Your salary lands in euros, but the rent, the groceries and the bills are in forints. Some months the same salary goes further, some months it doesn't, and you never quite know how much you have to live on.
In short: set your monthly budget in forints, not euros, and size it with a cautious rate: net salary × the lowest exchange rate of the past 12 months. Keep your spending plan below that ceiling. On payday, convert only what this month's forint plan needs; whatever is left stays in euros as savings. A good rate leaves more euros over, a bad one fewer, but the forint budget stays the same.
- Find the lowest rate of the past 12 months
- Net salary × that rate = your budget ceiling
- Keep the forint plan below the ceiling
- On payday, convert only what the plan needs
- The rest stays in euros as savings
Why the rate breaks a budget
Over the past 12 months the ECB put one euro at 396.38 forints at its highest (9 March 2026) and 349.53 at its lowest (16 June 2026) [1]. For a €2,500 net salary that's 990,950 Ft against 873,825 Ft:
117,125 Ft
From one payday to the next the jump is smaller, but you still notice it. Paid on the 10th and converting everything, April's salary was 943,000 Ft and May's 890,375 Ft: 52,625 Ft less, with nothing changed at work. A budget that spends whatever the salary brings in has to shrink in a month like that.
In Romania the past year went the other way. The leu weakened from 5.0835 to 5.3528 lei per euro [2], so a €2,000 salary was worth 10,167 lei at the low and 10,705.60 lei at the high. That feels like a raise, but it can turn back just as easily. The same method covers both: a budget built on the cautious rate doesn't grow when the rate is kind, and doesn't break when it isn't.
An example: €2,500 a month, an 800,000 Ft budget
A made-up but realistic case with real ECB rates [1]: you live in Hungary, work remotely, and €2,500 net lands in your euro account on the 10th. Rent, bills, food, transport and everything else come to 800,000 Ft a month.
- The ceiling: the lowest rate of the past 12 months was 349.53, so €2,500 × 349.53 = 873,825 Ft. The 800,000 Ft plan fits under it with room to spare.
- On payday: convert as many euros as 800,000 Ft takes. Nothing more.
- The rest: stays in euros.
| Forints per euro | Euros converted | Euros left | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 January 2026 | 386.03 | €2,072.38 | €427.62 |
| 10 April 2026 | 377.20 | €2,120.89 | €379.11 |
| 8 May 2026 | 356.15 | €2,246.24 | €253.76 |
| 9 October 2026 | 365.08 | €2,191.30 | €308.70 |
| 12 paydays, Nov 2025 to Oct 2026 | 356.15 to 386.03 | €25,872.39 | €4,127.61 |
The forint budget was 800,000 Ft every month. Only the euros left over changed: €253.76 in May, €427.62 in January. Over the 12 paydays, €4,127.61 stayed in euros. Even at the year's lowest rate, 800,000 Ft would have taken €2,288.79 and left €211.21.
Spending the whole salary instead, the budget would have been 958,950 Ft in November and 890,375 Ft in May.
The euros you keep: saving or the rate?
The euros you don't convert are savings, but counted in forints their value moves too. Say you started November with €2,000 already saved, worth 767,160 Ft on 10 November. By 26 October 2026 you have €6,127.61, worth 2,251,590 Ft at 367.45 [3]: 1,484,430 Ft more. Of that:
- Saved: the €4,127.61 you added, worth 1,516,690 Ft at today's rate.
- Exchange rate: the forint got stronger, so the €2,000 you started with is worth 32,260 Ft less in forints.
Counting the two apart keeps a rate move from looking like a good or a bad month. How to split it, and which rate to count with: net worth in multiple currencies.
What this leaves out
- The past year's low isn't a floor. The rate can go lower than in the last 12 months. A plan below the ceiling plus a few months of spending put aside covers a further drop; how big an emergency fund helps you size it.
- Your bank's rate isn't the ECB's. The example uses reference rates; your bank converts at its own rate, sometimes with a fee. To see what it costs you, divide the forints you got by the euros you converted and compare that with the MNB rate for the same day [4]. In the example you converted €25,872.39 over the year, so every 1% the bank keeps is €258.72 a year.
- Saving for something you'll pay in forints. If the goal is a flat in Budapest, the euros you keep for it carry the rate risk until you convert them. Converting a fixed amount every payday spreads that over time. Nobody knows where the rate goes next, so waiting for a "good" rate is a guess. Taking a mortgage for it? Which currency to borrow in is its own question: mortgage in euros or in lei.
- Tax. If you invoice in euros as a freelancer, the tax is due in forints or lei under its own rules. Set it aside before anything else (split every payment first), and check the details with NAV, ANAF or a tax adviser. This post doesn't cover how your income is taxed.
Try it with your own numbers
The calculator below starts with the euro savings from the example. Replace them with your own balances on two dates: it fills in the ECB rates for both days [3] and splits the change into what you saved and what the rate did. Every rate can be typed over, so you can use your bank's. Your balances stay in your browser; it's also on its own page as the currency gain/loss calculator.
The currency you spend in. Every balance is converted into it.
Where the change came from
Fill in every exchange rate to see the split.
Saved = (end balance − start balance) × end rate. Exchange rate effect = start balance × (end rate − start rate). The two always add up to the change.
Your balances stay in this browser and are not saved. To fetch rates, only the dates and currency codes go to our server, which asks the ECB. Reference rates are for information; a bank would give you slightly less.
Bought euros in several goes and want to know what the rate did to them since? See currency gain or loss on your euros.
Want to know what the exchange rate and prices did to the salary itself since your last raise? The salary exchange rate and inflation calculator gives it in percent, with the raise it would take to catch up and a paragraph ready for your pay review.
Do this today
Look up the lowest euro rate of the past 12 months: the ECB's chart shows it for the forint [1] and the leu [2]. Multiply your net salary by it and write the result at the top of your budget. That's your ceiling. Then add up what you spend in a month in forints or lei. If it's under the ceiling, on your next payday convert only that amount and leave the rest in euros. If it's over, a weak month for the euro will leave you short: that gap is the first thing to close.
If you'd rather not keep it by hand: in the Volora app you can keep a euro wallet for the salary and a forint or lei wallet for spending, and record each conversion as a transfer with the rate you got and the fee. Totals are shown in one main currency, and the Insights tab shows how much you've gained or lost on the rate on the euros you hold, and what share of your net worth that is. Rates refresh every 30 days on the free plan, daily on Premium. More on tracking net worth in more than one currency.