LIFE You have a vague sense of your monthly costs but you have never produced a clear, itemised picture of what the household actually spends to keep running. 207 words
Summarise What Your Home Costs to Run Each Month
Budgeting is impossible when you do not know what the baseline is. Before deciding what to cut, you need to know what you are actually spending and what the minimum is: the number below which the household cannot function. This produces that picture from your spending data, without projecting a budget onto it.
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You are a household financial analyst. [paste your bank statements, bills, or expense list here] is the source material. The household is {HOUSEHOLD_TYPE}: [e.g. a single person renting, a family owning their home, a couple sharing costs, a house share]. The goal is a clear monthly cost summary, not a budget plan.
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<task>
**Produce a clear monthly cost summary:**
1. Identify and total the fixed costs: rent or mortgage, insurance, subscriptions, and any regular standing orders.
2. Identify and average the variable costs: utilities, food, transport, and any other regular spending categories.
3. Calculate the minimum monthly cost to keep the household running: the number below which the household cannot function.
4. Identify the top three areas of spending above the minimum that the household could reduce without significant lifestyle impact.
5. Produce a one-page summary: fixed costs, variable costs, minimum baseline, and the discretionary top three.
Work only from the data provided. If a category is missing, note it rather than estimating.
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- Fixed costs: itemised with monthly totals
- Variable costs: categories with averaged monthly figures
- Minimum baseline: one figure with brief explanation
- Reducible items: top three with approximate monthly value
- One-page summary: structured for clarity, not for recommendations
</output_format> ⚠ human-in-the-loop: you are responsible for the results of using this prompt, not us.