Your monthly budget in Savannah.

Savannah had 148,809 residents in 2024, a median household income of $55,907 and a median gross rent of $1,519 a month, according to the Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey. In Atlanta, the same survey found a median rent of $1,765, but with a median income of $88,165. Put another way, a median rent takes about 33% of median income in Savannah and about 24% in Atlanta. Savannah is not the cheap option it looks like from the state capital.

The second thing to know is that Savannah’s paychecks come from very different places. A record 12.9 million visitors spent an estimated $4.1 billion in 2024, according to a City of Savannah council document, and the visitor economy employed more than 27,000 people in 2022, Visit Savannah reported. At the same time, Gulfstream Aerospace is the metro area’s largest employer, according to HUD’s 2023 market profile, the Port of Savannah keeps growing, and Hyundai’s Metaplant in Ellabell had about 3,200 workers including onsite affiliates in late 2025, the Associated Press reported, with suppliers hiring across Chatham, Bryan and Effingham counties.

This page is for the server on River Street whose income follows the tourist calendar, the warehouse or supplier worker whose overtime follows production, and the household with one of each. By the end you will know how to plan on the slow months, what Georgia takes in 2026, and how to build the storm funds the coast requires.

Two calendars in one city

Tourism peaks in spring. March, with one of the country’s largest St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, and the mild months around it fill restaurants and hotels. Summer heat and the weeks after the holidays are slower. Manufacturing and logistics run on a different clock, set by shipping volumes and production targets, where overtime can appear for months and disappear quickly.

What Georgia takes in 2026

Gov. Brian Kemp signed HB 463 in May 2026, cutting Georgia’s flat income tax rate from 5.19% to 4.99%, retroactive to January 1, and raising the standard deduction, Capitol Beat and BDO reported. The law also created a capped state exclusion for some overtime and tips, smaller than the federal one. There is no city income tax.

The combined sales tax in Savannah is 7%: 4% for the state and 3% for Chatham County, according to Avalara’s rate tables. Groceries are exempt from the state portion but still carry the county’s 3%.

Hurricane season is a budget line

From June through November, the coast has a cost that inland cities do not. Evacuation is the visible one: gas, a few nights in a motel inland, meals out and lost shifts if the restaurant closes. For owners, the larger one is the hurricane or named-storm deductible on many coastal policies, set as a percentage of dwelling coverage. On a home insured for $300,000, a 2% deductible is $6,000 out of pocket before insurance pays.

Fixed costs in a Savannah month

• Rent or mortgage with escrow, and renters or flood insurance where it applies.
• Georgia Power and water, with summer air conditioning pushing bills higher from June to September.
• A car, insurance and gas, especially for commutes on I-16 or to the port and plants west of the city.
• Phone and internet.
• Childcare and student loans.
• Evacuation fund and, for owners, a storm deductible fund.

Example one: a bartender in the Historic District

The figures in both examples are illustrative. Bri tends bar near River Street. Her take-home, wages plus tips, falls to about $2,600 in her slowest months and passes $4,200 in spring.

She plans on $2,600. Fixed costs: rent for a studio $1,150, renters insurance $15, power and water averaged $170, phone and internet $110, car payment and insurance $430, gas $70, groceries $320, credit card payment $120, evacuation fund $40. Total: $2,425. She works most weekends, so instead of a weekend reserve she keeps $60 for her days off.

$2,600 minus $2,425 minus $60 leaves $115 of real free money in a slow month.

From March to May, her extra $1,600 a month is logged as variable income. The first $2,400 fills a Slow season goal that covers January and August; the rest goes to the card. By June her plan no longer depends on whether the next spring is busy.

Plan your slowest month in Monthly and give your spring tips a job →

Example two: a supplier plant worker and a teacher who own a home

Darnell assembles parts at a supplier plant in Bryan County and takes home $3,900 a month on base pay; overtime has added $600 to $1,000 in busy months. Keisha teaches in the Savannah-Chatham schools and takes home $3,400, paid over 12 months.

Planned income: $3,900 plus $3,400, or $7,300.

Fixed costs: mortgage with taxes and insurance on a house on the Southside $2,050, utilities $300, two cars with insurance $860, gas for Darnell’s I-16 commute and Keisha’s car $220, phone and internet $160, childcare $900, student loans $280. Total: $4,770. Weekend reserve: $300.

$7,300 minus $4,770 minus $300 leaves $2,230.

Their policy carries a 2% hurricane deductible on $300,000 of coverage, or $6,000. They set a Storm deductible goal with a date two years out, at $250 a month from free money, and send all of Darnell’s overtime there until it is full. Then overtime moves to a Down payment goal for a second car.

Monthly for a coastal budget

Monthly is a free, manual budgeting app for the web and Android. It does not link to your bank, move money or give financial advice. You enter wages, tips, overtime, fixed costs and debts, and it shows your real free money. Goals under Patrimonio, such as a Slow season fund or a Storm deductible, hold a target, a date and each contribution you log. For irregular pay, see our roundup of apps for tracking irregular or seasonal income. To compare with the state’s largest city, read budgeting in Atlanta.

Real free money and your next step

In Savannah, the rent is high relative to pay, the spring is generous and the summer is not, and every coastal household carries storm risk. Real free money is what remains of your slowest normal month after fixed costs, storm funds and a weekend or days-off reserve. Tips and overtime above that go to named goals.

Set up your slow-season month in Monthly, add a storm fund and see what is really free →