this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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How to deal with temporary categories? (self.ynab)
submitted 1 year ago by ghostzero to c/ynab
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Hi everyone! I am planning a short vacation in the upcoming months and for that, I wanted to add a category group and a few categories (travel, food, accommodation, etc). But then I started thinking about what to do with these categories once the trip is over and I don't need them anymore.

Since I haven't done this myself yet, I was wondering how people deal with these types of temporary categories? Rename? Or put it all in a more generic "travel" or "next big expense" category?

I'd rather not simply hide them forever, as this could feel a bit messy over time :)

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[โ€“] ghostzero 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah on the one hand, you want the fine-grained detail of separate categories for everything but then again, a general vacation category saves me a lot of headache.

I've seen people use the Wish Farm approach and first tag the transactions (e.g. #2023-sydney) using the memo field, and then delete the category which will prompt YNAB to reassign the transactions and remaining money to another category. So a specific trip could go to "travel", something for the house could go into "home improvement", a new drawing table could go into "hobbies", etc.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I do exactly this. I wish farm for specific things, but when i'm done, I delete the category and assign the spending to a more generic one. For instance, I might save up for a new motorcycle helmet. Once purchased, I delete that category and move the transaction to the more generic 'motorcycling' category.

I like this becaus, it lets me prioritize individual larger purchases, but also gives me an idea of how much spending i'm doing overall