Your monthly budget in Sacramento.

Sacramento had 535,787 residents in 2024, a median household income of $91,387 and a median gross rent of $1,846 a month, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. It costs less to live here than in the Bay Area or Los Angeles, which is part of why so many state employees settled in the region. It is also a city whose budget rhythm is set, more than anywhere else in California, by decisions made at the Capitol about state workers’ pay and schedules.

Two of those decisions now sit in many local paychecks. Under the Personal Leave Program 2025, base pay for most state bargaining units dropped 3% from July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2027, in exchange for five hours of leave each month, according to SEIU Local 1000 and the Legislative Analyst’s Office. And Governor Newsom’s order requiring four office days a week, delayed by a union agreement, took effect on July 1, 2026, as Jefferson Public Radio reported at the time.

This page is for the analyst at a state department downtown, the program technician who moved to Elk Grove or Natomas during telework, and the household where one paycheck comes from the state and the other from a hospital, a school or the private sector. By the end you will know what the smaller check and the longer commute cost you, and what your real free money is.

A smaller check that does not feel smaller

PLP did not arrive alone. The same 2025 agreement suspended employee contributions toward retiree health care for two years starting August 1, 2025, according to SEIU Local 1000, and a 3% raise took effect the same July. For many workers the net change in take-home pay was small and confusing: lower in one pay period, partly restored later.

The easy mistake is to keep budgeting on the old number. The fix is to read the current net deposit on your most recent stub, enter it as your income and let the plan work from there. When any of these pieces change in 2027, you update one line.

Four days a week has a price

During telework many people commuted once or twice a week, or not at all. At four days, the commute is again a fixed bill. Gas and wear on a car from Elk Grove or Roseville, SacRT light rail or bus fares, and parking near the Capitol all have monthly totals. For someone who moved farther out to get more house, that total can wipe out the savings that made the move worth it.

Put the full commute in your plan as a fixed cost, counting only the actual office days in the month. Then you can compare honestly: keep the house and the drive, carpool, or rent closer.

What else comes out in California

California taxes income on a graduated scale, so your stub shows a state line along with federal tax, Social Security or CalPERS contributions and benefits. Sales tax in the City of Sacramento is 8.75%, according to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration rate tables, which includes the city’s one-cent Measure U approved by voters in 2018. On a car repair or a new appliance that is real money.

The fixed list in Sacramento

• Rent or mortgage, plus renters or homeowners insurance.
• SMUD electricity, with a summer peak for air conditioning, plus gas and water.
• Commute costs for your office days: gas, fares, parking.
• Car payment and insurance.
• Phone and internet.
• Childcare, which gets harder to arrange with four office days.
• Student loans and credit cards.

Each item goes into Monthly with an amount and a due date. Reminders arrive before the date, and installment payments move forward month by month.

Weekends in the valley

A Kings game at Golden 1 Center, a Saturday at the farmers market under the freeway, a drive to the foothills or to Tahoe when the snow comes. In Monthly the weekend reserve is an amount you choose at the start of the month, separated from everything else in the plan. A Tahoe weekend can get its own savings goal with a date, so it does not crowd out the regular month.

Example one: a state analyst with PLP and a new commute

The figures in both examples are illustrative. Jennifer is a staff services analyst. Before PLP her net monthly deposit was $4,900; with PLP, the raise and the paused retiree health contribution, it is now $4,780. She lives in Natomas and drives downtown.

Fixed costs: rent for a two-bedroom $1,950, renters insurance $20, SMUD and gas averaged over the year $170, car payment and insurance $520, phone and internet $130, student loan $280. Total: $3,070.

With telework, her commute cost about $80 a month. At four days a week, gas and parking come to $310. New total: $3,300. Weekend reserve: $250.

$4,780 minus $3,300 minus $250 leaves $1,230 of real free money. Before the two changes, the same month left $1,500. The gap of $270 a month is the figure she brought to her carpool group, and splitting the drive three ways got $150 of it back.

Enter your current net deposit and your four-day commute, and see what the new month really leaves you →

Example two: a household that moved out during telework

Kevin works for a state department and takes home $5,200 a month. His wife, Rosa, is a respiratory therapist at a hospital in Roseville, taking home $5,600. In 2023 they bought a house in Lincoln, farther north, because they expected Kevin to telework most days.

Combined income: $10,800.

Fixed costs: mortgage with taxes and insurance $3,450, utilities $320, two cars with insurance $1,050, phone and internet $160, daycare $1,400, credit card payment $250. Before the office order, Kevin’s commute was $120 a month. Now it is $480 between gas, wear on the car and parking. Total fixed: $7,110. Weekend reserve: $400.

$10,800 minus $7,110 minus $400 leaves $3,290.

They tested the alternative in a second plan: selling and renting closer would cut the commute but raise housing costs, and the free money came out lower. So they kept the house and set up a savings goal with the $360 a month the commute grew by, aimed at the extra tires, oil changes and repairs that come with more miles.

Manual on purpose

Monthly is a free, manual budgeting app for the web and Android. It does not connect to your bank, does not move money and does not give financial or investment advice. You enter income, fixed costs, installments and debts, and it shows the free money left. Savings goals live under Patrimonio with amounts, dates and logged contributions. The how-it-works page walks through the setup, and the guide to building an emergency fund step by step helps size a cushion for the next round of contract talks.

Real free money and your next step

In Sacramento a lot of household budgets move when the state’s budget moves. Real free money is what is left after the commute, fixed bills and a weekend reserve are subtracted from the deposit you actually receive today, not the one you expect after the next contract. With that number in front of you, the next change at the Capitol is a line to update, not a surprise.

Set up your month in Monthly with today’s net deposit and your real commute, and see what is free to spend →