jestarr Alarm would be renovation. It's a want in my book, but you might feel differently. I think the general guideline nolesrule mentioned sums things up well:

nolesrule said:
home maintenance for a need, and Home Improvement [DM: aka Renovation] for a want

jestarr It's a judgement call. For us Household Goods is anything under about $50 that is durable. Mostly kitchen and bathroom items.

I keep it simple and don't budget for individual items, but we fund the Home Improvement category relatively generously.

jestarr Home maintenance and repair funding is based on a rule of thumb (1% rule). Therefore I only include expenses that are covered by that rule of thumb. Those are things that are specific to the upkeep up the house.

jestarr at the end of the day, the categories should make sense to you. You can move them around among category groups so it becomes what level of granularity to you want/need.  You can combine categories later but harder to split them.  What do you want to see on reports? How do you think about these things? How much work do you want to do if you go to Home Depot and buy things in multiple categories and need to split transaction?   Just for reference here are mine.

Home Depot/Lowes/Canadian Tire - this is the catchall bucket for all the little trips for stuff I don't want to chase the details for.  We fund this monthly with a fixed amount and don't build up the available.

Repairs/maintenance - this is for bigger things like painting a room. I see them as things that don't add value to the house but keep it going.  This is funded on an as needed basis.

Furniture/Appliances - as the name says for big ticket household items like washer or couch.

Garden - all things outdoor (that aren't caught in the Home Depot etc. category). This would include plants, outdoor furniture, stain for the fence.

Then for any "project" that improves the house like the current stair project we are working on (replacing carpeted stairs with oak treads), we create a separate category. I do this because it helps project manage the budget, I can see the total cost of the project vs the expected value increase, and it doesn't cause the averages in the other categories to spike. Also, once the project is over I can hide this category.

Projects usually start out as wish farm and then get moved to the appropriate category group.

For household stuff like cleaners etc. they generally get lumped into grocery (if we buy them at the grocery store) or to Home Depot etc. category if bought there. 

jestarr Mostly I use household goods for the kind of stuff you might get at a place like Bed bath and Beyond. Kitchen utensils, small low cost appliances, etc. Accessories.  Low cost durable items. Home improvement would include things like replacing fixtures and such that are not end of life.

jestarr If I bought a used couch for cheap, I'd call it Household Goods. If it was new and several thousand dollars, I'd save up in a dedicated category.

For the purchase, I'd probably then reallocate to Household Goods. Yes, this increases the average of that category, but I don't base my budget entry for this category on the average.

However, if you did want to be able to use the average for things that are arguably more "typical", you could just categorize to the New Couch category and call it a day.

jestarr Oh, as far as budgeting, it's usually a relatively low priority for me, so it's contribution is fairly well tied to whatever's left after doing other things. I put in $100 per month and reallocate when needed.

jestarr I always wish farm for specific items, so a New Shed would get it's own wish farm category. When the category is full, I'd move the funds to Home Improvement and record my shed-related spending to the Home Improvement category (and retire the wish farm shed category).

jestarr My Household Goods are for durable items. If it's nailed down, it's Home Improvement (or Maintenance/Repair). If not nailed down, it's Household Goods.

I lump consumables into "Groceries/Consumables", mainly because it avoids splitting a lot of transactions. (Supplies are usually bought at the same time/store as groceries.) Being consistent with categorization quickly results in budget entries that are sufficient for the increased cost of "non-food" items.

jestarr said:
When you do that do you then hide the Wish Farm category, or delete?

I usually delete wishlist categories once I'm done with them. Since I'm not allocating spend to these categories, I don't think there's any impact on reporting.

jestarr said:
Do you ever budget to the main Home Improvement category directly?

 No.

jestarr said:
If so, how do you decide what you are going to budget?  Averages, a random number?  

 I don't budget to it directly because Home Improvements are significant expenditures that are 100% elective. I said generally before, but really it's 100% of the time that I wish-list Home Improvement items, and this doesn't happen often. In my model, budgeting for Home Improvements directly would be a way to anticipate that at some point in the future, you'll want to spend money on an unknown major improvement. If that sounds like you, go ahead and budget it directly. For me though, I could rattle off a handful of specific items that I could be funding instead.

Periwinkle Flute Having this conversation with myself right now, prior to buying anything. I figure any remodel is going to take 3x as long, cost 3x as much, and be 3x more of a pain than I anticipate. Remodeling a kitchen while living in the unit is a significant inconvenience that might merit paying for it to be done in advance, especially if that involves shutting off gas lines, water, or electricity in order to move hookups.