90+ Budget Categories That You're Forgetting About

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90+ Budget Categories That You’re Forgetting About

“What should I put in my budget?” It’s a question that I get a lot, and it’s no easy answer. Sure, you could just cram it all into 3 broad budget categories, but it’s so much more than that.

A budget is more than just housing, food, and transportation. There are so many other budget categories to take into consideration that you might be missing some really big ones without even knowing.

Before we get into all of these 90+ budget categories, I want to make sure that you know that this is not meant to overwhelm you! I made this list so that you can see all of the different parts of your life that need to be accounted for when you’re trying to get in control of your finances.

More awesome ways to save money:

90+ Budget categories that you need to remember to save more money!

Housing

In some way or another, we all have a housing expense. Whether you rent or own, there is an expense that comes along with it.

Rent
Mortgage
HOA fees
Property tax

Food

Any and all food expenses go here. Even take-out and baby formula goes here. Making a nice big category helps to keep take-out spending in check, too.

Groceries
Meal plan expenses (Mine’s only $1.25 a week and you can use the code CAROLINE25 to get 25% off yours’ too!)
Take-out
Baby food and formula

Utilities

Everything that you need to have in your home to keep your life running smoothly goes in here. No, you don’t necessarily need cable or internet, but this is the place out of all of the budget categories where it goes.

Water
Sewer
Trash
Electric
Gas
Oil
Cell phone
Cable
Internet

Find out how to save money by weatherizing your home!

Pets

I love my pets, but they can get expensive. That’s why they need their own category.

Food
Medication
Accessories (clothes, leashes, etc.)
Vet visits
Animal boarding

Clothing

Any kind of clothing that needs to get purchased comes from this budget category.

Kids clothes
Clothes for adults
School uniforms
Work uniforms

It helps if you shop second hand, but you still need to account for the expense!

Transportation

Everything that comes with a car expense goes in this category. Including routine maintenance, like oil changes that needs to happen every 3 months.

Car payment
Car insurance
Gas for car
Regular oil changes
Parking permits

Medical

Doctor’s visits, glasses, medications, and co-pays are included here. Anything that you pay for health costs is included here. This helps especially if you have a yearly specialist visit, like an optometrist and it comes with a hefty out of pocket cost.

Preventative care (well visits)
Dental care
Vision
Prescriptions
Specialty co-pays (chiropractors, orthodontics, etc.)

Insurance

I’m crazy about insurance. Always get insurance. Let me say that again… ALWAYS. I have insurance for everything. No matter what my budget is, I always have insurance.

Health insurance
Dental insurance
Life insurance
Flood insurance (it’s not included in your home owner’s or renter’s policy, but always get flood insurance!)
Mortgage insurance
Home owner’s insurance
Renter’s insurance
Car insurance
Personal property insurance (for the valuables in your house in case you lose them or they get stolen)
Disability insurance (both short-term and long-term)

Credit/ loans

Any loans that aren’t your mortgage or a car payment go here. The goal is to get these paid off sooner rather than later, so this budget category is a great way to make sure that you’re paying more than the minimum payment to get out of debt sooner.

Credit cards
Personal loans
Student loans

Retirement

You might be thinking “retirement is so far away, why should I put so much money into a retirement account?” It’s because the sooner and more aggressively you start funding your retirement, the more you’ll have saved up sooner. I just got into investing and I already love it. It’s much more lucrative for your savings than just waiting for interest from your bank to accrue. I use Betterment and they make it so easy to use (plus they’re super inexpensive to use until I can really understand what I’m doing better).

Contribution to 401K
Investments

Savings

Budgeting for savings is my favorite. There are 6 different bank accounts that I have for my family and many of them are savings accounts. That’s because savings is so important to have for many reasons: unexpected illness, job loss, emergency, etc. So budgeting for money to go into savings is important to make it a priority.

If you struggle to make space for saving, check out Digit. They find extra money from your checking account and automatically put it into a savings account for you without you ever needing to do anything. I saved more than $200 without even trying in my first month.

$1,000 emergency fund
3-6 month emergency fund
College saving plan for children

Household supplies

Anything that you use at home goes into this category. These cleaning products don’t need to be expensive. In fact, you can make a lot of your own cleaning supplies for pennies on the dollar.

Paper products (toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, etc.)
Cleaning supplies
Detergents

Personal care items

Here you’ll find any kind of items that are for personal hygiene and cosmetic appearance. Remember that you can find cheap or free alternatives to paying for an expensive haircut.

Shampoo, conditioner
Lotions
Perfumes
Haircuts
Hair dyes
Waxing
Manicures and pedicures
Makeup
All other cosmetics

Education

In this category, you’ll have the expenses that come along with any kind of schooling for both children and for adults.

School tuition
School supplies
Books

Work

This is a category for those of you who work from home or work from home part-time. All work expenses can be written off on your taxes, so make sure to keep careful records of your work expenses.

Office supplies
Office rent
Conferences
Flights
Hotels

Gifts

Birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays all come up at the same time each year, so having this category is a great way to save up all year. You’ll also be ready when your little ones get invited to a party and you need to get a gift quickly.

Birthday presents, cards
Anniversary presents, cards
Wedding
Holidays
All other special occasions

Maintenance

Things break. It just happens. But by planning for things to break all year helps you to have money saved up for the big expense when it happens.

Car maintenance
Home maintenance

Giving

I want to talk a little bit about tithing (not much, I promise). The Bible says to tithe 10%, but if you’re struggling financially, you can still give 10% without giving money. Donate your time, energy and talents to the church and to the community instead of just donating money. Chances are that your time, talents and energy will be much more helpful than just giving money.

Tithing
Charity

Fun money

These are all items that still need to be worked into a budget, but would be easy enough to cut out in an attempt to save money in a pinch.

Gym membership
Entertainment
Vacations
Date nights
Babysitting
Alcohol
Tobacco products

Again, don’t feel overwhelmed by this list of budget categories! Many of them might not even apply to you and your life situation right now. But when you’re making a budget, it’s so important to remember to plan for every eventuality and to have a plan for every penny.

Did I miss anything on this list? Let me know in the comments!