What are your budget categories?

[s.saver]

I struggle daily with the concept of a budget. I live with-in my means, and even have a savings started. Our house is 33% paid for, and we only have minimal cc debt. The reason for sharing this with you is that I am really trying to embrace a budget, I just need a lttle help getting going.

With that said, I am wondering-What are your main catagories of your budget? How specific/vague are they?

Please help me, I hae decided that the best way to do this is to ask for help instead of not dong anything at all. Thanks

[tinapbeana]

i started out with the simplest thing i could think of: every bill got a category. this includes bills i pay monthly and those i don't (like homeowner's, water, car & house property taxes). for those, i figured out what they cost over a year, divide by 12, and contribute that to savings so they can earn me money till i need them. then i added categories for groceries and our allowances. allowances cover gas, smokes, entertainment, and fun money.

then i took off %6 of my pre-tax income to set aside for retirement. DH contributes 6% to his 401k, and although i don't have a 401k it seemed reasonable to take the same percentage as a starting point.

i looked at what was left and decided how i wanted to break that up for saving for gifts, car maintenance, vacations, medical costs, etc. for next year i have 900 for christmas, 600 for other gifts, 900 for household, 600 for car maintenance (it's a fairly new one), 600 for house maintenance, and 1200 for vacations. i added it all up, divided by 12, and contribute this to short-term savings. in a pinch, all of this could be used as an EF.

in a perfect world everything left over will be used first for debt reduction, then to beef up the EF, then beef up retirement, then to create a little more fun in our lives. in my world, there's a chance my job will be gone in 2 months so all extra is going into an emergency EF (funny, i know!), just in case.

[lrjohnson]

This is what I have on My Challenge:

Emer./Big Purchase Fund
Savings
Rent
Household (I wish I had broken this up, into the day to day stuff like tp and detergent, and the bigger stuff, like furniture, linens, etc.)
Netflix
Electricity/Gas
Charity
Gasoline
Phone
Grocery
Ent./Rest.
Auto Repairs & Tires, etc
Car Insurance
Car Registration and AAA
Clothing
Internet
Cable
Health Insurance
Health - copay, OTC
Toiletries, Haircare
Gifts
Miscellaneous

These are the categories I use in Quicken
Auto: Fuel, Service, Insurance, Other
Charity
Clothing
Dining
Entertainment: Books, Work, Other
Gifts Given
Groceries
Household (everything from TP to furniture)
Medical: Doctor, Medicine, Other
Misc
Personal (beauty, haircut, personal hygiene)
Postage
Rent
Utilities: Cable TV/Internet, Gas & Electric, Telephone
Vacation: Lodging, Travel (plane, etc.), other

The Netflix is under entertainment. Health insurance and taxes aren't listed because I just enter my net paycheck-my preference, not necessarily advocating.

[s.saver]

Thank you so much for you quick responses, you two don't have any idea how much this helps. Thank you. I am new to this site and really appreciate the support you have given me.

[Ima saver]

I have used envelopes for 40 years and put cash in them every payday. My budget catagories are:
savings
land payment
car payment
electric
telephone, dsl and cell
water and garbage
cable
blue cross
groceries
dh allowance
my allowance
visa (pay in full each month)
property tax, car insurance, house insur. and car tags.(I save $140 a week that pays all of these once or twice a year expenses.)
misc.
medications
gas heat
est. taxes
life insurance
medical account
christmas

We pay for gas and eating out , out of our allowances.

[Ima saver]

I forgot to add, I have a car account. When I paid off my husband's van last year, Ikept putting the payments in a savings to pay off this car. Then I will take that money and save for a new car. My husband is a "car" person!

[kealina]

i don't have a lot of categories... basically just
gas
groceries
entertainment- dates/family stuff
household
cars
garage sales/thrift stores
misc

if it helps any i'm still working on formulating a budget... i found it helps to start by tracking expenses for a month or so, so you can see where you spend your money and what the major categories are... good luck and i'm glad you found everybody helpful...

[LuxLiving]

We have a BUNCH!!! We do what I like to call ANTICIPATORY budgeting and set a great deal of money back each month the cover these upcoming expenses. It is work to make it happen but yet it is working for us!! Has been tight but do-able. This is just off the top of my head, surely I'm forgetting something???


Tithe
LT Savings (gets funneled to retirement as it builds up) - held until then in Money Market Account.
ST Savings (for those little projects and WANTS that just don't fall anywhere else also in MMA)
Roth IRA - His
Roth IRA - Hers
Life Insurance - His
Life Insurance - Hers
Long Term Care Insurance - His (we've yet to purchase his or hers but I've been saving back for both of these to make sure I can handle the premiums on a continuing monthly basis before we jump off and get ourselves hooked into a committment.)
Long Term Care Insuarance - Hers
Mortgage
House Insurance
House Taxes
Plumbing/Heating Repair
Lawn Care
Car Repair
Car Battery
Car Tires
Car Tag
Car Insurance
Car NEXT Savings (this is sublimated right now as we have a 2005 car paid for and a CD put aside for the next vehicle)
Truck Repair
Truck Battery
Truck Tires
Truck Tag
Truck Insurance
Truck NEXT Savings (again sublimated as we have a 2001 truck paid for and a CD put back to replace it - after FIL house sells I'll be continuing this savings.)
Telephone
Water
Gas
Electric
Cell Phone
Cable
Groceries
Household (laundry detergent, paper goods, shampoo, trashbags, lightbulbs, etc.)
Allowances/Spending Money
Gasoline
Holiday Travel - cash for getting to/from holiday events M.Day, F.Day, birthdays and year end celebrations)
Gifts
Clothes
Vacation
Timeshare Taxes & HOA fees
Kitty (cash cushion in checking)
Miscellaneous
Furniture/Appliances
Carpet
Paint
Roof (maybe in another 5 years or so one will be needed here)
Driver's License Renewals
Weddings Savings (two unmarrieds still at home wherein there could be weddings announced at anytime)
Savings Bonds Savings (I save here until I can pop off 100.00 at a time)
Certificates of Deposit Savings - (again saving build up to go towards when I have enough to pile it into one.)
Exterminating
Veterinary
Tax Preparation
Entertainment
Books
Prescriptions
Med/Dent/Vision CoPay
Office Equipment/Electronics
Postage
Haircuts (mine - his come out of his allowance along w/his cigs)
Club Dues/Mag Subscriptions (ex.: AARP is .90 a month to put back in order to renew every three years! YES, I am that anal and money has been that tight here lately! Plus 35.00 for investment club dues)
DRIPS:
drip1)
drip2)
drip3)
Bank Fees/Check Printing
Sales Tax Slush Fund

