What Are Good Categories For Tracking Your Expenses?

Oct - 23 | By: AHT | 2 comments.

Filed under : Health Insurance

I’ve noticed a check that had these categories of expenses:
mortage/rent, gas/electric, telephone, food, clothing, transportation, credit card, taxes, insurance, home improvement, entertainment and travel, medical/dental, dependent care, savings & investment
I use setbills (rent, utility, gym payment, pulled from my account automatically), misc (online fees), miscfun-adventure, dining, grocery, nightlife, supplies, and computer.
because those are unique to me and my spending habits.
what are some other person’s categories? And what are some ramifications of changing around your how you classify what you spend?

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2 Responses to “What Are Good Categories For Tracking Your Expenses?”

nickhawk says:

October 23, 2009 at 6:57 am

Well I break it down as:
Mortgage
Car payment
Fuel
Cable
Cell Phone
Utilities (PG&E)
Auto Insurance
Health Insurance
401(k)
IRA
Food
Internet
Misc – fun things
Misc – things you need for the household
I do not believe there would be any ramifications of changing around how you classify what you spend. It is just the more you break it down the better you can see where your money is going. If you do not have enough categories then certain things may be over inflated due to other costs i.e if you combine auto insurance, fuel, and car payment into just “transportation” then you will see the monthly rate go up or down. Now for example you will know that you are driving more so then you are just spending more on fuel, but you would not be able to determine that if you had not broken it down.
Bumblebe says:

October 23, 2009 at 10:53 am

There shouldn’t be serious problems with changing your account names. It could possibly be confusing since the old accounts would likely retain their names.
Both lists look good. You can use any category name you like as long as it fits into your own model of how you spend money. I would recommend breaking down you accounts into Fixed and Variable accounts that each have subcategories if you haven’t. It’s helpfull in analysis because you can focus on the costs you can change and makes a clearer picture of trends in personal spending habits. (When you see how much of your variable costs are from eating out, you may choose to eat in more to save money).