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by cosmaioan 2921 days ago
I have tried many things apps/excel/text file and after some time I give up. The current solution I use for more than one year and I am happy. Works while travelling (currency support) but it needs internet.

To solve personal finance control I made myself a bot (on telegram). Works on anything web/desktop/mobile and that is just text. I think about it as my accountant.

I send him

>Beer 4 ( meaning I spent 4 on beer)

>wine 6 EUR ( meaning I spent 6 EUR on wine)

If I want to group things in a category:

>Beer is drinks

>wine is drinks

Don't forget to first set the expense currency.

>config ExpenseCurrency USD - (this will be the default expense currency if you don't specify otherwhise)

If you want to export just write:

> export expense

You will receive an url that can be imported(as text) in excel and can be refreshed. I use excel if I want explore/visualize.

I get a reminder/summary every day just to make sure I don't forget.

I have more commands https://docs.google.com/document/d/1x7iYpbXJHGyQQ4CxA1W6LgLr... And more that I have not documented. Let me know if you need something.

It does not uses language understanding, behind it has a compiler so there is NO misunderstanding

If you try it let me know or contact https://twitter.com/cosmaioan

1 comments

My approach is similar. I keep plain text notes on my phone where each line is something like "16 haircut" or "12o" (eating out). I have a Node script that I currently run manually, but the problem is that I only run it every couple of months... Using a bot keep track of things is a great idea!

Currently I group everything by month, but using a bot would also allow that to be more granular.

One thing I try to focus on is simplicity of the categories. Instead of spending £5 on toiletries and £3 on fruit I just have on "everyday items" category that I use for everything that I buy at the supermarket. So after every purchase I make I only spend about 5s writing it down, rather than trying to do any splitting calculations in my head.

Here are the result: http://www.mattzeunert.com/money.html