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Budget Categories
I'm working on creating our budgets to be more in lines of everything we do. What are the categories do you guys budget for?
The budget that we have had in the past, has been extremely generic...not including entertainment, auto expenses (except for gas), etc.
For those that budget for Vehicle Maintenance...do you guys carry that over each month? Do you have a separate account for that, or how do you distinguish that this particular amount is for vehicle maintenance.
Do you budget for medical expenses? Do you carry those over each month?
How do you budget for household goods/groceries? Is it all combined or not?
Household Expenses/repairs...do you carry those over each month? Do you have a separate account for that or how do you distinguish that this particular amount is for household expenses/repairs?
Also - what do you do if something comes up that doesn't fit into one of your budgeted categories? Do you have a misc. category?
Sorry for all the questions!
TTC since June 2012
Re: Budget Categories
Household Goods/Groceries: I combine them into 1 category since I pick everything up at 1 store.
TTC since 1/13 DX:PCOS 5/13 (long, anovulatory cycles)
Clomid 50mg 9/13 = BFP! EDD 6/7/14 M/C 5w6d Found 11/4/13
1/14 PCOS / Gluten Free Diet to hopefully regulate my system.
Chemical Pregnancy 03/14
Surprise BFP 6/14, Beta #1: 126 Beta #2: 340 Stick baby, stick! EDD 2/17/15
Riley Elaine born 2/16/15
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I do the basics such as water, gas, eletric, mortgage, etc. But then this year I'm trying something new and figuring out those special sometimes once a year or quarterly expenses into my monthly expenses. Like our AAA membership, tags, life insurance, oil changes, etc. Then I put that money aside in our savings account and I have a spreadsheet to keep track of how much in savings is those expenses & as I have to pay out on those expenses I deduct the amount from that category on my spreadsheet. I find it makes it easier to save a few dollars a month then having to come up with the large amount each quarterly or annual as certain bills come up.
TTC since June 2012
We have a few Other or more general budget categories that we use for those odd expenses...
We NEVER carry over any "leftover money" in any category. We plan for and use every single dollar that comes in each month. so at the end of the month i figure out our actual spending and actual income and any "leftover money" is then designated to a debt category or savings category whatever our goal is. Right now anything unused goes to my car payment.
Now if we go significantly over or under in a particular category then i'll adjust next months category as i see fit. For example - i spent too much in groceries last month so when making up this months budget i purposely gave us less for groceries to sort of compensate. Or say we planned to buy something but never did - then i most likely need to buy it the next month. but regardless every dollar spent in a month gets taken out of that months income. carrying things over is just too complicated for me because we do zero based budgetting.
Total take home pay after taxes, insurance and 401(k), then we deduct:
Mortgage
Daycare for two
Groceries and lunches
Savings (goes toward 6+ months living expenses and Roth IRA)
Gas
Power
Gasoline
Gym
Water
Netflix
Donations
There may be a few more items but those are the big ones.
All extra goes towards mortgage and we have minimums of $1,000 in checking and immediate savings. We usually have enough on hand to cover unexpected items.
Joint savings account: (stand alone) used for emergencies, car repairs, home repairs, and semi-annual/ annual bills that we can't cash flow. The money that comes out of here we talk about to replenish the account or pay off credit card to cover bills.
Joint checking account with savings account: vacation, fun items, gifts, and once our son starts Pre-K, his monthly tuition goes into this. I need to reset up the automatic transfers to the savings account from the checking account to keep the checking account smaller so we will use it less often.