Sinking Fund Categories: 25 Expenses People Forget to Plan For
A checklist of 25 common sinking fund categories, from car maintenance to holiday gifts, plus how to decide which ones you actually need this year.
A sinking fund is money you set aside a little at a time for an expense you know is coming but that does not happen every month. The hard part is usually not the saving, it is remembering all the categories before they catch you off guard. Here is a full list to check yourself against.
Home and car
- Car maintenance and repairs
- New tires
- Car registration and inspection fees
- Home repairs and maintenance
- Appliance replacement
- HVAC service
- Property tax, if it is not in your mortgage escrow
Annual and semi-annual bills
- Car insurance, if you pay every six or twelve months
- Life or umbrella insurance premiums
- Professional licenses, unions, or memberships
- Annual software or website subscriptions
- Amazon Prime, Costco, or warehouse club renewals
- Tax preparation or accountant fees
Health and family
- Medical and dental costs above your usual monthly spending
- Vet bills and pet care
- Glasses or contacts
- Back-to-school supplies and clothes
- Kids activities and sports fees
Life events and seasons
- Holiday gifts and travel
- Birthdays, weddings, and baby showers
- A yearly vacation
- Home and garden costs that spike in spring
- Winter heating costs above your summer baseline
The easy-to-miss ones
- Clothing replacement, budgeted yearly instead of impulse-bought
- Christmas or holiday food, which is usually well above a normal grocery week
You do not need all 25
Setting up two dozen categories on day one is the fastest way to abandon the system. Instead, look back over the last year and pick the three expenses that actually caused a budget problem. Common ones are car maintenance, holiday spending, and one annual insurance bill.
How to calculate each one
Take the total you expect, divide by the number of months until it is due:
- Holiday gifts, $600 total, saving from August to December is $120 a month for five months.
- Car insurance, $1,100 every six months is about $185 a month.
- Car maintenance, roughly $720 a year based on last year is $60 a month.
Track them on one page
Sinking funds only work if you can see every category and its running balance at a glance, otherwise you lose track of which fund has what. The Sinking Fund Tracker gives each fund its own row with a target and a balance, so you always know exactly how much of that money is spoken for.
The payoff
Every category on this list is an expense that was always going to happen. A sinking fund just moves it from a stressful surprise into a boring monthly line item, which is exactly where you want it.