Let us also say that we have a very nice lifestyle on very little money and I sacrifice here and there to make it happen. There are still things that are in my budget that could be cut to loosen the threads but I like my life and don't want to cut anything else right now! Will be going back to employment myself in the near future and anticipate a slight general loosening with a major mindset of sticking back at least 75% if not more of any income I make into retirement savings and wealth building!)

Many people ask why I don't lump all car expenses together - I like to be able to see where I'm at....if new tires are needed in February 2007 and I've been saving 45.00 a month back for this category and Hubster thinks we'll need 450.00 to be able to pay cash then if it's December '06 and there is only 375.00 in that category then I need to up the savings payments towards that specifically.

With each item set out in a separate line item when the target is reached and a date set - (ex: truck battery target $50.00 estimated timeline when needed is May 2008) then when the target amount is reached or near enough to that time and interest will take care of the balance then I go on to taking that monthly allocation to another underfunded category. Let's say in this example when I reach $46.00 in this account by November 2007 I will stop putting any more into monthly and let time and interest catch it up to $50 being there and ready to pop when I think I'm going to need to replace it. Hope that's clearer than mud!

And when the car insurance goes up and the truck insurance stays the same I get all confused and brain farty and don't put enough back and have a mess. If it is separate I can just adjust the one thing and don't have to remember what I was saving 400.00 a month for in the 'vehicle' expense department. Sure it might still be 400 a month, but I can better keep track of each little breakout. Other people have bigger brains for these small details but they get lost in mine!

[Duchesse]

IRA contribution
savings
Mortgage
Gas
Light
Phones (house and cell)
cable
DSL
ID theft monitoring
Food and household goods/cleaning products etc.
Self care (grooming, spending, hair, eyebrows, pedicure, manicure, clothing, toiletries, etc.)
Freedom Account ( pays annual and periodic bills such as insurances (homeowners, auto, life,) water, taxes, car inspection, registration, oil changes and other minor maintenance and fluid changes, security system, etc.

[Broken Arrow]

Ooh, sounds like fun, so I'll bite.

My software allows me to set up general categories, and then specific items off of that category. Easy and yet powerful at the same time.

With that in mind, I have a category for:

* Income
* Reserves or Savings
* Bills
* Food
* Car

And.. that's it I think! Short and simple, but that's the way I like it. Of course, off of each categories contain its own short list of individual items, but they should be obvious enough that I don't need to list them.

[PrincessPerky]

Mine is pretty simple too..no fancy program (I also only keep track of the math of net..so pretax insurance and the like I never looked at)..anyway

1. house
2. car
3. utilities (listed seperate underneath, but to get them all I just wrote down from the checkbook)
4. yearly 1/12 like I think Tina said Take the yearly (or quarterly bills) divide the total by 12 for each months contribution...this will not work if you have no cushion and you need to pay the stuff this month...but it is a good plan to get the cash built up for next year....

and the final important category....
5. the rest...

K I used to not have much in the remaining, once the 'must be paid' stuff was paid I had 440 left for food and gas and gifts and entertainment..since it was low I never really cared to seperate it!

Now that I have more (husband got a raise) I added 200 tithe, 300 saving (plus a bigger phone bill) and am debating keeping real food/gas seperate from entertainment...but haven't yet.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Depends, I wrote on my blog I don't budget. It just hasn't clicked unfortunately for me. I'm a non-budgeter who struggles with trying to budget. I personally find it easier to live within my pre-determined means. What I mean is things are line item for me like taxes, mortgage, retirement, college savings, then I spend the rest on fun. If the money isn't there for fun, I don't spend it. But everything else is taken care of first.

But I'm going to try again for 2007. It means probably weaning DH off the CC, so I don't know if it'll fly. I tried to pay cash for dinner last night, but he said it's all one pot what does it matter? For him money is all one pot.

[s.saver]

Thanks everyone for helping me with my dilemma. Hope you all had a fun New Years eve/day. Now, time for me to turn over a new leaf.

[smartatmoney]

Shouldn't Netflix be in the entertainment category ;-)

[lrjohnson]

Originally Posted by smartatmoney

Shouldn't Netflix be in the entertainment category ;-)

You mean me? Netflix is under entertainment when I log anything into Quicken, as I said. I could have lumped it on My challenge, but I kept it as a separate item because it is a fixed bill. Frankly, I could have put cable and internet under entertainment.

[s.saver]

Thanks again for everyone who helped me out. So far 2007 is going well, so we will see at month end how I did with the budget