8 ms·

For me, none of these budgeting tools attempt to answer the one question I think is the most common amongst people: "Do I have enough budget remaining in this m

For me, none of these budgeting tools attempt to answer the one question I think is the most common amongst people: "Do I have enough budget remaining in this month to afford this purchase?" That's harder than it seems. For example, if you're debating a purchase on the 10th of the month, there are a bunch of bills and other purchases you're going to make the rest of the month (groceries, eating out, etc.) so you don't really know how much is remaining that you have to spend. I use a Google Sheet that has taken me years to iterate, which knows the current date, tells me what expenses I'm going to incur over the rest of the month, along with a column of estimated numbers I guess at (cost of groceries, eating out, etc. for the rest of the month) and then tells me what my true remaining balance is.

jgalvez 8y ago
That's actually my most common use. If my organization is a mess in a given week, I just open a new sheet and go: + 100 Wallet + 800 Account + 50 Piggybank - 100 Some urgent expense - 150 Another urgent expense And then I figure it out. It's the fastest way for me to get these calculations done.
- jasode 8y ago
  >That's actually my most common use. [...], I just open a new sheet I think this answer explaining your most common usage actually explains better what you've built and its (unstated) philosophy. What you've created is a "scratchpad for arithmetic" that parses the numbers in plain text.[1] (Or stated another way, a "freeform spreadsheet" without the row col gridlines.) You then choose to call that functionality "budgeting". My lightbulb moment: This is why non-existent datetime data isn't "missing" in your tool because "math scratchpads" don't need dates. I also see why you see your tool as "simpler" than the other text-based accounting tool "ledger-cli". ledger-cli is definitely not a math scratchpad; it's based on transactions of debits/credits which is overkill for a scratchpad. I understand it better now. If you want to call your text parser math scratchpad -- a "budgeting" tool, I won't quibble with that. However, a lot of other people think of "budgeting" as money planning with a time horizon beyond the boundaries of a scratchpad. My earlier comments were based on that wider expectation of "budgeting". I'm not saying a budget tool has to be as feature-heavy as Quicken or Mint but many people would need something with slightly more functionality than a math scratchpad. [1] Your parsexxx() functions are not specific to the domain of money budgeting but for any numbers with text labels to be added/subtracted/multiplied: https://github.com/galvez/plainbudget/blob/master/src/pages/index.vue#L105 https://github.com/galvez/plainbudget/blob/master/src/pages/...
  - jgalvez 8y ago
    Thing is, the way I put this parser together, it should be quite easy to add group variables (linking to results from another group by preceding with $ or something) and some forecasting functionality using standard date formats (I myself use "= XXX Month YEAR"). This was an amazing thread that gave me lots of ideas. I plan on keeping this codebase moving forward with them.
jgalvez 8y ago
But yeah, getting to an optimal daily budget is tricky. You can use a multiplier for things you know you'll spend with every day: = Budget - 10 Coffee shop x 30
mynameishere 8y ago
If you have to ask that question then you are living on the razor's edge, and therefore the answer is "no".
- maxerickson 8y ago
  Depends on how you budget. If the amount you are calculating on the 10th is the amount you have left after fully funding your retirement accounts and setting aside some long term savings, you aren't on the razors edge, you are just checking to see if the purchase fits into your short term discretionary budget.
- astura 8y ago
  What complete and utter nonsense. Most people have money allocated for specific categories when they budget, that doesn't mean they are living on the razors edge if they simply wanna know how much more they can spend while still adhering to their predefined budget! A lot of people (including me) have savings as one or more line items on their budget. My budget is super duper simple: 1) Put the bills money direct deposited into in one account - that is money for mortgage, streaming services, taxes, insurance, water, and electricity. 2) Put a predefined savings amount direct deposited into savings and investment accounts. This includes 401k deductions. 3) Put the remaining money into a third account and spend it all however I want. I'm on budget as long as I don't spend more than what's in this account.
maxerickson 8y ago
Ledger has support for dealing with expected expenses: https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Budgeting-and-Forecasting https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Budgeting-an...
codazoda 8y ago
The best thing I ever did was open a second checking account and have my income split. All the money for my bills goes into one account and the money I spend on everything else goes in another account. I can now look at my "spending" account and easily guage if I can buy that shiny object. My bills get paid on time without ever thinking about them.
- astura 8y ago
  I do exactly the same thing. Of course you should also have a third account for savings. :) The other option is doing the same with credit cards, though you'd have to work backwards with credit cards. Basically, have a groceries credit card, a dining out credit card, etc. If you look at the balance you can see you have $200 in dining purchases this month and you budget is $250, so you have another night out budgeted for the month.
shashank 8y ago
Buxfer (https://www.buxfer.com https://www.buxfer.com) lets you do this to a certain extent. Transactions are auto-synced, then you can add/identify your recurring bills and your budget will tell you what's left after taking into account any bills or future-dated transactions you may have entered. Disclosure: I am the founder.
- miles_matthias 8y ago
  When I click on your link it just asks me to log in? Is there some marketing material or a video to watch?
  - shashank 8y ago
    The desktop version has more marketing material. The mobile interface is more of a companion to the desktop. I know that's laughable in today's mobile-first world, but (a) our target audience is "power users" who are desktop heavy, and (b) we generally suck at marketing. We also have a live demo at https://www.buxfer.com/demo https://www.buxfer.com/demo (or click "Live demo" on the desktop/mobile website) Please feel free to contact me at shashank@buxfer.com and I will be happy to assist you with any specific questions, in case the marketing material is not sufficient.
Jtsummers 8y ago
I've had a Simple account for a few years, I use it for my non-bill, smaller expenses (dinners, lunches, groceries; I don't use it for things like new tires on my car). A nice thing with it is "goals". I set up a goal for June Dinners. I set aside $200 for it. But I have it fill out the goal over the course of the month. So on the 1st I have $7 (keep the math simple, I'm rounding) on Day 1. On Day 2 I have $14, etc. Now it's Saturday, 2 June, I have $14 I can spend on dinner out with friends. That means water, inexpensive entree, and no alcohol or dessert. If I saved it up for another week I'd have about $63 available. I like this method of "accumulating" money across the month (or months, for some expenses). Prior to that there was an app called "Level", that did the same sort of thing across all your accounts. However it consistently failed to connect to my primary bank so it wasn't that useful.
miles_matthias 8y ago
I currently use my spreadsheet and then just need an app to categorize the transactions and sum them up for me. I used to use Penny, until they got bought and are shutting down. Now I use NerdWallet's new spending tracking feature.
kqr 8y ago
My approach for this using double entry accounting is to create "accounts" for future purchases, and transfer money from my free assets to those accounts at the start of each month.

