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How do you categorize your bills?

August 28th, 2008 at 06:08 pm

I like seeing how my spending breaks down, but I don't always feel the same way about what bills go to which categories. The four main categories I use are:
Household/grocery expenses
Spending/entertainment
Mortgage/utilities
Debt repay

Most things are no-brainers (mortgage and condo fees go in Mortgage/utilities, credit cards and student loans go in Debt repay, Netflix and travel savings go in Spending/entertainment, medical and education go in Household/grocery), but others I'm unsure about:

- Is the cellphone package a utility or a household expense? It's our only phone service.

- Is the barber a household or a spending/entertainment expense? Looking groomed is sort of a work necessity, but then so are work clothes and we pay for those out of spending money or windfall money.

- Cable/Internet package: entertainment or household? We use the Internet for a lot of practical household things, but obviously entertainment is a large part of it, and cable is all entertainment.

Where do you think I should put these items? Or do you have a completely different way of breaking things down?

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “How do you categorize your bills?”

  1. little l Says:
    August 28th, 2008 at 06:17 pm 1219943867
    1219943867

    That is precisely why I don't categorize like you suggest. I just have many categories but don't group them under different umbrellas as you've outlined. Cell phones go to the Telephone category, haircuts are a subcategory of Personal Care, clothing goes to each family member's category etc. It's really a matter of preference. Since you only have cell phones I would put it inder Utilities. When you think of 'cell phone' or 'haircuts', where does your brain want to put them? What category first pops into your mind when categorizing expenses? Whatever that first catgory is, that's where I would put it.

  2. Broken Arrow Says:
    August 28th, 2008 at 06:51 pm 1219945916
    1219945916

    Mine is lumped in basic categories. But I can do that because I'm just tracking it for myself.

    I keep my cellphone bill and house utilities separate. To me, it's not a part of the house. In fact, it's something that I actually don't need, but is close to a need because it's so darn useful. So, it's lumped with the internet. Big Grin Sort of like, naming it "house add-ons".

    I'm a guy who gets a haircut only once in a blue moon so... I can't help you there. Big Grin I typically just suck it up from the excess (because I slightly under-budget from my actual take home). Perhaps you may want a "work expense" category and put it in there?

    Basically, just however it makes the most intuitive sense to you is how I would set up the categories.

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