How I use YNAB Budget Categories (2015)

Some people were curious so I thought I’d post how I use my YNAB budget categories. I got my idea on how to do this after reading Elizabeth Warren’s All Your Worth where she recommends sorting everything into three categories: Must Haves (I call this category “Needs”), Wants, and Savings.

I’ve found it to be a really great and easy way to organize YNAB into categories. This way I can look at my Needs category and I can see for sure how much money I need to have each month just to meet basic expenses.

Also – it you bring up the reporting view you can quickly see if you are close to the 50% Needs/Must Haves, 30% Wants, and 20% Savings that she recommends.

I’m currently at 53% Needs, 24% Wants, and 23% Savings.


So here goes: (it’s not alphabetized)

1. Needs

• Mortgage
• Pre-School [Child's name]
• Pre-School [Child’s Name)
• Auto – Gas
• Auto – Registration
• Insurance – Auto
• Insurance – Homeowner’s
• Insurance – Floaters
• Insurance – Life
• Insurance – Health (This is actually not on my budget as my wife gets us health care through her job – but since we’re planning on having her stay home with the next kid that won’t be the case in the future.)
• Gas
• Electricity and Garbage (Billed every 2 months)
• Union Dues
• Water (Billed every 2 months)
• Taxes – Tax Prep
• Taxes – Property
• Home Repair
• Fee/Oopsy (atm withdrawal fees – AmEx annual fee)
• Health Ins. Copay
• Auto – Repairs
• Auto Insurance Deductable

2. Wants

• FOOD n FUN CASH – Again, going by the method in Elizabeth Warren’s All Your Worth, this is where I make my weekly withdrawls for all of our living expenses – Groceries, Restaurants, Clothing, etc…
• Cell Phone
• Gardener – this is probably on the chopping block once we go single income
• Maidservice – ditto
• Audible, Tivo, Redbox (I love Audible! – might have to give it up for a while and just use the library though)
• Tax Deductable Memberships / Donations
• Political Donation
• Subscriptions
• Internet
• Weightwatchers – Very much like YNAB in fact. I’ve lost 60+ pounds with it but I’m a little stagnant right now. Need to get back on the horse!
• YMCA Membership
• Vacation
• Birthdays
• Christmas
• Kid’s Activities
• Hope Improvement
• Babysitter

3 – Savings

• Mortgage Repayment – Whole point of this site right here!
• Emergency Fund – It’s fully funded with 6 months of expenses but I’ll probably keep adding to it.
• Debt Repayment – No more debt – but it’s still here for now. I’ll probably “hide” it soon.
• SEP-IRA
• Roth IRA
• 529 Kid #1
• 529 Kid #2
• New Car

4 – Taxes – Warren’s method doesn’t have a 4th section but I wanted to break it out of the Needs section because if I’m not working then I wouldn’t need to save for estimated tax payments. This way I can quickly look at my 1st category and see how much I really need each month to get by. The wants can be severely paired down – needs cannot.

• Taxes – Federal
• Taxes -State

I hope this gives you some ideas!

(Originally posted on the old WordPress version of the site)