Your monthly budget in St. Louis.

A budget app for managing money in St. Louis needs to understand that this is a city of institutions: hospitals, universities, a defense contractor and a brewer that employ people for decades. It is also a city where the border between city and county, and between Missouri and Illinois, changes what ends up in your pocket. Monthly, a free manual app, ignores the borders and works from your real numbers.

The big employers

St. Louis anchors a metro with substantial healthcare and education payrolls: BJC HealthCare, which operates 14 hospitals, Mercy, SSM Health, Washington University and Saint Louis University. Boeing’s defense, space and security division and nearby Scott Air Force Base in Illinois bring federal and contractor jobs. Anheuser-Busch, Emerson, Centene, Enterprise Holdings and Edward Jones add corporate and financial positions. Many of these are salaried jobs with benefits, in contrast to a metro dominated by hourly manufacturing.

The result is a stable middle class that has experienced slow population growth, and affordable housing relative to coastal metros.

City, county and the cost of a ZIP code

St. Louis City and St. Louis County are separate governments, a split dating to 1876. That matters for budgets. The city levies a 1 percent earnings tax. Residents owe it on all of their earnings, wherever they work, and nonresidents owe it on pay for work physically done inside the city; voters renewed it for another five years in April 2026. County municipalities have different property tax rates, school districts and services. Choosing Clayton, Kirkwood, Webster Groves or Maplewood over a city address changes both your rent and your tax picture.

Monthly does not model taxes. Use the take-home number from your pay stub and record each fixed cost as it appears.

Older houses, steady maintenance

A lot of St. Louis housing is brick and was built before 1950. Charm comes with maintenance: roofs, tuckpointing, radiators, old plumbing. Homeowners in Tower Grove, Dutchtown, Benton Park or the Hill benefit from setting a monthly repair allowance. Add it as a fixed expense, and move the amount when something big is coming.

Heating in winter and cooling in a humid summer both raise utility bills. Metro buses and MetroLink light rail link downtown, the airport, Clayton and Illinois, but most households run at least one car. Weekend spending belongs in the reserve: a Cardinals game at Busch Stadium, a Blues game, Forest Park, the City Museum, toasted ravioli on the Hill, Saturday at the Soulard Market.

Worked example: a hospital administrator living in the city

Hypothetical. Monthly take-home after the earnings tax is $4,350. Rent is $1,150, car payment and insurance are $560, utilities and internet are $280, phone is $75, a student loan minimum is $290, and a gym and subscriptions add $70. Fixed expenses are $2,425. Reserve: $350.

Real free money: $4,350 minus $2,425 minus $350 equals $1,575.

Worked example: a homeowner in Webster Groves

Hypothetical. Take-home is $6,200 combined. The mortgage with escrow is $1,850, two car payments and insurance come to $910, utilities and internet are $360, a repair allowance is $200, a child’s activities and daycare are $650, phones are $130. Fixed expenses total $4,100. Reserve: $400.

Real free money: $6,200 minus $4,100 minus $400 equals $1,700.

When a $3,000 roof repair is coming, the same table makes it easy to see how many months of free money that equals. Monthly doesn’t prescribe a plan. It shows the room.

Own an older brick house? Add a repair allowance and test the roof or tuckpointing quote against it. Put your repair allowance in Monthly and test a roof quote →

What the earnings tax means for a take-home number

The earnings tax is a quiet influence on how St. Louis households budget. A resident of the city sees it withheld on every check, even if the job is in Clayton or Chesterfield. A county resident who works downtown sees it withheld on the days worked inside the city. A 2023 Missouri circuit court ruling held that the tax applies only to days physically worked in the city, which matters for hybrid workers, and refund requests for nonresidents who work part of the week elsewhere require employer verification. Employers also pay a separate 0.5 percent payroll expense tax, which does not touch your check but can shape hiring.

The takeaway for budgeting is simple. Use the net pay that lands, not the gross. If your hybrid schedule changes the tax withheld, your deposit changes, and Monthly will reflect it in the month it happens.

Hybrid schedules and the downtown commute

Downtown and Midtown office workers, Washington University staff and hospital employees in the Central West End often split weeks between home and office. The MetroLink light rail connects the airport, downtown, Forest Park and Clayton, and some commuters ride it from Illinois. Parking in the Central West End and downtown is a real monthly cost for those who drive, as are the tolls and fuel for Metro East commuters. List the actual number, and revisit it if your office days change.

Sports, festivals and the humid summer

Cardinals home games, Blues hockey and festivals in Forest Park, Tower Grove and along the riverfront add up. Summer in St. Louis is hot and humid, so cooling costs rise in older buildings. Winters are cold enough to push gas bills, and ice storms occasionally mean extra costs. The reserve is where this spending belongs, with a number set in advance.

Across the river and informal lending

Metro East workers in Illinois, in Belleville, Edwardsville or Collinsville, cross the Mississippi daily and add fuel and tolls to the list. Families that share homes or help relatives can use the money owed list to remember what is expected back. The investments list is a manual log of balances, such as a 401(k) or savings. Monthly does not connect to those accounts and does not offer investment advice.

What makes this different from Kansas City

Kansas City’s workforce leans toward rail, auto assembly and logistics, with a state line in the middle of the metro. St. Louis leans toward healthcare, education, defense and corporate headquarters, with the city and county split. Both are affordable, but the practical questions differ.

Before the next big house repair

Put your last net deposit, the mortgage or rent and a repair line at a realistic figure into Monthly. Then divide the biggest quote you have heard by the free-money result to see how many months it takes. Count the months a St. Louis repair would take →