Argyo AppsHow to budget in Switzerland
Updated: 2026-09-21 · By Andrei and Nada Argyo — they build SwissBudget+ in Lucerne and run their own budget this way.
A household budget rarely fails at the arithmetic. It fails on the three or four bills that arrive once a year and that nobody thinks about in January. Here is the structure, the categories and the reserves — on paper, in Excel or in an app.
What makes a Swiss budget different
People moving here underestimate the same items almost every time. You pay health insurance yourself, per person, and it is not deducted from your salary. For most employees taxes also arrive as a separate bill, often in instalments and sometimes a year behind. Then the Serafe household levy on top.
Those three together are often the largest block after rent. A budget that leaves them out looks fine for eleven months and falls over in the twelfth.
The template: five blocks
Five blocks are enough. Everything you write down belongs to one of them:
- Income — net salary, side income, family allowances, maintenance.
- Fixed costs — rent, service charges, health insurance, subscriptions, insurance, transport.
- Reserves — anything yearly or irregular, divided by twelve.
- Variable costs — groceries, eating out, clothes, leisure, haircuts.
- Savings — emergency fund first, then goals: holidays, a car, a flat.
Bring everything down to one month. A yearly bill of 1,200 francs is not an event in March, it is 100 francs a month, all year.
The categories people forget
- Cantonal and communal tax, separate from federal tax
- Health insurance deductible and co-payment, not just the premium
- Dentist and glasses, not covered by basic insurance
- The Serafe levy
- Service-charge and heating statements, billed after the fact
- Household contents and private liability insurance
- Half-Fare travelcard, GA or a regional pass
- Excess on damage, repairs, replacing appliances
- Gifts, birthdays, having people over
Budgetberatung Schweiz publishes guideline figures by household size. Use them for comparison, not as a rule: rent and premiums differ more between Geneva and Appenzell than any average can capture.
Reserves: the part that saves the budget
A reserve is money you do not spend this month because it belongs to a bill arriving later. Annualise every irregular expense, divide by twelve, and treat the amount like a fixed cost.
For tax, a separate account — or at least a separate line — is worth it. Paying the tax bill out of the current month only moves the problem.
The 13th salary does not belong to December
A 13th salary is not a bonus. It is a twelfth of your annual pay, handed over later. Two approaches work: leave it out of the monthly budget and use it in December for tax and reserves, or spread it across twelve months on paper. Treating it as extra money and then getting the tax bill in February does not.
Budgeting for different situations
Living alone. The share of fixed costs is highest, because rent and premium are not split with anyone. The emergency fund matters more than any savings goal.
A couple. Decide first what is joint and what stays separate. A joint account for fixed costs and reserves, the rest separate, prevents most arguments.
A family with children. Childcare, a premium per child and allowances belong in the budget from the start. Once school begins the block shifts from childcare to activities, camps and equipment.
Studying. Irregular income is the hard part. Budget on your lowest month, not the average.
Your first flat. On top of rent come the deposit, service charges, contents and liability insurance, Serafe and furnishing it. Plan the one-off costs apart from the running budget.
Paper, Excel or an app?
Paper and Excel work as long as you actually open them every month. A Swiss Excel template is quick to build: the five blocks as rows, twelve columns for the months, a totals row.
What an app adds is that reserves roll forward on their own and you record the expense in the shop, instead of reconstructing it on Sunday evening from receipts. What many apps cost you: an account, a cloud, a bank connection, ads.
Common questions
How much should I save? Enough to keep it up for twelve months. An amount you raid in the third month was set too high.
Do I need a bank connection? No. It saves typing and costs access to your account data. A budget works completely without one.
How long until a budget is accurate? About three months. The first two are data collection; by the third the numbers are roughly right.
If you would rather not do it by hand
SwissBudget+ is built for exactly this budget: the categories and reserves above, a tax estimate by canton and municipality, savings goals. No account, no cloud, no ads, no bank connection — every number stays on your phone. The app is free.