For those who don't "over track" expenses but have a good system, care to share your Group/Categories?

[hbwilliams22]

Right now I have the below 10 Groups and 69 Categories and feel like I could potentially do a better job consolidating. I’ve listed them the below for reference.

For those who feel like they aren’t over-granularizing their expense tracking, would you care to critique mine or better yet share your Groups/Categories?

Note: I own a home, car, pet, no kids

Category	Group
Mortgage	Home
Yard	Home
Garbage	Home
Cleaning Service	Home
Home Improvement	Home
Home Maintenance	Home
Home Furnishings	Home
Home General	Home
Water	Utilities
Alarm	Utilities
Electricity	Utilities
Gas	Utilities
Cable	Utilities
Internet	Utilities
Cell Phone	Telecom
Auto + Home Insurance	Insurance
Subscriptions	Telecom
Car Gas	Auto
Car Service + Maintenance	Auto
Rideshare	Auto
Parking	Auto
Car Wash	Auto
Tickets	Auto
Registration + License	Auto
Groceries	Food + Drink
Restaurants + Alcohol	Food + Drink
Coffee + Tea	Food + Drink
Food Misc.	Food + Drink
Gym	Health
Doctor	Health
Dentist	Health
Medication	Health
Vet	Pets
Grooming	Pets
Dog Food	Pets
Dog Supplies	Pets
Boarding + Walking	Pets
Pet Insurance	Pets
Dog Training	Pets
Personal Care	Personal
CVS Misc.	Personal
Hair + Nails	Personal
Massage	Personal
Beauty	Personal
Dry Cleaners	Personal
Tailor + Alterations	Personal
Travel	Discretionary
Shopping	Discretionary
Gifts - Friends	Discretionary
Gifts - Family	Discretionary
Gifts - Us	Discretionary
Amazon Misc.	Discretionary
Entertainment	Discretionary
Club Memberships	Discretionary
Books	Discretionary
Education	Discretionary
Mail	Discretionary
Hobbies	Discretionary
Business Services	Discretionary
Amex Membership	Discretionary
Gaming	Discretionary
Discretionary Misc.	Discretionary
Dept. of Revenue Tax	Taxes
US Treasury Tax	Taxes
Income Tax	Taxes
Property Tax	Taxes
Car Restoration	Outlier
Car Purchase	Outlier
Charity	Donations

[susandennis]

Wow. That is certainly granular! I tend to err the other way myself so looking at your list is fascinating.

My goal is to see how much I pay out to/for various stuff over time. BUT, where I can get that info via payee, I tend to not categorize it at such a granular level.

One ‘rule’ I use is that if a particular category has 1 maybe 2 payees - for instance or electricity or garbage… I consolidate. I know I will be able to easily track how much I pay for electricity by looking at my payouts to Seattle City Light, for instance so I roll up that stuff to Home Maintenance.

Having said that, I think I can do with more grains… I’m off to really study your list. Thanks!

[martha.rudkin]

Thanks for starting this discussion. We are firm believers in budgets. Our budget areas are primarily based on the Fidelity Investments Retirement Planner Budget Tool in which we also identify Essential and Discretionary expenses.

We own a home, the children are all grown up and self-supporting (yay!), no pets at this time.

The Household Expenses category is our catch-all bucket for something that doesn’t easily fall into one of the other categories. The Misc Cash category catches those random we can’t remember where we spent real cash, because we like to capture cash spending in it’s appropriate category.

We use Notes to further help jog our memories on what we actually spent money on at places like Amazon, Costco, Home Depot, etc. We do split transactions where appropriate. We use Tags a lot in Travel and Taxes to identify specific trips or tax years.

We are new to Tiller for 2020, have been using Quicken for years, and Microsoft Money before that.

