Personal expense categories: a simple list that works
Categories decide what your expense tracking can tell you. Too few and every answer is “other”. Too many and you stop logging. Here is a starting list, and how to adjust it to your life.
How many categories you need
For most people, eight to twelve expense categories is the right number. The test is simple: if you hesitate for more than a second when choosing a category, you have too many, or two of them overlap. You can always split a category later when you notice it growing.
A starting list
- Housing: rent or mortgage, maintenance.
- Bills and utilities: electricity, gas, water, internet, phone.
- Groceries: food and household items you buy to use at home.
- Food and drink out: restaurants, cafés, takeaway, delivery.
- Transport: fuel, ride-hailing, public transport, parking, car servicing.
- Health: medicine, doctor visits, insurance.
- Shopping: clothes, electronics, things for the home.
- Entertainment and subscriptions: streaming, games, cinema, hobbies.
- Family and education: school fees, children, support for relatives.
- Gifts and giving: presents, donations, charity.
- Other: anything that truly fits nowhere else.
Do the same for income, with a shorter list: salary, business or freelance income, and other income is enough for most people.
Groceries and eating out: keep them apart
If you only split one pair, make it this one. Both are "food", but they behave very differently. Groceries are fairly steady. Eating out is where spending quietly grows, and it is one of the easiest places to cut once you can see it.
When to split a category
Split a category when it is large and you cannot tell what is inside it. If "Shopping" is your biggest category every month, you do not yet know whether that is clothes, gadgets or the household. Split it, and next month you will.
When to merge categories
Merge categories that are tiny and that you never act on. A category with two small entries a month is not telling you anything, and it is one more choice to make every time you log.
Watch the "Other" category
"Other" should stay small. If it becomes one of your largest categories, it is hiding the answer you started tracking to find. Look through it once a month and move recurring items into a proper category.
Doing this in Coinly
Coinly comes with a full set of expense and income categories, each with its own icon and colour, and separate lists for expenses and income. You can add your own, choose their icon and colour, and toggle any category off; every list respects the change straight away. The categories list shows a live transaction count for each one, so a category that is never used is easy to spot. Unlimited categories are part of the free plan. Once your categories are settled, turn them into a budget.