Hi, I’m looking for some guidance on using the “household” and “living” groups, which I think came preloaded when I started using Tiller. I’m trying to figure out which group categories like utilities, cable TV, entertainment, groceries, mortgage etc.should fall under. It mainly matters when looking at the Spending Trends tab for the year, because it groups expenses by group. Or should I use a different nomenclature for the groups? I’m probably overthinking it but wanted to see how others do it. I tried a search and found some general discussions of categories and groups but nothing specifically on this question.
Hi @jayfram1 the Foundation Template starts you out with a set of simple default categories and groups but we recommend that you customize your categories as per your needs, by typing over the default categories. Your Groups can be custom, but our templates only support the Types: Income, Expense, and Transfer.
“living” and “household” can have different meaning depending on the Type so perhaps if you’re asking for something specific you can equally specify your scenario a bit more or the transactions in mind.
Have you already come across this thread?
Hi Jay,
If you haven’t seen them, this video series that @Heather did might be helpful to you, particularly Part 3. [Getting Started With Tiller Video Series - Tiller]
I didn’t want to be as granular as the example @twalane posted, but many here do. I opted to use broad groups and categories and then created Tags for more detail (subcategories) and easier tracking. The vast majority of my 32 categories fall into two groups: Essential and Discretionary expenses. Essential includes categories of Home and Living Expenses, Food, Medical, and Auto expenses. Transactions for utility bills, monthly condo fees, and home insurance. I use tags for each of those transactions, and the Tag Report provides a running total of how much I’ve spent on each–electricity, condo fees, etc.
Likewise, my Discretionary group includes categories for entertainment (tags are used for movies, concerts, hobbies) and personal care (tags include haircuts, toiletries).
I hope this helps,
~Rebecca
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Hi! No I hadn’t seen that thread, I’ll take a look at it! I’m just trying to figure out where certain things like cell phones, cable tv etc. should fall.
Ok thanks!
Jay
That’s helpful, thanks! I have not done anything with tags yet so I’ll have to look at that!
- Jay
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