YNAB You Need A Budget

[piratemacfan]

My John Deere riding lawn mower just came back from a $228.56 repair.

Any recommendations on what MASTER CATEGORY and CATEGORY I should create in order to record this expense?

(Yes, I know I either should have already had a budgeted category for this expense, or simply use 'EMERGENCY FUND'. My question is actually more general than that, in thinking about the future.)

[YYC27]

Well, I don't have a lawn ... but I'd put something like that under "Non-Discretionary: Home Maintenence". But that's where that kind of expense would fit in with how I have set up my categories. What will work with you and your budget is something only you can really determine. The important part isn't what you call your categories, or how you organize them, it's that you learn to anticipate these sorts of events and set asside the money for them in advance.

[letseatpaste]

I use Housing: Maintenance and Repair for that sort of expense. I used to call it "Home and Yard Maintenance" back when I was doing my own excel spreadsheet. That makes it a fairly broad category, some might split up the Home from the Yard part. I like not having to chase down receipts to split up all my hardware store or Lowes/Home Depot transactions.

[Patzer]

My John Deere riding lawn mower just came back from a $228.56 repair.

Any recommendations on what MASTER CATEGORY and CATEGORY I should create in order to record this expense?

(Yes, I know I either should have already had a budgeted category for this expense, or simply use 'EMERGENCY FUND'. My question is actually more general than that, in thinking about the future.)

Category selection is part of the art of budgeting. What category or categories are appropriate for you may not be the same categories that are appropriate for me, or for anyone else.

With that disclaimer, I'd put lawn mower repair into my Housing:Maintenance category. I'd put lawn mower replacement into my Housing:Furniture & Durable Goods category. My logic is that the lawn comes with the house, and the cost of maintaining the lawn therefore belongs in my Housing master category. But that cost isn't big enough, or problematic enough, to deserve being broken out for its own category. Other things that go into Housing:Maintenance would include the Furnace/AC maintenance contract, the lawn service that does fertilizer and weed control, and anything I buy for do it yourself home repairs. Housing:Furniture & Durable Goods gets stuff I buy that is associated with maintaining a household and expected to last a long time, like furniture, lawnmowers, kitchen utensils, and so on.

Other people will organize their categories and master categories differently than I do. That's OK. You need to find an organization that works well for you, regardless of what would work well for me or for anyone else.

Patzer

[blarg]

It'd go into my Bills : Home Repairs and Upkeep category.

[katsmeow]

Coincidentally I am pondering the same thing. Our John Deere repair/maintanance was over $400 though.

On the one hand I thought about putting it in the Yard category or the House Maintenance category. The thing is that right now we have 2 houses (long story) so which house to categorize it under. Probably the house where it is currently located. But the thing is that the lawn place picked it up from House 1, did the work, and returned it to house 2. So do I categorize it at House 1 or House 2?

Then I have a Furniture and Appliances category which is for buying those sorts of things. Maybe I should put it there....

I think I will end up putting it in Yard for the house it was delivered to but really this isn't a house specific item so even that makes me a feel a little uncomfortable.

[piratemacfan]

I am the original poster and I appreciate the input from all of you.

This will work for me quite well:

HOUSE & YARD—equipment repair = lawn mowers, well & well pump, etc



HOUSE & YARD—appliance repair = refrigerator, dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, etc

[cross4sin]

I know the original poster pretty much closed out the thread, but I thought I'd add some confusion to the matter. Since the original poster feels that "appliance" correlates strongly with "house" and "equipment" correlates strongly with "yard", here is, IMO, how I would do it:

House - Maintenance
House - Repair

Yard - Maintenance
Yard - Repair

Pretty specific that way, and it would not be overkill if there were a lot of activity in those categories. For less activity I would just consolidate the above:

House - Maintenance & Repair
Yard - Maintenance & Repair

Have fun!!