This includes everything from rent or mortgage payments to property taxes, HOA dues, and home maintenance costs. The amount you pay to have a roof over your head constitutes a housing cost. They’re usually categorized under housing, transportation, food, utilities, insurance premiums, and other essential costs. Your disposable income is what you have left to spend on your home budget categories. Want more specifics about what goes into these budgeting categories? Let’s dive in! Assembling Your Home Budget Categories The Essential Budget CategoriesĪll monthly budgets start with your disposable income - we can define this as the amount of money you take home from your paycheck after taxes, retirement savings, and other deductions. Recreation & Entertainment (5-10 percent).Saving, Investing, & Debt Payments (10-20 percent).It also offers suggestions for how much of your income you can contribute to each category. This guide reviews a list of budget categories found in a basic household budget. Once you’ve identified your basic budget categories, you can start allocating your spending based on your own individual financial circumstances. The first step involves breaking down your regular expenses into budget categories, in order to get a clearer picture of your spending patterns (including areas where you tend to overspend). A well-thought-out budget can help you take control of your finances and use your money with real purpose, so you have enough to pay your bills, grow your savings, and still enjoy life today.

To put it simply, a budget is really just a plan for your money.

Family budget tracking