Here is our current list:

Category	Group
Donations	Donations
Movies - Theater - Sports	Entertainment
Restaurants	Entertainment
Wine - Spirits	Entertainment
Gifts	Gifts
Health Insurance	Healthcare
Medical	Healthcare
Earthquake Insurance	Home
Home Improvements	Home
Home Repairs	Home
Homeowners Insurance	Home
Lawncare	Home
Property Taxes	Home
Umbrella Insurance	Home
Dividends/Interest	Income
Paycheck	Income
Rebates	Income
Investment Transactions	Investments
Books-Mags-Papers	Miscellaneous
Household Expenses	Miscellaneous
Misc Cash	Miscellaneous
Account Fees	Miscellaneous
Clothing	Personal
Groceries	Personal
Haircuts	Personal
Health - Beauty Aids	Personal
Federal Income Tax	Taxes
Transfer	Transfer Types
Auto Insurance	Transportation
Auto Loan	Transportation
Auto Maintenance	Transportation
Auto Plates	Transportation
Gasoline	Transportation
Tolls - Parking - Ferries	Transportation
Regular Travel	Travel
Splurge Travel	Travel
Cell Phones	Utilities
Gas	Utilities
Internet	Utilities
Trash	Utilities
Water	Utilities
Streaming Services	Utilities
Electric	Utilities

[hbwilliams22]

Thanks for sharing @martha.rudkin. I noticed you record your property taxes as a Home expense vs. putting it in your Taxes group. What is the logic here? I’m asking as I’m considering it.

[martha.rudkin]

Our categories and groups are set to match Fidelity’s Retirement Planner Budget Worksheet, and Property Taxes are part of the Home Group there. Maybe the logic is that this is an expense that would not be present if we did not own a home.

We put a 2020 Taxes tag on tax related transactions when they occur.

We monitor the total annual spending amount instead of trying to worry about even monthly spending. There are some months that just have bigger essential expenses. For instance, most of our annual insurance payments are due in March, property taxes are split between April and October and we make estimated tax payments 4 times a year. However, if we overspend in a discretionary category like Restaurants one month, we tighten up and reduce our spending in the next month or two to put us back on track to our annual goal.

Susan mentioned in her reply that if there are only 1 or 2 payees for a category she will combine them. I could do it with less categories and more notes, but you can see in my home insurance and utilities sections that I have all the individual ones broken out, and that is only because I find it easier to populate the budget with individual numbers.

[Edward]

This is a great topic - thanks for starting it, hbwilliams22! Here are my categories. I’ve tracked with far more granular precision in the past, but for the last several months this has worked great for me. For me, I find less is more when it comes to categories, tracking, and reporting.

I don’t even currently use tags, though I plan on returning to that practice this year.

Also, in the past I worked hard to completely eliminate the “Misc” category, but it keeps coming back.

[Edward]

On Twitter, Bill Winterberg CFP wrote “I have 15+ years of detailed household financial transaction history available for reporting.” Here are his categories.

Finally, here’s everything you’d want to know about setting up categories with Tiller Money.

[cwbosken]

@Edward I noticed you have an “Amazon” category- we have the same.

Further we have a “Costco” category and a “Target” category. I am curious if most people routinely sub-divide their Costco spending. Most of our spending there is on food but typically there is some other household good or clothes that we pick up. In the end, since I have a few years of data, it is good enough for us to track Costco spending as a whole and understand if we are over- or under-spending at Costco for the month compared to other months.

That said if there is a big Costco purchase like a TV or couch I will subcategorize that out, and I try to subcategorize gift spending there too.

[dylancstiles]

I do the same for Costco. We buy too many items there to try an separate it out, but most of the time it is groceries/household, so I just treat it that way. The only time it might be different is around the holidays because we sometimes buy gifts there.

I have been separating out Amazon though, because it’s relatively easy to do. Also, we buy a very wide variety if things from Amazon, so I can’t accurately treat it all as “household.”

[Mavenlane]

Here are my categories:

I like to separate dining out between my husband and I - also for Gear & Clothing since one of us enjoys expensive cycling gear…I add granularity to areas that I think we need to monitor and spend less money on. Some categories are created to enable easy auto categories (like IPad)

[dstcruz]

I guess we get a bit granular?

Some of the weird ones are:

• Vacuum Cleaner. The name of this category started as a joke when we were recently married. It “vacuums” money and never lets it go! It is our savings category, and it gets emptied out into investment accounts on a regular basis. It was originally named “Black Hole”, but somehow “Vacuum Cleaner” won out.

