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Show HN: BudgetDuo – Easily determine your share of household expenses

18 points by hursey013 8y ago

jadbox 8y ago
Simple idea, and yet useful for those that need a dashboard to manage the day to day expenses that people generally not find the time to do otherwise.
- hursey013 8y ago
  Thanks for the kind words!
mattsears 8y ago
Simple, easy to use, and useful. Nice work. It would be very interesting to see stats on how couples choose how their bills are divided.
- hursey013 8y ago
  Thanks, and I agree, being able to gather some high level insights would be pretty interesting - perhaps something I can look into once the sample size is large enough. Just in some of the initial feedback I've received it's been surprising to hear how passionate folks are about the different approaches - it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all type of situation. Ultimately folks should do what works best for them, my hope is the BudgetDuo will provide a bit of insight to help make some decisions.
mlthoughts2018 8y ago
Wouldn’t a spreadsheet program be easier and would not require trusting a third party with data about your income and your expenses? Especially since you might want to revisit the same sheet over time to add or remove people, add or remove expenses, or change the weighting, specifically without needing to store that data with a third party or maintain a separate sign-in credential to access a history of data.
- kohanz 8y ago
  You're thinking about this from the perspective of a developer, rather than the population at large. Suggest building a spreadsheet to one of your non-technical friends or family for something like this and you'll get a blank stare.
  - IncRnd 8y ago
    Spreadsheets used for calculating expenses were around long before computers.
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    My non-technical grandparents use Excel for tracking expenses. Yeah, they couldn’t do complex formulas or macros, but that’s irrelevant. Using basic spreadsheet software is at least as ubiquitous as owning a home PC in the US. You can assume pretty much everyone can work their way through it, maybe with some help. Meanwhile, you could easily argue that filling in the same data in a web form via a browser would be less intuitive for many people. And regardless of which is easier, keeping the data private is clearly a priority.
    - kohanz 8y ago
      Yet despite all of those arguments, there are many budgeting or expense tracking "apps" (of the non-spreadsheet variety) out there that are popular, some of them massively. Analogy: with a little time and some equipment, practically anyone could learn to DIY their own oil changes, yet very few do.
      - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
        I doubt the existence of apps has much relationship to whether people are capable with a spreadsheet, and it also doesn’t control for whether a person who finds spreadsheets difficult would also find an app or a web form difficult. If someone is just trying to avoid tech generally, apps vs web forms vs spreadsheets aren’t going to matter, and to anyone else, decades of ubiquity of using spreadsheet software for badic things would favor spreadsheets. Heck, even a lot of high schools teach basic personal finance using Excel and have been since the 90s (my extremely poor rural public high school was doing this in 1995 for example). Also the top expense tracking app by number of users appears to be Mint (which claims somewhere near only 20MM users), which involves a great deal of data sharing and privacy questions. If we require a solution that keeps expense data private, it would shift a lot of favor to spreadsheets.
jsumrall 8y ago
I’m curious about how many people use each method. The 50/50 split seemed like the clear choice for me. Can anyone share their reasons for doing the proportional split? My expenses are things where we both agree about it and decide on our own about if we could individually budget it. Certain things that are more “for” someone become proportional, but those are always one-off purchases.
- mattsears 8y ago
  I make way more money than my partner and doing a 50/50 split would be really hard for them to swing each month.
  - true_religion 8y ago
    You could always just live to the standard of the least income, and save money. It's what I do and has proved to be great since no matter whom is working, the finances are covered.
    - hursey013 8y ago
      I would love to do this, but in areas with a high cost of living it's not always possible.
- hursey013 8y ago
  As others have mentioned, we use the income based split because of disproportionate salaries. It lets us know that we are both chipping in for household expenses while still having some money leftover in our own accounts for personal spending.
- dddw 8y ago
  I was jotting this out on paper this week actually. Especially the 'based on income' divide is quite usefull. My significant other is studying and hasn't enough income currently to reach the 50-50 split. This is pretty nice, and will definitly give it a apin!
geekpoll 8y ago
Great idea and it is also scalable. Maybe to expand the platform, you should add push notification via email to let them know when the bills are coming out especially for reoccurring bills. This will help make the app a lot more useful! Since this is one of the problems I tend to experience. Also for future development, you could create a script to suggest how to reduce costs in areas that affect users from saving money. Create a section called 'Savings commitment' to find ways to cleanup unnecessary cost. Use the m.o.s.c.o.w method to prioritise expenses . I love the idea since not many people use or can afford excel spreadsheet. Also the fact that it is intuitive and easy to use is even better. I will share this application with my community on GeekPoll.com :) and do a video review on it!
anotheryou 8y ago
Why taking the numbers before taxes?
- hursey013 8y ago
  Mostly for simplicity. Most folks can quickly tell you their annual salary, it would likely be more difficult to calculate their post-tax income. There is also the possibility that individuals may prefer to withhold more or less throughout the year depending on how they approach taxes, so that could potentially skew the numbers.
  - anotheryou 8y ago
    Ah alright. I pay nearly 50% taxes here in germany and it gets deducted from my loan before I get it, so it's probably a bigger deal here then elsewhere. comparison of income taxes: https://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/chart-income-tax-rates-how-the-us-stacks-up/7715608-1-eng-US/Chart-Income-tax-rates-how-the-US-stacks-up_full_600.jpg https://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/med...

