Budget Categories

[degamama]

Been budgeting for awhile now, but starting to rethink/nitpick what I put in certain categories. Anyone have any sage advice about where you put these items?

office supplies like postage stamps, envelopes, pens (are these household expenses? personal? misc? education? First I put them under household, then I switched them to personal)

Non-edible, food-related items like sandwich bags, saran wrap, etc. (I've been putting them under Food, but maybe there's a better place? household?)

photo processing of family pictures, nothing fancy, just pictures of the kids (I've been putting them under Recreation)

Are there any items that you found difficult to place in a category? Where did you finally end up putting it?

I know that for the most part these are just personal decisions, but I'm definitely interested in the reasoning of wiser folks than myself!

Thanks!

[MonkeyMama]

I think there are 2 things to consider:

1 - How detail oriented it should be - for your own personal liking

2 - More details for areas you know you can improve on.

I personally don't care about all the little details. As long as x, y and z are on budget, I don't care how about all the nitty gritty details.

I actually have a "misc." category of about $150/month, just to deal with a lot of things I don't care to categorize. I prefer to have a fair amount of flexibility in my spending.

For non-grocery items that we buy regularly at the grocery store (paper products, plastic products, cleaning products, soap/shampoo, etc.) I just lump them into "groceries." I have seen suggested many times to break these out to control costs. Thing is we spend so little on these types of purchases, I personally don't feel it is worth the time and effort. I am happy to keep all of our grocer/household/pet spending to $500 per month. It all goes to "grocery" category. I admit it could be interesting to break out maybe cat food and cat litter (pet costs), but I really don't care that much to take the time.

I'd probably put office supplies to "groceries" and picture processing to "misc.,"
myself.

[degamama]

Thanks for the reply! I think you've pointed me in the right direction in that I should probably be paying more attention to whether my categories are consistently over or under. We keep going over on food, so I think I'm trying to find a way to fix that without curbing my stops at the espresso stand - what can I say, I'm from the Northwest!

[jIM_Ohio]

Been budgeting for awhile now, but starting to rethink/nitpick what I put in certain categories. Anyone have any sage advice about where you put these items?

office supplies like postage stamps, envelopes, pens (are these household expenses? personal? misc? education? First I put them under household, then I switched them to personal)

Non-edible, food-related items like sandwich bags, saran wrap, etc. (I've been putting them under Food, but maybe there's a better place? household?)

photo processing of family pictures, nothing fancy, just pictures of the kids (I've been putting them under Recreation)

Are there any items that you found difficult to place in a category? Where did you finally end up putting it?

I know that for the most part these are just personal decisions, but I'm definitely interested in the reasoning of wiser folks than myself!

Thanks!

We have one line item for groceries which covers all the above and more

its more important to spend less than you earn... than it is to track every purchase. If you are spending less than you earn, and you still need to find ways to cut spending, then track what you think needs to be cut.

[cptacek]

We keep going over on food, so I think I'm trying to find a way to fix that without curbing my stops at the espresso stand - what can I say, I'm from the Northwest!

Get an espresso machine?

[DavidKimball]

office supplies like postage stamps, envelopes, pens (are these household expenses? personal? misc? education? First I put them under household, then I switched them to personal)

Non-edible, food-related items like sandwich bags, saran wrap, etc. (I've been putting them under Food, but maybe there's a better place? household?)

photo processing of family pictures, nothing fancy, just pictures of the kids (I've been putting them under Recreation)

Office supplies I do like you.
Personal, Misc, and education are all separate categories.
Yes, I also have a category under food called "storage".
Same for photos, all related go under Entertainment.

Looks like you are on track for you. We are similar in that we like to know details. Mostly for me it is "out of curiosity". Have so many categories has opened my eyes to our reality spending.

David