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by xupybd 1750 days ago
I used HLedger for years it was great. I thought I could do better with a paid solution. YNAB was awful and slow. So I switched to Lunch Money. It's amazing fast and intuitive. Only it's not a good fit for me. I'm trying to shoe horn my budgeting style into and it's not working.

I use the envelope style. Every dollar is assigned a bucket when it comes in. All spending is done from a bucket and balances always persist. I don't like monthly budget targets. I prefer to put money in a bucket when the money comes in.

I might move back to plain text accounting as it is so flexible. I will miss the amazing interface to Lunch Money. I also like supporting a small business like Lunch Money.

4 comments

I still use Hledger along with a small phalanx of accessory scripts, mostly written in Python, that do everything from parse CSVs to calling smart contract read functions to categorize crypto transactions for tax purposes.

Many thanks to Simon Michael for not only that wonderful program but also being so responsive.

I might go back to HLedger soon. I guess I can always donate monthly to the project to scratch my small business support itch.

I also had a good collection of scripts to manage my finances. I ran it all on a VPS so I could access anywhere. I had an ssh client on my phone to make changes on the go. Not as ergonomic as an app but it worked.

Agreed Simon is an amazing project owner. He and his documentation are the reasons I like HLedger over the alternatives.

I'll admit that GoDBLedger is also tempting.

I think it's https://onefinance.com that provides separate routable account numbers and credit card numbers per envelope/"pocket". A testimonial popped up about two weeks ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28247788#28248539.
I'm currently on a trial of Actual Budget (https://actualbudget.com/). It's very similar to the old desktop version of YNAB. It has desktop and mobile apps (web app in beta), and does syncing. I haven't used the mobile app yet, but the desktop app is fast and entering transactions is fast. Only costs $4/month.
Thanks I'll have a look. I found something similar in the past https://www.budgetwithbuckets.com/en/index.html
I thought I had seen every envelope budget software. Haha! Why aren't you using this one?
I haven't tried it yet. I'm still trying to make Lunch Money work. They just implemented roll over budgeting. I want to see if I can get that going. TBH the main problem is a lack of time dedicated to figuring it all out.
I'm slowly working on a SaaS app to combine in-browser real-time collaborative text editing with plain text accounting, using the hledger format. Just curious if that is something you, or others, would be interested in.
I'm interested, but I don't want to go the route of text editing. It seems odd but for me the pain point of plain text accounting is the text editing. I like a GUI to enter my transactions. I want the least clicks possible to enter my transactions. I want budgeting to be a fast as possible.
I’m personally interested in something similar for the beancount format.