18 points by hursey013 8y ago

Simple idea, and yet useful for those that need a dashboard to manage the day to day expenses that people generally not find the time to do otherwise.

hursey013 8y ago
Thanks for the kind words!

mattsears 8y ago

Simple, easy to use, and useful. Nice work. It would be very interesting to see stats on how couples choose how their bills are divided.

hursey013 8y ago
Thanks, and I agree, being able to gather some high level insights would be pretty interesting - perhaps something I can look into once the sample size is large enough. Just in some of the initial feedback I've received it's been surprising to hear how passionate folks are about the different approaches - it is definitely not a one-size-fits-all type of situation. Ultimately folks should do what works best for them, my hope is the BudgetDuo will provide a bit of insight to help make some decisions.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago

Wouldn’t a spreadsheet program be easier and would not require trusting a third party with data about your income and your expenses? Especially since you might want to revisit the same sheet over time to add or remove people, add or remove expenses, or change the weighting, specifically without needing to store that data with a third party or maintain a separate sign-in credential to access a history of data.

kohanz 8y ago
You're thinking about this from the perspective of a developer, rather than the population at large. Suggest building a spreadsheet to one of your non-technical friends or family for something like this and you'll get a blank stare.
- IncRnd 8y ago
  Spreadsheets used for calculating expenses were around long before computers.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  My non-technical grandparents use Excel for tracking expenses. Yeah, they couldn’t do complex formulas or macros, but that’s irrelevant. Using basic spreadsheet software is at least as ubiquitous as owning a home PC in the US. You can assume pretty much everyone can work their way through it, maybe with some help. Meanwhile, you could easily argue that filling in the same data in a web form via a browser would be less intuitive for many people. And regardless of which is easier, keeping the data private is clearly a priority.
  - kohanz 8y ago
    Yet despite all of those arguments, there are many budgeting or expense tracking "apps" (of the non-spreadsheet variety) out there that are popular, some of them massively. Analogy: with a little time and some equipment, practically anyone could learn to DIY their own oil changes, yet very few do.
    - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
      I doubt the existence of apps has much relationship to whether people are capable with a spreadsheet, and it also doesn’t control for whether a person who finds spreadsheets difficult would also find an app or a web form difficult. If someone is just trying to avoid tech generally, apps vs web forms vs spreadsheets aren’t going to matter, and to anyone else, decades of ubiquity of using spreadsheet software for badic things would favor spreadsheets. Heck, even a lot of high schools teach basic personal finance using Excel and have been since the 90s (my extremely poor rural public high school was doing this in 1995 for example). Also the top expense tracking app by number of users appears to be Mint (which claims somewhere near only 20MM users), which involves a great deal of data sharing and privacy questions. If we require a solution that keeps expense data private, it would shift a lot of favor to spreadsheets.

jsumrall 8y ago

I’m curious about how many people use each method. The 50/50 split seemed like the clear choice for me. Can anyone share their reasons for doing the proportional split? My expenses are things where we both agree about it and decide on our own about if we could individually budget it. Certain things that are more “for” someone become proportional, but those are always one-off purchases.

mattsears 8y ago
I make way more money than my partner and doing a 50/50 split would be really hard for them to swing each month.
- true_religion 8y ago
  You could always just live to the standard of the least income, and save money. It's what I do and has proved to be great since no matter whom is working, the finances are covered.
  - hursey013 8y ago
    I would love to do this, but in areas with a high cost of living it's not always possible.
hursey013 8y ago
As others have mentioned, we use the income based split because of disproportionate salaries. It lets us know that we are both chipping in for household expenses while still having some money leftover in our own accounts for personal spending.
dddw 8y ago
I was jotting this out on paper this week actually. Especially the 'based on income' divide is quite usefull. My significant other is studying and hasn't enough income currently to reach the 50-50 split. This is pretty nice, and will definitly give it a apin!

geekpoll 8y ago

Great idea and it is also scalable. Maybe to expand the platform, you should add push notification via email to let them know when the bills are coming out especially for reoccurring bills. This will help make the app a lot more useful! Since this is one of the problems I tend to experience. Also for future development, you could create a script to suggest how to reduce costs in areas that affect users from saving money. Create a section called 'Savings commitment' to find ways to cleanup unnecessary cost. Use the m.o.s.c.o.w method to prioritise expenses . I love the idea since not many people use or can afford excel spreadsheet. Also the fact that it is intuitive and easy to use is even better. I will share this application with my community on GeekPoll.com :) and do a video review on it!

anotheryou 8y ago

Why taking the numbers before taxes?

hursey013 8y ago
Mostly for simplicity. Most folks can quickly tell you their annual salary, it would likely be more difficult to calculate their post-tax income. There is also the possibility that individuals may prefer to withhold more or less throughout the year depending on how they approach taxes, so that could potentially skew the numbers.
- anotheryou 8y ago
  Ah alright. I pay nearly 50% taxes here in germany and it gets deducted from my loan before I get it, so it's probably a bigger deal here then elsewhere. comparison of income taxes: https://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/media/images/chart-income-tax-rates-how-the-us-stacks-up/7715608-1-eng-US/Chart-Income-tax-rates-how-the-US-stacks-up_full_600.jpg https://www.csmonitor.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/med...