership, classes etc. per month.

Technology

Personal technology purchases such as laptop, tablet, gaming console per month.

Subscriptions | Tech

On-demand content (e.g. Netflix, iTunes, Disney+) per month.

Subscriptions | Paper

Books, magazines, and other subscriptions per month.

Gifts for friends and family

Birthdays, Christmas and incidental gifting per month.

Holiday Expenditure

Flights and hotels plus travel to airport, duty free, day trips and food and drink per month.

Incidental purchases

On the go snacks, coffees, meals, newspapers, magazines etc. per month.

Other personal expenditure

Any other personal purchases not already included per month.

Tell Penny a bit about your lifestyle

Please write 2–3 sentences about your lifestyle. Share anything that feels relevant to how you live and what shapes your spending.

You might want to think about questions like:

What does a typical day or week look like for you?
Do you enjoy cooking or do you tend to eat out more?
How often do you shop for food or pick up top-ups during the week?
Do you have any fitness routines, classes or gyms you like?
Which subscriptions do you actually use and enjoy?
How do you usually socialise or unwind after work?
Do you travel often or enjoy weekend trips?
Are there any small treats or habits that feel important to your wellbeing?

Answer in whatever way feels natural. Just a couple of sentences is enough for Penny to understand your lifestyle and support you kindly.

Total Monthly Personal Expenditure is

Total Annual Personal Expenditure is

Would you like help from Penny with your personal costs?

I understand I need to check results

Your Freelancer Finances Assistant:

Financial costs

Calculate these as regular monthly costs - if they aren't regular amounts then estimate a monthly average over a year

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Loans and/or credit card debts is

Savings plan is

Pension Contributions is

Other financial / insurance products is

Total Monthly Financial Products is

Total Annual Financial Products is

Other Costs

Such as medical, childcare or tuition fees - if they aren't regular amounts then estimate a monthly average over a year

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Monthly other expenditure

Total Monthly other expenditure

Total Annual other expenditure

Subtotal costs

The costs below are the totals of all the costs you've inputted above. These costs are all paid out of income earned AFTER tax has been paid.

Monthly total costs

Annual total costs

Contingency(Required)

Unexpected costs come up from time to time. Adding in a contingency allows you to have something in reserve for when something unexpect happens. Use the drop down below to choose what level of contingency you want to build in.

Monthly Individual Living Budget

Based on your calculations above these are your monthly costs which you estimate need to be paid from post-tax income

Annual Individual Living Budget

Based on your calculations above these are your annual costs which you estimate need to be paid from post-tax income

Calculating Your Annual Turnover

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What is your current employment status?(Required)

For those who are employed, please use this calculator: Staff Tax Net to Gross Salary Calculator. For those employed, there are still boxes to fill in for National Insurance (NI) and tax. Please ensure these fields are completed to get an accurate calculation.

Staff Tax Calculator

Copy the figures from the Staff Tax Calculator tool into the boxes below. Your previous estimates for your monthly and annual Individual Living Budget are pre-populated, but you can override these if you’ve adjusted them in any way.

Your Annual Turnover is the total amount you need to earn over a year including business expenses, tax and national insurance.
In order to calculate your Annual Turnover you now need to add in Income Tax and National Insurance to the Annual Individual Living Budget figure you have already estimated. Tax rates change regularly so in order to ensure this calculation is up to date it's best to go to the UK Government website and input your figures into the HMRC Ready Reckoner tool.

The HMRC Ready Reckoner tool will estimate your self-employed tax bill.
NOTE: HMRC uses the term profit - this is equivalent to your individual living budget figures.

HMRC Ready Reckoner

Copy the figures from the Ready Reckoner tool into the boxes below. Your previous estimates for your monthly and annual Individual Living Budget are pre-populated, you can override these if you’ve adjusted these in any way.

