balancing checkbook - assigning categories - HELP

[d_run]

i need some help here. i know it's simple stuff compared to what you guys might deal with, but...

i want to see exactly how i spend all my money. so.. i paste my banking statement into excel, and then assign each expenditure to a category. i figure that i can do this by having an extra column called "Category" in which i can place pre-determined letters. For example, all transportation expenditures would be A's...

i need a formula or something that would add up each expediture based on the assigned letter. how do i do this?

view the image to get an idea of what i'm talking about. http://www.species.hxc.com/images/sample.jpg

any help is GREATLY appreciated.

david