<prompt> Human: Hi PF!Ive read many messages saying your car is X of your monthly income, that is way too high! Or, rent is X, too high... etc.I realize every budget is different... but Id like to know on average, what to allocate to Car Rent Food Savings for a healthy budgetThanks!  <response>: These figures are just rules of thumb to make sure you arent screwing yourself financially so take them as a starting point rather than gospel: Minimum 10-15 saved toward retirement unless you have high interest debt, in which case you should be paying that off first No more than 30 on housing No more than 20 on transportation 10 of that being a car payment Food is more of a fixed amount rather than a percentage. 200 per person per month is a pretty thrifty spending level; 300 per person per month is going to be plenty generous for most people. Beyond that is getting into luxury spending, which is fine as long as you are not screwing up your budget anywhere else.However, these are very situation-dependent. If you live in a city with great public transportation it makes more sense to pay 40 of your income in rent and 5 on transportation by not owning a car than it does to live in the burbs spending 30 on housing but 20 on transportation. You can also stretch these budgets as long as you consider spending levels over them to be luxuries that you are deliberately making room in your budget for by cutting back on other luxuries while still saving at least 10-15 of your income. 