What budgeting categories do you have?

[Smokering]

DH and I have only just started budgeting (as part of the Pantry Challenge really; I can only spend $40 a week on groceries). We have a food budget, obviously. We'll expand that a little once November is up, maybe to $50 a week, but it'd be nice to keep it low. We're thinking of having a hospitality budget of maybe $10/$20 a week... mostly because we're antisocial and don't want our tightish food budget to dissuade us from having guests. This way we can happily buy juice, cream for dessert, etc, without panicking. We each have a $20 a week personal budget, to spend on food or goodies or whatever we want, and we can save it up and (presumably) blow it on a trip to Tahiti if that takes our fancy. We do give to the church, but that comes out of our account so no need for a budget; ditto for the rent.

That's about it! So, what do you have? An emergency budget? A clothing budget? An entertainment budget (for yourselves, not hospitality)? Which of your budgets have you found the most helpful? I don't think it would be feasible to budget power, beyond trying to be careful how much we use, because it's a pest to regulate.

[mum4boys]

All the money we spend comes from some where in the budget. Our budget has the following catagories.

INCOME:
Wages and Bonuses
HOME:
Rent
Renters Insurance
UTILITIES:
Electricity
Water and Sewer
Garbage
Telephone (Land Line, Cell)
FOOD:
Groceries including tolieteries
Eating Out

HEALTH AND MEDICAL:

Unreimbursed Medical Expenses, Copays
YMCA
TRANSPORTATION:

Gasoline/Oil
Auto Repairs/Maintenance/Fees
Auto Insurance
ENTERTAINMENT/RECREATION:
Computer Expense
Hobbies
Subscriptions and Dues
Vacations
PETS:
Food

CLOTHING:
INVESTMENTS AND SAVINGS:
IRA
emergency fund

Student loan repayment

[velochic]

Our categories from net income:

* Savings (retirement savings, taxable investing, varies throughout the year, general savings includes 6 mos. salary emergency fund, home maintenance, travel, medical, etc.) Some people like to separate these out.
* Dd's school tuition
* Groceries
* Mortgage

The rest goes on the credit card, which is paid off every month:

* Eating Out, which is our main source of "entertainment"
* Automobile (maintenance, petrol, plates, insurance all lumped together in a short-term, low-interest savings account)
* Electricity/Water/Sewage
* Gas (we have a gas furnace, so this only really affects us in the winter)
* Cable/Internet
* cell phones
* land phone

We use the credit card for everything, but we *never* carry a balance. For some people, this might not work, but it's great for us because we get points and these points are used to buy dd's uniforms every year.

Whatever is left over each month is left in a savings account - I think the same one the auto stuff comes from. Dh keeps the budget in Quicken.

[LilMama23]

Dave Ramsey has great fill-in-the-blank budget worksheets on his website - that's what we use.

[katheek77]

Under Income we have:
Salary
REA (my husband's expense account reimbursement)
Kathee's (I occassionally pick up a babysitting job)
RIP (my husband's incentive pay)
Found (ie...gift money, rebates, etc.)
The only one we count on each month is Salary

Under expenses we have
Rent
Auto Insurance
IRA/Mutual Funds
Savings
529
Cable/Internet
Telephone
Utilities
Baby (formula supps, wipes, etc.)
Groceries
Auto upkeep/gas
Parking (we live in a city, and DD has doc appt's, so, parking is stupid).
Cash (like, the ten bucks we keep on hand)
Clothing
Household (things like laundry money, church donation, a new Pyrex loaf pan after DH drops it, etc.)
Entertainment
Memberships (we have zoo, museums, etc...)
Dining Out
Gifts
Other (because there's always something that pops up).

The ones in red are the same each month. The others I budget in for, but don't always use up. If I don't use all our money, half the leftover goes into savings, and the other half is split for fun money between DH and me.

ETA: I do change the amounts if I know something is coming up. I know that Christmas is coming, so, I budgeted in more for gifts than usual, but cut down in other areas (groceries, dining out, etc) to make up for that. Travel comes out of "savings", but only if there's enough (in our minds) to take from savings w/o causing trouble. Our emergency budget is "savings". I do budget variables (utilities, groceries, etc.) because if I happen to go over, then I have to "withdraw" that money from another account. But I purposely budgeted in on the high side (ie...with summer prices for utilities which are a good 1.5-2 times more than winter).

