Envelope budget categories.
The right envelopes make a budget easy to keep. Here's a starter list, how to set the amount for each, and the difference between envelopes you spend and envelopes you save in.
Updated 21 October 2026
Start with five to eight
You can always split an envelope later. Starting with twenty means every coffee needs a decision, and that's tiring enough that people stop. Pick the categories you spend on every pay period, plus one or two for things you keep getting caught out by.
A starter list
Everyday spending
- Groceries: supermarket, butcher, markets.
- Transport: fuel, public transport, parking, tolls.
- Eating Out: takeaway, coffee, lunches, delivery.
- Fun Money: anything you enjoy, no justification needed.
- Personal: haircuts, toiletries, pharmacy.
Bills
- Subscriptions: streaming, apps, gym.
- Phone and internet, power and gas, insurance. Some people give each its own envelope; others use one Bills envelope.
Saving up
- Car: rego, servicing, tyres.
- Gifts and Christmas.
- Health: dentist, glasses, specialist gaps.
- Holidays.
Saving envelopes are sinking funds, and they work differently from spending envelopes.
Fill it up to, or add to it
A spending envelope like Groceries is filled up to its amount each payday: if $124 is left, it gets topped back up to $600. A saving envelope like Car is added to each payday, so it keeps growing until the bill arrives. Mixing these up is why yearly bills feel like emergencies.
How much to put in each
Look back at your last two or three months of bank statements and total each category. Divide by the number of pay periods (six fortnights is about three months) to get an amount per pay. Round Groceries up, because it's the envelope that runs out first, and be honest about Eating Out: it's usually bigger than people expect.
Here's the example budget in our screenshots, for $2,000 a fortnight: Groceries $600, Eating Out $300, Transport $250, Fun Money $200 and Subscriptions $60. That's $1,410 in envelopes, $150 to a savings goal and $70 to a debt, leaving $370 to plan.
Signs to split or merge
- Split an envelope when one part of it keeps eating the other, like takeaway draining Groceries.
- Merge envelopes you never think about separately, or ones that hold a few dollars each.
- Rename freely. "Coffee and lunches" is clearer than "Misc".