jgalvez 8y ago

That's actually my most common use. If my organization is a mess in a given week, I just open a new sheet and go: + 100 Wallet + 800 Account + 50 Piggybank - 100 Some urgent expense - 150 Another urgent expense And then I figure it out. It's the fastest way for me to get these calculations done.

jasode 8y ago
>That's actually my most common use. [...], I just open a new sheet I think this answer explaining your most common usage actually explains better what you've built and its (unstated) philosophy. What you've created is a "scratchpad for arithmetic" that parses the numbers in plain text.[1] (Or stated another way, a "freeform spreadsheet" without the row col gridlines.) You then choose to call that functionality "budgeting". My lightbulb moment: This is why non-existent datetime data isn't "missing" in your tool because "math scratchpads" don't need dates. I also see why you see your tool as "simpler" than the other text-based accounting tool "ledger-cli". ledger-cli is definitely not a math scratchpad; it's based on transactions of debits/credits which is overkill for a scratchpad. I understand it better now. If you want to call your text parser math scratchpad -- a "budgeting" tool, I won't quibble with that. However, a lot of other people think of "budgeting" as money planning with a time horizon beyond the boundaries of a scratchpad. My earlier comments were based on that wider expectation of "budgeting". I'm not saying a budget tool has to be as feature-heavy as Quicken or Mint but many people would need something with slightly more functionality than a math scratchpad. [1] Your parsexxx() functions are not specific to the domain of money budgeting but for any numbers with text labels to be added/subtracted/multiplied: https://github.com/galvez/plainbudget/blob/master/src/pages/index.vue#L105 https://github.com/galvez/plainbudget/blob/master/src/pages/...
- jgalvez 8y ago
  Thing is, the way I put this parser together, it should be quite easy to add group variables (linking to results from another group by preceding with $ or something) and some forecasting functionality using standard date formats (I myself use "= XXX Month YEAR"). This was an amazing thread that gave me lots of ideas. I plan on keeping this codebase moving forward with them.

