Originally posted by Sanqui

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Do you track your expenses somehow?

I've been interested in it even though my turnover is small at the moment. First I used GnuCash for Android, but it was a bit confusing and glitchy, so I gave it up after about two months. Now earlier this month a friend told me about Expense Manager for Android, so I've started using that. It's a bit better but still not perfect.

Overall I seem to get hang up on weird issues when entering expenses. Such as when others pay for me or I pay for them. I'd like to enter all of it. Also, it feels weird for an expense that's like a membership lasting 6 months to only count for the first month...

What works for you?

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I heard you ask about this in IRC. I will talk more about it I guess!
These images are (should be) clickable for full size, but of course imgur.

YNAB's philosophy is about giving every $CURRENCY a job.



This is the most recent 3 months. The left column for each month is the budgeted amount from that month's income. The second column is expenses in that category; the third is the total balance.

The most important thing to take from this is that budgeted amounts roll over; if you budget ¤100 to the electricity bill, but your electricity bill is only ¤80, then your balance is ¤20 -- it carries over to the next month. This is important, because if you budget ¤100 every month... If your power bill suddenly spikes to ¤120 the next month, you've budgeted for that sort of thing in advance.

This works towards one of your questions, too:

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Also, it feels weird for an expense that's like a membership lasting 6 months to only count for the first month..

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In this case, let's say that the first six months are ¤120. You budget that amount in for the first month, because you need to spend that much the first month.

But for every month after that, you can budget ¤20. You aren't spending anything those months, so the balance grows.

January: ¤120 (budgeted) - ¤120 (spent) = ¤0
February: ¤0 (balance) + ¤20 (budgeted) = ¤20
March: ¤20 + ¤20 = ¤40
April: ¤40 + ¤20 = ¤60
May: ¤60 + ¤20 = ¤80
June: ¤80 + ¤20 = ¤100
July: ¤100 + ¤20 = ¤120 ... and you're ready to spend the ¤120 cost again.

(You can do this without the first "lump" month if you know the expense in advance, like buying a new PC or whatever; just contribute what you can every month, and when you have enough budgeted, go buy it.

You can see this in work with the "Car registration" category, where I budgeted $20 per month until it was due. It turns out that I over budgeted quite a bit, so I can relax that category for now.

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Such as when others pay for me or I pay for them. I'd like to enter all of it.

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This just depends on what you're trying to achieve:

• Do you want your friends to pay you back? Then issue an IOU or use something like Splitwise.
• Do you want to pay your friends back? Then keep track on your own, and enter the expense when you pay it.
• Do you not care? Then just track your expenses. It isn't your job to budget other people's money!



One of the most useful benefits I've found to budgeting is keeping track of where money goes:



The colors in this directly correspond to the major categories in the first image (household expenses, personal bills, general expenses...). It's been really useful at capturing where all of my money goes...

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(Lv 235 with 201851552 EXP)

Originally posted by Sanqui

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Right now, my main concern is

1. Entering everything in
2. Eventually getting useful information out, such as what whether I'm within my income, how much did a vacation cost total, and where most of my money goes in general, to see if there are places I can easily cut back.

I'm not too concerned about having categories assigned budgets just yet, in fact I need to figure out those categories first. (Not paying rent, although that might change soon.)

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You have to assign categories to know where stuff is going. Even if you don't budget for it yet, breaking them down is good (and you can always just use your monthly expenses for those categories as next month's budget, to start.)

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Yeah, we've used Settle Up in the past with some friends, and it works well. But it feels like I should be entering these into my budgeting as well. Sometimes I pay for people without expecting money back, also, of course. Do I split the bill between "eating out" and "paying for somebody else"?

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Personally I put it under "eating out", period.

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Similarly, when another person pays for me, I feel obliged towards them, and I feel like it's technically money I "would have spent [on eating out]". Maybe I should enter both an expense and an income from the friend. But, really, I'm probably overthinking things.

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I think you are over-thinking it. If your friend wasn't paying, perhaps you would not have gone at all; now your budget needs to support imaginary numbers, too

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Either way, I can't justify paying for YNAB just yet. (I'm aware they give 12 months for free to students, but then I'm concerned about being locked in.)

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I may have a solution...


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(Lv 236 with 201941395 EXP)

Different things work for different people. Budgeting like this helps me keep track of everything. If you don't have much to keep track of (live alone, that sort of thing) then you have less need for it.

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(Lv 236 with 202010325 EXP)

That's why the idea of YNAB isn't to watch your money, it's to sort your money into piles of what you can spend. I don't look at my account and go "ooh, $20,000, I can buy all sorts of stuff", I look at my fun budget and see $150 and know that's what I can spend.

I tried Mint but I didn't like it at all and it didn't feel like I was really budgeting as much as just watching my money disappear.

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(Lv 236 with 202041812 EXP)

The envelope method works a lot better if you're cash-only, but in more modern times it's a lot more difficult because you can't really put cards in envelopes

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(Lv 236 with 202514422 EXP)

It's a really great method if you want to start educating younger people how to deal with their money. Teenagers and kids, with allowances.

Especially in the US, where any sort of financial education appears to be completely missing

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(Lv 236 with 202561406 EXP)

I'd suggest it has something to do with schooling in general, too; maybe not outright financial-sector lobbying, but you see a lot of electives and other things going away, too, with an ever-increasing focus on ~standardized testing~

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(Lv 236 with 202771921 EXP)