• Medical is where we track HSA reimbursable expenses. We have an extra column in our Transactions tab with a link to the google drive scan of the receipt.

• We treat “Tech”, “Replacements”, and “Car Depreciation” as depreciation categories. Our monthly budget always puts $$ into those. We use an envelops style when budgeting, so I guess these are not very different from the rest of the categories. We don’t just track where expenses go, but track how much each category has.

[hbwilliams22]

One thing I am struggling with is what to consider “Subscriptions”, like Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, magazines etc. Considering an “Entertainment” category?

[BrentD]

I don’t know if I’d say I have a “good system” but I take a pretty fine-grained approach.

I have one category for Amazon+Costco expenses I intend to split later for better analysis called NEEDS SPLITTING. I have attempted to preface categories that I intend to save for but not yet spend in with “LTS” or “Long-term Savings”. The theory was that money could be budgeted and set aside for larger expenses several months ahead and then converted to an actual budget item with the non-LTS prefix in the month it occurs. I say ‘theory’ because I have not yet been able to build a buffer and keep up with this system.

In the future, I intend to also begin categorizing certain expenses with tags such as ‘HSA’, ‘Hosting’ or trip names to keep special expenses removable from otherwise normal activity. For example, if I take a visiting friend out to dinner, I don’t want that considered in my ‘Eating out’ category.

My categories

Category	Group	Type
Annual memberships & subscriptions	Annual subscriptions	Expense
Outdoor gear	Camping/Hiking	Expense
Monthy Donation	Charity	Expense
Donation	Charity	Expense
Movies	Entertainment	Expense
Event tickets/Cover	Entertainment	Expense
Digital Purchases	Entertainment
Eating out	Food & Dining	Expense
Work Lunches	Food & Dining	Expense
Coffee	Food & Dining	Expense
Groceries	Food & Dining	Expense
Party/Guest supplies	Food & Dining
Drinks	Food & Dining	Expense
Xmas gifts	Gifts	Expense
Gifts	Gifts	Expense
Therapy	Health & Wellness	Expense
Doctor/Dentist/Tests	Health & Wellness	Expense
Prescriptions	Health & Wellness	Expense
Hair/Nails	Health & Wellness	Expense
Supplements	Health & Wellness	Expense
Home Improvement	Home expenses	Expense
House cleaners	Home expenses	Expense
Laundry/Tailor	Home expenses	Expense
Home furnishings	Home expenses	Expense
Househould supplies	Home expenses	Expense
Toiletries & Makeup	Home expenses	Expense
Savings interest	Investment	Income
Misc	Misc	Expense
Shipping/Mail	Misc	Expense
Legal	Misc	Expense
Misc Fees	Misc	Expense
Alarm bill	Monthly Bills	Expense
Gas bill	Monthly Bills	Expense
Gym	Monthly Bills	Expense
Mortgage	Monthly Bills	Expense
City Utilities	Monthly Bills	Expense
B phone bill	Monthly Bills	Expense
E Car Loan	Monthly Bills	Expense
Internet	Monthly Bills	Expense
Student loans	Monthly Bills	Expense
Spotify bill	Monthly Bills	Expense
Dropbox bill	Monthly Bills	Expense
Audible subscription	Monthly Bills	Expense
Vet visits	Pets	Expense
Cat food/Misc cat	Pets	Expense
Cat sitters	Pets	Expense
Paycheck	Primary Income	Income
Refunds	Refunds	Income
Car repair/replacement Fund	Savings Goals	Expense
Car Insurance	Savings Goals	Expense
LTS: Flights	Savings Goals	Expense
LTS: Home Improvement	Savings Goals	Expense
Clothing	Shopping	Expense
Electronics	Shopping	Expense
NEEDS SPLITTING	Shopping	Expense
Transfer	Transfer Types	Transfer
CC Payment	Transfer Types	Transfer
Auto fuel	Transportation	Expense
Parking	Transportation	Expense
Tolls	Transportation	Expense
Taxi/Transit	Transportation	Expense
Car maintenance	Transportation	Expense
Flights	Travel/Vacation	Expense
Park fees & reservations	Travel/Vacation	Expense
Hotels/Lodging	Travel/Vacation	Expense

[hbwilliams22]

Thanks for sharing. Question: why do you consider Refunds as Income? Shouldn’t the refund just be applied back to the Shopping or Pets category etc.?