jgalvez 8y ago

But yeah, getting to an optimal daily budget is tricky. You can use a multiplier for things you know you'll spend with every day: = Budget - 10 Coffee shop x 30

mynameishere 8y ago

If you have to ask that question then you are living on the razor's edge, and therefore the answer is "no".

maxerickson 8y ago
Depends on how you budget. If the amount you are calculating on the 10th is the amount you have left after fully funding your retirement accounts and setting aside some long term savings, you aren't on the razors edge, you are just checking to see if the purchase fits into your short term discretionary budget.
astura 8y ago
What complete and utter nonsense. Most people have money allocated for specific categories when they budget, that doesn't mean they are living on the razors edge if they simply wanna know how much more they can spend while still adhering to their predefined budget! A lot of people (including me) have savings as one or more line items on their budget. My budget is super duper simple: 1) Put the bills money direct deposited into in one account - that is money for mortgage, streaming services, taxes, insurance, water, and electricity. 2) Put a predefined savings amount direct deposited into savings and investment accounts. This includes 401k deductions. 3) Put the remaining money into a third account and spend it all however I want. I'm on budget as long as I don't spend more than what's in this account.

maxerickson 8y ago

Ledger has support for dealing with expected expenses: https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Budgeting-and-Forecasting https://www.ledger-cli.org/3.0/doc/ledger3.html#Budgeting-an...

codazoda 8y ago

The best thing I ever did was open a second checking account and have my income split. All the money for my bills goes into one account and the money I spend on everything else goes in another account. I can now look at my "spending" account and easily guage if I can buy that shiny object. My bills get paid on time without ever thinking about them.

astura 8y ago
I do exactly the same thing. Of course you should also have a third account for savings. :) The other option is doing the same with credit cards, though you'd have to work backwards with credit cards. Basically, have a groceries credit card, a dining out credit card, etc. If you look at the balance you can see you have $200 in dining purchases this month and you budget is $250, so you have another night out budgeted for the month.

shashank 8y ago

Buxfer (https://www.buxfer.com https://www.buxfer.com) lets you do this to a certain extent. Transactions are auto-synced, then you can add/identify your recurring bills and your budget will tell you what's left after taking into account any bills or future-dated transactions you may have entered. Disclosure: I am the founder.

miles_matthias 8y ago
When I click on your link it just asks me to log in? Is there some marketing material or a video to watch?
- shashank 8y ago
  The desktop version has more marketing material. The mobile interface is more of a companion to the desktop. I know that's laughable in today's mobile-first world, but (a) our target audience is "power users" who are desktop heavy, and (b) we generally suck at marketing. We also have a live demo at https://www.buxfer.com/demo https://www.buxfer.com/demo (or click "Live demo" on the desktop/mobile website) Please feel free to contact me at shashank@buxfer.com and I will be happy to assist you with any specific questions, in case the marketing material is not sufficient.

Jtsummers 8y ago

I've had a Simple account for a few years, I use it for my non-bill, smaller expenses (dinners, lunches, groceries; I don't use it for things like new tires on my car). A nice thing with it is "goals". I set up a goal for June Dinners. I set aside $200 for it. But I have it fill out the goal over the course of the month. So on the 1st I have $7 (keep the math simple, I'm rounding) on Day 1. On Day 2 I have $14, etc. Now it's Saturday, 2 June, I have $14 I can spend on dinner out with friends. That means water, inexpensive entree, and no alcohol or dessert. If I saved it up for another week I'd have about $63 available. I like this method of "accumulating" money across the month (or months, for some expenses). Prior to that there was an app called "Level", that did the same sort of thing across all your accounts. However it consistently failed to connect to my primary bank so it wasn't that useful.

miles_matthias 8y ago

I currently use my spreadsheet and then just need an app to categorize the transactions and sum them up for me. I used to use Penny, until they got bought and are shutting down. Now I use NerdWallet's new spending tracking feature.

kqr 8y ago

My approach for this using double entry accounting is to create "accounts" for future purchases, and transfer money from my free assets to those accounts at the start of each month.