If/Then formulas... HELP!

[MECTOL]

I am trying to create a budget spreadsheet that if A1 pulls from a drop down "category" list, then B1 will pull from an associated drop down "sub-category" list titled as the "category"

example: Category- "Housing" is selected from a list; Sub-category list for "Housing" contains Mortgage, Gas, Electric, Water, Phone, Cable, etc.

Is this idea all in my head or can it be done? I thought years ago that it would be a VLOOKUP formula, but it does not seem to work.

Help me please...

[learning_vba]

Make a named ranged for each category and all its sub-categories. Suppose you have Mortgage, Gas etc listed in rows starting in C1. Name that range "Housing". Say A1 is your initial drop down with all the categories, make the drop-down for sub-categories in A2 equal =indirect(a1) and then that will "cascade" your sub-categories.