I have no idea how to set up a pie chart for tracking spending with categories

Brad,

Create a table with the categories and the data (for now you can make up the data):

Now add a chart from the Charts menu in the toolbar:

Now click the "Add Chart Data" button just below the chart.

Now select data (from column B) in the table. Last trick is to click the menu at the bottom-left corner of the window and change the selection to "Plot rows as series" :

Now add formulas to the table to properly summarize the data from your data entry table using the sumif() function.

If the data you enter is in a table titled "Entry" then the formulas in the summary table (to the left of the pie chart) are:

B2=SUMIF(Entry::C, A2, Entry::B)

select B2 and fill down. If the table names are different in your file, then change the names in these formulas to match.

And, in addition to Wayne's as usual helpful examples and explanations, check out the Personal Budget template at File>New>Personal Budget. It adds one new idea: a Budget column, against which you track Actual spending... if you want to get that fancy. I always get discouraged by that sort of thing.🙂

SG