Just to bump this one again. I agree with everything that has been said here and adding sub-categories/custom categories would be a real improvement for me. My example is the same as many others in how to categorise lunch on working days. Not really “groceries”, not really “eating out”. Maybe this one at least could be added as a new category?
Ben
I agree that having the hashtags works nicely for being able to see how your spending is split, for example going to Pret for a sandwich and eating at a restaurant are both "going out, but you could #social. Although when you add these hashtags together you’d get a greater figure than your total expenditure you would act like a venn diagram to show you where “Eating Out” and “Social” intersect. But yes that could become a slightly more complicated feature for some users.
The custom categories would be better suited if you wanted to make a clear divide as to how they spent their money but visualisation might get messy for users that over use this feature. Ultimately a combination of both gives flexibility to use either way.
I used to use a finance app called Wesabe. I have a vague memory that tagging used to work in a fairly unique way there. You’d tag a transaction but, if you wanted to, you’d put the amount you were apportioning to that tag within the tag. eg. #alcohol:4.99. The transaction was then split according to the tags. I think there’s scope to do something like that. Numerous categories and sub categories always sound great but then it becomes laboriouis trudging through them to assign the correct one.
I hope that makes some sense. Unfortunately the site is gone, not archived in the wayback machine, so I can’t check how it worked.
For me, I think Mondo are right when it comes to custom categories and split transactions. Although I (a power user) would like these things, it isn’t as “seamless” and if anyone has used OnTrees when they did have this feature it was really not intuitive.
For me the solution would be more categories (and perhaps subcategories) done at Mondo’s end. For example, there is no ‘Health’ category for things bought as say, Boots - these aren’t groceries.
I would tend to agree. I, as a UX Designer, like the simplicity of the current solution - however, as a bit of a nerd, really want that extra level of categorisation. I feel an intuitive solution for achieving both is possible, and it probably lies in optional sub-categorisation or tagging functionality. For example, it’s interesting to know how much I’ve spent on ‘Eating out’ as a whole, but what’s more interesting is how much I’ve spent on coffee vs last month.
Example of tagging here: https://www.simple.com/spending
Absolutely agree and if you could save monthly PDFs or set category goals and targets
Just another one for this as I didn’t see it on the roadmap plans - not being able to add custom categories or at least having far more granularity with the option of using it would be a deal breaker for me personally.
Just started using Mondo and the first thing that came to my mind is that the budget categories are too simple.
Why not have top level default categories but let us sub-divide them. That way Mondo still gets to provide meaningful reports and insights.
@hugo and @ole are currently working on budgeting features. We should hear from them soon. Hope we would see expanded categories 
I think Tommodo has hit the nail on the head. I don’t think the problem is lack of customisation but just the lack of categories at the moment. If the Mondo team looked at all the possible categories used a bit down the line and provided say 20 odd categories with perhaps 40 odd sub-categories then everybody might be happy. Mondo would have a set out of categories to work their charts/stats with and the users would have a larger range of categories to work with. One of my gripes at the moment is the limited number of categories means they are just too broad and too many things fit into each one
I have to agree here. I am accustomed to a fairly granular budget using [YNAB] (https://www.youneedabudget.com) and was hopeful that one day I might be able to ditch that and just budget (set targets) with Mondo. With everything going on in Mondo-land I realise this isn’t going to happen any time soon, and wonder if it will ever happen? Currently being in beta allows them quite a lot of leeway - the devs can change things quite easily without upsetting too many of us (30,000 cardholders?), so now’s the time to make a significant change to the budget/targets/category structure.
Whilst I know targets are on the way, I suspect we’re going to be stuck with the very broad categories currently in place. Here’s hoping though…
This thread definitely deserves a big ol’ BUMP!!!
I will readily admit that I’m terrible with money; a combination of having a very irregular income (due to working in film & tv) but also due to always somehow grossly mis-estimating what I’m actually spending on.
Being able to break down spending categories even further would help so much, not just with seeing where it’s going, but also by helping me keep track of which are tax allowable expenses that I can include in my return each year.
I can understand Mondo’s view of ‘simplicity first’ but with the huge push for making this ‘the peoples’ bank’, I personally believe increases customisation can only be a good thing!
Was hoping to get this thread going again in terms of a multi category solution.
If I take £30 cash out and end up spending £20 of that on Entertainment and £10 on Groceries, it is completely skewing my spending because I can only categorise it to one of the above.
Can you perhaps make the transaction into a 100% amount on the screen and then people can assign the % to different categories. If they don’t assign the entire 100% of the transaction, then don’t let them leave the categorisation page, or keep it as a the default single category until they assign the entire 100%.
I see what you guys are doing trying to keep everything simple, but currently I’m writing specific notes to help assign to multiple categories and it is very long winded / even less simple than the current options.
This just has to be one of your top non-essential targets! I think to me and hundreds of others the whole business of categories is the most vital thing you can do for us. It would completely revolutionise the way we can use Monzo
Please, pretty please from your Mondonauts 
I fully agree. The whole reason I signed up to Monzo is to manage my spending by seeing where I spend my money. And I need custom categories to manage this as my personal goals and ways of spending money are unique to me. Please please please! 
Guys you can add notes to each transaction at the moment and notes are searchable. May work for you in the short term if the intention is to add more categories
That’s definitely worked for me @ross_o. I just hope they introduce an option to assign a transaction to multiple categories very soon.
Agreed. Transaction splitting & custom categories for me is absolutely essential.
I agree with keeping things simple from a design perspective! I do however think that a couple more categories might be good. too many would ruin the tidy feel it has now.
With customisation, I think that it would be better to keep them fixed and allow customisation at a sub category level without losing the benefit of average spend comparison.
Also think transaction splitting is a good way to improve data quality while adding functionality.
The deeper detail could be activated by subtle gestures so as not to clutter the design.
Had my card for a week now and loving it! 
Perhaps we could have a range of (additional) expenditure categories but, to keep the screen less cluttered, they could be ‘pick & mix’ so we could choose which ones we want to be on the screen (up to a fixed limit, if need be?) and the others are hidden but still available to be ‘pulled in’ as and when needed?