Definition
A category budget sets a spending cap for each expense category — food, transport, entertainment — and tracks actual spend against that cap, instead of one single total for everything.
Key ideas
- Per-category caps: each category gets its own limit; the total budget is the sum of category caps.
- Parent and child categories: selecting a parent (e.g. “Food”) auto-rolls up its children (“Breakfast”, “Takeout”) without checking each one; spend counts for the current window.
- Total vs category: a “total budget” gives one cap across the whole window, while a category budget splits it — most apps let you do one or both.
- Scope limits: many apps apply category budgets to expense categories only; income categories usually can’t get their own budget.
Why it matters in a finance app
Meow Money Manager uses category budgets with parent–child rollup and no limit on how many categories a single budget holds; the spent amount updates live as you log. A category budget answers “how much is left in this category” at a glance, which a single total can’t — useful when different categories have very different tolerances (tight on dining, loose on transport).