Monthly Profit

Equivalent to Monthly Individual Living Budget

Monthly Tax and Class 2 and 4 NI(Required)

Calculated from monthly Individual Living Budget

Yearly Profit

Equivalent to Annual Individual Living Budget

Yearly Tax and Class 2 and 4 NI(Required)

Calculated from annual Invidividual Living Budget

Gross Profit

This is your net income. This is what you need to earn. If you're self-employed, this is what you need to earn after business expenses have been deducted from your Annual Turnover.

Business Expenses

These are the costs of running your freelance career. Eligible expenses can be deducted from Annual Turnover before tax is calculated.
When you are starting out you may need to buy things up front that are classed as business expenses. You will need to pay for these up front even though they are deductible against tax.

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Office

Office supplies, software, equipment per month.

Office Repairs

Repairs, maintenance and alterations per month.

Clothing

Uniform, PPE, costumes per month.

Business Travel

Travel and subsistence costs per month.

Training Courses

Business related training and development per month.

Advertising and Marketing

Website, trade subscriptions, sponsorship per month.

Monthly Business Expenses

Annual Business Expenses

Annual Turnover

The figure below shows your Annual Turnover. This is the total amount that you would need to invoice across the year in order to pay for all your business expenses, settle your tax and NI liabilities and have enough to cover your Individual Living Budget.

Annual Turnover

How many days do I need to work in a year based on my estimated rate?

Now that you have calculated your annual turnover it's time to look at whether what you might charge on an hourly basis will enable you to earn enough over the course of the year.

And whilst there are 365 days in the year you certainly aren't going to be working all of them. Plus remember freelancers have to work on as well as in their freelancing so you won't earn every day you are working either. The calculations below are based on the following:

There are 52 weeks in the year however, let's assume you take 4 weeks' holiday.
That leaves 48 working weeks in the year, or 240 days (assumes a 5 day week) that you could work in the year.
And let's assume that a week is 37.5 hours and a day is 7.5 hours.

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Pick your hourly rate(Required)

From the drop down below pick an hourly rate that you feel is closest to what you charge.

Number of days needed to work per year

Remember you won't work 365 days per year so this is out of 240 possible working days.

Number of weeks needed to work per year

Remember you won't work 52 weeks per year so this is out of 48 possible working weeks.

Not enough days in the year

You would need to be paid on more than 240 days / 48 weeks of the year at this hourly rate in order to make your Individual Living Budget work. This isn't going to happen. You need to look again at your hourly rate as well as your Individual Living Budget and Business Expenses to see if you can make the numbers work.

You are going to struggle to work this much!

You would need to be paid on 75% - 100% of the 240 working days / 48 weeks of the year at this hourly rate to make your Individual Living Budget work. This will be extremely challenging both practically and mentally. Look again at your hourly rate as well as your Individual Living Budget and Business Expenses to see if you can adjust the numbers to increase your sanity.

Looking Good!

You need to work less than 75% of the 240 working days / 48 weeks of the year at this hourly rate to make your Individual Living Budget work.

What is my estimated rate based on number of paid days I work in a year?

If you don't have an idea of your rate you can estimate it by dividing your Annual Turnover by the number of paid days you will work in a year.

Annual Turnover

Percentage of time in paid work over a year(Required)

Weekly rate

Daily rate

Hourly rate

The figures above are your estimated rate (by hour, by day, and by week) based on number of working days in the year you anticipate will be paid ones.

The calculations are based on a maximum of 48 weeks' or 240 days' paid work in a year, and assume a 7.5 hour working day. Use this information to do benchmarking research to assess if this is an achievable rate for your desired work. Look and see if you can find any of the following information about rates in your sector:

Unions or Guilds may have published ratecards or recommended rates;
Advertised opportunities (either live or historical) are likely to have rates information;
Ask people you know how much they might suggest you charge for a piece of work.

Your Report

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Important(Required)

I understand that any calculations in this form are based on my inputs and nothing here should be construed as financial advice.

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Appendix

Your numbers

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