[BrentD]

I would say that IS a change I should probably make at some point, but it originally stemmed from me creating very broad rules in AutoCat.

For context, my spouse and I do A LOT of home improvement work on our current home (quite the fixer-upper) and home depot returns are very common and typically noteworthy.

As a related aside, I have created Filter Views for ‘Income’ including refunds in the transaction sheet. If I were to recategorize them towards the category they originated from, then I could still see them that way.

[j.maloney.ii]

To me, categories are all about understanding how I can better understand where and how I’m spending money and learning how to control that. I also try to align my groups with accounts so that I can easily confirm that balances are correct. The key point is that categories should separate items by how I spend the money, how I think about spending the money, and how the money actually gets spent. It’s about how I interact with it.

I have 4 major groups: Savings, Regular Expenses, Irregular Expenses, and Discretionary. These line up with my savings account and checking account.

The regular expenses are for things like rent, utilities, payments, and any bills that I have set on a regular schedule. Everything I have on auto pilot or things I cannot live without. I have everything in this group roll over into a slush fund. The categories in this group are:

Car Insurance
Dental Insurance
Groceries
Health Insurance
Investments
Monthly Pay In
Student Loans
Subscriptions

The Irregular Expenses group is for things I cannot live without or am obligated to deal with, but that don’t happen regularly. These are things largely out of my control. I set up a savings category called Irregular expenses to put a small amount of money away for these emergencies. Everything I spend gets drawn from that fund and I pay it back when needed over time. Categories in this group are:

Car Repair
Commuter Bikes
Health Misc
Irregular Expenses Fund

Finally I have a discretionary group, with everything that I might buy on a discretionary basis. These can be reoccurring expenses or not, but I tend to put everything that isn’t on auto pilot in here. These are expenses that I can easily minimize by simply spending less. I try to budget some amount for areas in this category to give me an idea of what I can afford each month, but then I try to stay below the target. Some months I’m more successful than others. The categories in this group are:

Bank Fees
Bikes
Clothing
Eating Out
Entertainment
Gas
Personal Care
Projects
Slush
Travel

The TLDR here is that I try to split the group and categories up in such a way that it aligns with the way that I feel about the spending and the way that the spending decision gets made. If I am over spending on regular expenses or money is tight then I review all of the subscriptions and bills I have to see what I can live without. If discretionary spending is getting out of control then I look into the categories to see where that is happening. In the event that the irregular expenses are getting out of control, I might look into how I can better prevent emergencies from happening (ie more frequent car services to prevent breakdowns).

[krwrks]

I’m fairly granular, but I love it. Works for me. I never really have to worry about where I’m going to categorize oddball expenses. It makes the categorization process a breeze.

I’m single. No kids. And a I travel a lot to see my folks, so most expenses are pretty much doubled up in Travel. I feel the need to separate out food bought while I’m traveling from just run of the mill, weekly food. Circumstances are completely different and that’s important to me.

Also, social activities: I found lumping ‘nightlife’ or ‘entertainment’ into just one category wasn’t informational. I wanted to know how I was spending my money when going out (which racks up quickly). I found often I’d cover a drink or two for friends (or a girl I was attempting to court, etc.). So $56 on “drinks” wasn’t fair to me, when really I was buying for others (and they were often buying for me). So generally, I have doubled whether I was buying for 2 or more or just myself, e.g. food.

[hbwilliams22]

This is a good method. Thanks for sharing.

[masonmac]

I just call these Subscriptions and have Entertainment separately for events out: shows, sports, etc.

[galatic_incipient]

I have 7 years of history in Tiller, so some of these are old holdouts from when I used Mint (dark days). But this covers any potential expense I might have.

The travel categories are key to understand per person costs of travel, so when budgeting our next vacation I can accurately predict food and other costs. I track vacation spending in a separate sheet.