Bucket Categories

Every bucket belongs to one of three spending category types:

• Needs: Includes expenses that are necessary and hard to avoid. Typical expenses under this category include housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, insurance and minimum loan payments.

• Wants: Expenses that are not essential fall under this category. This may include shopping, dining out, travel, entertainment and service subscriptions.

• Savings: Spend geared towards your financial benefit. This may include setting money aside, retirement contributions, investments, and debt repayments.

Surplus uses the bucket categories to provide insights into your spend when viewing the "Spend Profile" widget and or screen. Organizing expenses into these categories can help you prioritize your spending, especially if your goal is to allocate more of your spend towards financial betterment.

For more information about the organizing your spend and the mentioned budgeting rules, please refer to this article by Nerd Wallet