Category Budgets

What Are Category Budgets?

Category budgets let you allocate portions of your income to specific types of spending—groceries, dining, entertainment, transportation, and more. They help you control where your money goes.

Default Categories

OneBudget comes with common categories pre-configured:

• Groceries — Supermarkets, food stores
• Dining — Restaurants, takeout, coffee shops
• Transportation — Gas, rideshare, public transit
• Shopping — Retail, online purchases
• Entertainment — Movies, games, streaming
• Health — Pharmacy, doctor visits, gym
• Bills — Recurring monthly expenses

Setting Up Category Budgets

1. Go to Budget in the bottom navigation
2. Tap a category to edit it
3. Set your budget amount per period
4. Choose carryover settings
5. Save your changes

How Much to Budget?

Not sure how much to allocate? OneBudget can help:

1. Check your history — We show your average spending in each category
2. Use the suggestion — We recommend budgets based on your patterns
3. Start conservative — It's easier to increase later than to cut back

Auto-Categorization

OneBudget automatically categorizes most transactions based on the merchant. A purchase at Whole Foods goes to Groceries; Uber goes to Transportation.

Fixing Miscategorized Transactions

Sometimes auto-categorization gets it wrong:

1. Open the transaction
2. Tap the category
3. Select the correct category
4. OneBudget learns from your corrections

Creating Custom Categories

Need a category we don't have?

1. Go to Budget → Add Category
2. Name your category
3. Set a budget amount
4. Choose an icon
5. Configure carryover rules

Tips for Effective Categories

1. Keep it simple — 5-8 categories is usually enough
2. Review monthly — Adjust budgets based on actual spending
3. Use subcategories sparingly — Too much detail becomes overwhelming
4. Budget for irregular expenses — Car maintenance, gifts, annual subscriptions