How to deal with temporary categories? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by ghostzero@lemmy.world to c/ynab@lemmy.world

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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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[-] ghostzero@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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.

[-] uniqueid198x@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 months 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

this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023

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