Understanding Nibud categories
Nibud (National Institute for Budget Information) is the reference for household budgets in the Netherlands. Spendle supports the Nibud classification alongside the classic (Fixed, Variable, One-off).
Group types
Section titled “Group types”Income:
- Regular income — salary, pension, benefits, allowances.
- Incidental income — tax refund, profit distribution, gifts.
Expenses:
- Fixed expenses — rent, mortgage, energy, health insurance, subscriptions.
- Reservation expenses — expenses set aside for larger or irregular costs (for example clothing, furnishings, maintenance).
- Household expenses — daily costs such as groceries and household goods.
- Other necessary expenses — other necessary items not covered by the above groups.
- Non-essential — expenses that are not necessary, for example dining out, entertainment subscription services.
The summary group Living expenses is sometimes used for the combined total of household expenses and non-essential expenses.
Other:
- Reservations — saving for larger purchases or unforeseen costs.
- Debts — repayments and interest costs.
- Transfers — internal transfers between own accounts.
See Nibud category structure for the full breakdown.
Why this classification?
Section titled “Why this classification?”- Overview — immediately visible what share of income goes to fixed expenses, household expenses or reservation expenses.
- Comparison — expenses can be compared with Nibud reference figures.
Nibud’s guideline is that fixed expenses should account for no more than approximately 50% of income.
Applying a template
Section titled “Applying a template”Via Categories > Update categories from template a Spendle template Personal finance can be loaded. Existing categories are updated with the correct group and group type; missing categories are created. See Update categories to Nibud structure.