Budget category templates
Find a category setup that works for you.
See how real Lunch Money users organize their finances. Copy a complete setup or mix and match categories to create your own.
Detailed Categories
The set Lunch Money starts you on during onboarding. Eleven groups covering housing, food, transport and the rest, each broken into subcategories.
Needs, Wants, Savings
One of the starter sets Lunch Money offers during onboarding, for anyone splitting spending into needs, wants, and what is put aside.
Basic Essentials
One of the starter sets Lunch Money offers during onboarding. A flat list of everyday categories, with no groups to keep in order.
My Categories
Grown out of a Mint export and expanded ever since.
Tax-Time Ready (Digital Nomad Family - Complex)
Categories mapped to what US tax software asks for at filing time.
FIRE Household Ledger
Strict separation of money spent from money moved: transfers, rebalances, and card payments stay out of income and expense reports, while a budget-only SWR placeholder fills the General Pool without fake income.
Sid's setup
A family system covering kids, pets and an investment property.
For the meticulous, detailed financier
Savings and investment transfers get budgeted without ever counting as spending.
My Detailed Life
Broad everyday groups, each broken down into fine-grained subcategories.
Categorize All the Things
Covers spending and investments in one system, modelled on older finance software.
Detailed
Laid out like a profit-and-loss statement, with home costs added.
Community category setup
Each group is a lever on your life, and the spending inside tells the story.
Functional View
Sorted by how much control you have over a cost, rather than what was bought.
Essential Categories
Breaks out several income streams, with a shared account group for joint spending.
Broad Spending
Shopping collects every non-essential purchase, so one number shows what could be cut.
Full Breakdown
Separates required and fixed costs from discretionary spending and luxuries.
DINK Budget
Needs, wants and savings aimed at a 30% savings rate.
The Whole Shabang
Envelope budgeting where whatever is left rolls into savings, ready to pull back.
Broughton Budget
Zero-based budget that filters reimbursable work costs out of the totals.
This Crazy Life
Built around paying off a family loan and reaching six months of savings.
Essentials
Everyday spending split across housing, family, transport and food.
Managing Household Expenses
A flat household list with a category for every area, common or not.
Digital Nomad Multi-biz & Property Owner
Food and entertainment stay simple; daily transport, travel and rental income stay apart.
Where It All Goes
Everything lives in a subcategory, with parents there only to group them.
Budget with partner contribution
A French-language setup where a partner covers a fixed share of joint costs.
Growing Family Granular Detail
A place for everything, for savers who want the detail.
Art's setup
Four buckets: goals, fixed obligations, variable spending, and the occasional but certain.
Family Basics
A household setup pared back to the handful of groups a family actually uses.
Board's setup
A flat list with a category per type of spending, board games included.
The Breakdown
A flat list that gets refined as spending habits come into focus.
Ben's setup
Predictable bills budgeted precisely, with everything variable capped by one top-level budget.
Evans Basics
Broad buckets for spending, with prefixed categories parking anything to ignore.
As simple as possible but no simpler
Broad categories for tracking where money goes, with detail only where it earns its place.
Just Millennial Things
Pairs with rules and budgets to separate bills, necessities and quality-of-life spending.
Simple, minimal budget
A 70/10/20 split across needs, wants and savings.
Variable and Fix Separation
Numbered groups keep fixed and variable costs reading as separate budget lines.
Emma's categories
Immigration costs and reimbursable work travel each get their own line.
Have a setup worth sharing?
Help other Lunch Money users get inspired. Share your full category setup or just a group of categories that works particularly well.
Include a name for your setup, who it’s best for, a short description, how you’d like to be credited, and your category list. Add one category per line, use a dash for subcategories, and add [income], [exclude_from_budget], or [exclude_from_totals] where needed.
Ready to use a template? Learn how to import categories into Lunch Money.
