Financial software expense catagories limited.

[Florida]

Microsoft Money and Quicken as we know downloads activity from bank accounts and CC's and catagories the expenses into a number of catagories.

If you had to choose only 6 catagories to allocate all of your yearly expenses what would those six be?

[LOL!]

1. CreditCard
2. Mortgage
3. Utilities
4. Charity
5. Taxes

OK, I only needed 5 categories.

[maddythebeagle]

Nice topic and I was just thinking about this since I have just started tracking last year....

1. Groceries
2. Other Household - yard, garden, home repair and maint.
3. Gas and Car
4. Taxes
5. Eating out/entertainment
6. Utilities

It probably doesnt matter what you have as long as you can use the info. to estimate future expenses...heck...I like the 1 credit card cat.

[Florida]

I'm thinking

Household - mortage/rent, utilities, phones (including cell) maintenance, household products, insurance, property taxes.

Transportation - auto payments, maintenance, gas, insurance including umbella policy, parking. public transportation.

Food - all groceries and drinks (non alcoholic) bought for the home.

Personal care - heath insurance, haircuts, toilteries, vitamins, gym membership, clothes, education.

Entertainment- stuff you buy ie. ipod, laptop, CD's, dining out, vacations, golf memberships, alcohol, nightclubs, social events, membership fees.

Taxes/Charities- Federal City and State, tax preparation fees or software. Contributions made.

[saluki9]

Auto
Food
Mortgage Interest
Utilities
Taxes
Household

[TromboneAl]

Is there some reason that you are limiting yourself to six, or is this just a "what would you want on a deserted island?" type question?

[SecondCor521]

If I had to choose just six (I probably have 20 in real life), my first thought would be to choose the top five and then roll the rest into Misc, thus:

Child Support
Kids
Mortgage Interest
Taxes
Food
Misc (everything else)

My spending over a rolling six month period seems to be holding very constant, so a budget is now more of academic interest to me anyway.

2Cor521