Budgeting

[skives]

How far do you guys and gals break down you budgets into categories? Like if I go to my local meijer I'm torn between categorizing everything as groceries or breaking it up. What do you guys do?

[phantom]

I'm pretty detailed in my tracking, but not so detailed in my budgeting. For example, if I go to Walmart and buy a few bottles of pop, 3M hooks for hanging pictures, and a birthday card, I'll split my transaction into groceries, home decorating, and gifts. But, while I have a budget line for groceries, home decorating and gifts both fall into my everything else category. That way if I'm curious why I spent so much on "everything else" or much I spend on gifts over the course of a year, I can see. But, I don't really have to worry about it or predict it month to month. I have to admit that on a trip to the grocery story in which I buy some paper towels and dish soap, whether or not I split the transaction into groceries and home supplies is entirely dependent on whether or not I remember that there were non-groceries in my purchase.

My budget just covers expenses that are pretty consistent month to month, which pretty much means bills, groceries, gas, and savings. Then there's a generous category for everything else that acts as a catch all for expenses I can't be bothered to estimate and make categories for.

[bjl584]

How far do you guys and gals break down you budgets into categories? Like if I go to my local meijer I'm torn between categorizing everything as groceries or breaking it up. What do you guys do?

I know how much I save each month. I know what my debt obligations are each month. I know what my recurring bills are each month like electric, gas, cable, etc. I have no idea what I spend on anything else. Not very detailed I guess, but it works for me.

[disneysteve]

I know how much I save each month. I know what my debt obligations are each month. I know what my recurring bills are each month like electric, gas, cable, etc. I have no idea what I spend on anything else. Not very detailed I guess, but it works for me.

I'm exactly the same way.

[kork13]

I'm about halfway between phantom and bjl/DS... I do track my expenses, but only break it out between "Food/Grocery" (everything from the supermarket or restaurants), "Auto Gas, Rent, Utilities", and "Everything Else".

I'm mostly of the opinion that as long as I save according to my goals and pay all of my recurring expenses, I don't sweat the details of the rest. I track my expenses only to monitor my spending and make sure that I'm not wildly over-spending.