
Ask HN: What personal finance tools do you use? - xupybd
I&#x27;ve been using YNAB(6 months) after having used HLedger(2 years). HLedger was beautiful, I really loved budgeting that way. There were fantastic tutorials on how to do envelop budgeting. The lead developer helped fix bugs instantly.  There was a tool that let me import my OXF files from the bank. It was a dream.<p>However I got married and merged finances, so I needed something a bit more user friendly to give my wife access to our budget.  YNAB is well it&#x27;s slow and dogmatic. I don&#x27;t mind dogmatic but the way it rolls months annoys me. Couple that with a clunky slow interface and I&#x27;m done with YNAB.<p>What do you use to for your personal budget?
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yrezgui
I've been using LunchMoney for more than six months now and couldn't be
happier: [https://lunchmoney.app](https://lunchmoney.app)

It's a simple yet powerful budgeting tool. YNAB always look overcomplicated
and unfriendly to me

~~~
jnfr
Thanks for the mention!

Jen here- founder of Lunch Money. Definitely give us a try if you're looking
for something more modern and user-friendly. Lunch Money is less rigid than
YNAB so much easier to get started on and build habits with.

If you (or anyone else reading this) decide to try it out, let me know you're
from HN and I'll hook you up with a free month on top of the 14 day trial :)

~~~
xupybd
Can you do envelope style budgeting with lunch money? I think I'll give it a
shot regardless.

~~~
jnfr
We don't adhere to any one budgeting philosophy. While we won't walk you
through the envelope style budgeting the way YNAB does, you can certainly
mimic it with the platform!

~~~
xupybd
I had a checklist of requirements:

* OXF import so that duplicate transactions are not an issue.

* An iPhone app so my wife can see the state of the budget.

* Envelop budgeting by default.

Lunch Money meets none of these. I don't think I am the target market, but the
UI has won me over. I'm totally going to do everything I can to make this
work. I suspect the API will make that possible.

Amazing job on the interface, clean fast and appealing while showing loads of
information all at once.

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palencharizard
I recently simplified and starting using Google Forms.

I created a form with name (text), amount (number) and category (dropdown),
then opened it in my iPhone's browser and added it to my homescreen. Whenever
I make a purchase, I tap the icon and up pops a blank form. Takes me no more
than 10 seconds to fill out.

You can link the form responses to a spreadsheet, and from there I can
categorize and aggregate with this raw data any way I want. Next step is to
create some graphs on the spreadsheet and add that view to my homescreen, so I
can see how much budget is remaining in a month.

I've grown tired of budgeting tools that try to link your credit cards, etc--
authentication maintenance is never the smoothest, and things are more
detailed than I need them to be. Best thing about this method is that I have
the raw data to work on, and I can adjust my data visuals easily as my needs
change (it might also be cool to one day do large aggregates over, say, 10
years of personal spending)

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gkbrk
I use a plaintext double-entry system now. Wrote a small Python script to
parse it as well. I put the code up here [1].

Before that, I was using SQLite with a shell script for a while to keep track
of my expenses, code here [2].

[1]:
[https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py](https://github.com/gkbrk/scripts/blob/master/ledger.py)

[2]: [https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-
budgeting/](https://www.gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-budgeting/)

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triyambakam
Google Sheets but I've been wanting to move to a plain text solution, however
my Google Sheet is now nearly 7 years old, so there is so much good data there
and I feel more and more locked in

~~~
elamje
I wouldn’t worry about lock in since you can export to excel, convert to csv,
and boom, you have plain text.

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sanjeetsuhag
While it's only available for iOS/iPadOS/macOS, I can't recommend Debit and
Credit enough: [https://debitandcredit.app/](https://debitandcredit.app/)

It's a very straightforward application for logging, categorizing your
transactions. The UI is clean and simple, the features like
Budgets/Plans/Scheduled Transactions are great, the visualization features are
meh, but I don't use them that much. Another great thing is how easy it is to
reach out to the developer. I've personally asked for a feature through
Twitter and had that patched in within a week.

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sloaken
I have always been good with my money. When I married I merged our accounts.
Finances became a disaster.

A few years ago we had some major life changes. At that point I set up more
accounts. My wife is on all accounts, but she has a PRIMARY spending account,
which although I am on the account I never use. We put money into it
regularly. Since she does most of the shopping that is where she spends from.
I have a separate account for the mortgage. Another account for charge cards,
cash and utilities.

By physically separating the money I have not had a late mortgage payment. My
wife has freedom to spend without guilt. And we are finally saving money.

Your mileage might be different.

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2rsf
What exactly do you need out of your tool ?

Do you want want to track daily expenses ? only big expenses ? check balances
across multiple accounts ?

Personally I get along fine with a spreadsheet and a wife who is into finance
professionally.

~~~
giantg2
I also use a spreadsheet.

I only budget for my own finances. I can't make a combined budget because my
wife's income is somewhat variable and she doesn't want to make a budget. I
guess that's ok since I pay all the bills except for her hobbies, gas, and
tires (and when she needs to buy a new car). I tried to get her to chip in for
utilities but she doesn't want to, even though she makes roughly 30% of our
combined income. She spends as much on her hobbies every month as I do on our
mortgage. I also hate my job but can't quit since she won't help with the
finances.

Sorry, I guess that turned into a bit of a rant.

~~~
2rsf
Actually we had a corridor chat in my team about that yesterday, I was
surprised that even people from conservative countries like India and Pakistan
still had some variant of putting all salaries in one pot.

On the other hand I know a few people with his and hers accounts that are
happily married so YMMV

~~~
giantg2
We have separate accounts, mostly because we were lazy and didn't want set up
joint accounts. I think it should be fine either way. I just wish she would
contribute to our financial wellness. $1200 per month on hobbies is insane in
my opinion.

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senjindarashiva
I've been using buckets:
[https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/](https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/) for a
couple of years after moving away from YNAB. I find that it's fairly similar
to YNAB with better handling of rolling over data from month-to-month and the
fact that it's not a subscription is very comforting.

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Maha-pudma
Libre office Calc, and pivot tables.

I have set everything up so I can just copy and paste my banks export straight
into a sheet, pivot tables on the next sheet.

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jcp2fa
Rolled my own system using email purchase notifications, zapier, and Google
sheets: [https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending-
wit...](https://medium.com/swlh/how-i-got-control-of-my-spending-with-a-
couple-no-code-services-and-only-100-lines-of-python-code-36c8ac75f670)

------
yulaow
I just use two excel (or to be more precise, Libre Office Calc) pages. In one
I put all the expenses divided by month, than type. Each one has a short
description

In the other I plot graph of the data in the first page, In particular graphs
covering each month, each year and last 5 years.

Never needed anything else

~~~
hyperman1
seconded, even libreoffice. I have 12 sheets, one for each month. Each year I
copy it. There is a second spreadsheet for big long term things, like loans
and different phases of contractor work on our house

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rocketpastsix
YNAB is my main tool for the job.

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fiftyacorn
I gave up on budgeting apps as I felt I knew roughly how much was coming in.
as long as I kept on top of prices on insurance, electricity,... Then that's
about as good as I needed

I did use buckets when trying to budget. It's the same as ynab but not online

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cpach
I’m in the same boat, would love a convenient tool for a married couple with
shared economy. I’ve heard that YNAB is good but that it’s not so convenient
for the use-case of a household.

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ztc
Mint for tracking spending and M1 for investments

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4d66ba06
Goodbudget for personal spending

Neobudget for shared stuff

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mijndert
An Excel spreadsheet.