[BetsyS]

We have lots of catgories. It is the way my brain works, and it might not work for everyone. My dh is 60% salary, and about 40% comission, which varies every month.

This comes out of the fixed part:
Mortgage
Electricity/gas (one is higher in summer, one in winter, it average out)
Food (groceries)
Car gas
Tithe
Water
Trash
Cell phone
Newspaper
Car payment
Student loan payments

Then out of the comission:
Cash money (our fun money)
Cable
Vacation
Christmas
Clothing
Eating out
Haircuts
Dog (pays for the vet and if we board him)
Cars (maintainence)
Gifts
Books/magazines
Household (like someone said, potting soil, a new pan to replace the broken one, stuff like that)
Entertainment (to include Tivo, any CDs we buy, and any fun stuff)
Car insurance (once every 6 months, but I stick a monthly amount in the envelope)
Car tags (same as above)

I have a target amount that I'd like to put in each envelope. If it's a good month, that happens. If it's a bad comission month, then some envelopes get skipped. If we don't spend the amount in the envelope, it rolls to the next month. So, I might put $5 each month in the pet category, and then in 8 months, I might spend $45 on shots for the dog and spend it all. Stuff like that. I don't get oil changed every month, but the money is there, rolling over, for when I need to have it done. (Or tires or a repair or whatever)

[nadia105]

These things are paid each month:
Mortgage
Life Insurances
Cable/phone/internet
Gas and electric

Other monthly expenses, put on cc and paid off each month:
Gas
Food

These aren't monthly expenses, but we budget for:
Gifts (bdays, Christmas, etc)
Clothes
Car maintenance
House Insurance
Car Insurance
Property taxes
Cell phones (we buy prepaid minutes once per year per phone)
Dog (vet)
Pictures (we do nice prof pics for the kids, a big order is too big to add into a month's budget)

I think that's it.

[CarrieMF]

These all the stay the same though I adjust it in

September(when DH had paid in the max for CPP & EI so they stop taking it off his cheques)
October(when Gas re-evaluates the budget plan & house insurance adjusts)
if something gets paid off
January(when dh starts having CPP & EI taken off his cheques again, car insurance adjusts)
Feb(usually when dh's raise kicks in)
March(when power re-evaluates the budget plan)
July(when the new child tax amounts change)

Right now this is how it looks

15th of the month

Income
Dh's work(is salaried but gets bonus' & call outs, I put the minimum he gets here)
Child Tax Credit(gov't money given to all families with kids, you get less or none if you make too much $)
Miscellaneous(gov't money that our idiot gov't started giving us last year to cover child care costs. All families get $100/kid 5 & under, we have to pay taxes on it & it lowers my child tax credit. 6 more & then my youngest turns 6)

Expenses
Savings(5%, it goes into the property tax, gift, vacation account. I alternate)
ING (this goes into the girl's savings accounts & my retirement account)
My Life Insurance
Car Insurance
Car Payment(less than a year left)
HELOC
Cable
UFA(vehicle gas account, if bill is lower than budget I put the extra into savings)
Water/garbage/blue box (get a bill every 2 months. the months we don't get it I put the $ into savings)
Groceries(this includes all household stuff like gifts, tp, soap)
Miscellaneous(vet bill(rare), eating out, vehicle expenses(rare), house expenses(rare)

31st of the month
Income
Dh's work(is salaried but gets bonus' & call outs, I put the minimum he gets here)

Expenses
Savings(5%, it goes into the property tax, gift, vacation account. I alternate)
ING (this goes into the girl's savings accounts & my retirement account)
House Insurance
EXTRA car payment
Power
Gas
Phone
Credit Cards
Groceries(this includes all household stuff like gifts, tp, soap)
DH (usually for beer)
Miscellaneous(vet bill(rare), eating out, vehicle expenses(rare), house expenses(rare)
Bank Fee