How I took control of my personal finances. Simplicity in money saving

This is a huge, typo-filled Ad...

If you want a good budgeting tool look no further than YNAB [0] it's done wonders for me in tracking where my money is going how much I am spending in various categories as well as a good birds eye view of my finances (which even mint couldn't do well)

[0] http://www.youneedabudget.com/ (Though I suggest you use http://classic.youneedabudget.com/ as the web version just isn't there yet IMHO)

When I was a young single man, I had an effective way to track my personal finances. At the start of the month, I'd calculate how much money I had left over after fixed expenses (rent, internet, etc) and whatever savings I wanted for that week.

I'd then divide that by 4, and 4 times a month, I'd withdraw that amount in cash from my account, and use that for discretionary spending like going out, groceries, etc. That way, I could tell myself by just looking in my wallet: "OK, I went out for drinks twice already this week, I have 40$ left, I'll keep it easy until Monday."

I don't understand how people manage to log every purchase they make and keep on a budget (this app is no different). I find it so inefficient and time consuming. I can't even plan a budget.

I prefer to focus on how much money I can actually save every month. Much simpler and easier to manage. Best is to put that money aside on the 1st of each month and see if you can stick to it.

Then choosing what to spend less on to improve that saving every month is by questioning the usefulness of the purchase (Will I use it? Will it make me happier? Will it improve my productivity? Will it allow me to create wealth? etc.).

Try to keep your living standard below what your income could afford. On the long run you'll save money and live happier.

"I didn't have time to actually make or keep a budget, or learn anything about the topic, so I spent six months writing an app that is basically Mint, but slightly prettier, and worse." Don't ever change, tech dudes!

The steps are easy:

1. Make a budget.

2. Stick to it.

If you need a little more pressure, stop using credit cards in favor of cash. There's something powerful about realizing you have less of something every time you get a cup of coffee. It will slow you down and make you think "do I really want this?"

This is basically an ad.

First of all, congrats on taking control of your finances!

Also, good luck with the forthcoming app launch.

Sad to see the top responses didn't celebrate what you've done but instead complained that you are putting out an app.

I'd suggest going deeper into your philosophy of why you only need 7 main categories. How did you decide on those exact 7? Where would you classify: giving, investing, and short-term savings (tech replacement, saving for an anniversary, etc).

Edit: as mentioned elsewhere, there are a bunch of typos too. "taht" instead of "that", etc.

The app looks interesting! I'm nt sure if I'd stick to entering in every purchase, but I'd be willing to try. Worst case you could add Plaid integration as an option too. I do think there is value in simplifying way more than Mint.

One idea I had recently was for a similar interaction, but instead of for expenses it would be for every time you "saved" money. So for example, if you were in the super market and saw some $5 cookies and debated buying them. If you decided not to, since you wanted to save that money instead, you'd open then app and quickly enter $5. It would keep a tally of all of the savings you had instead of the expenses, to incentivize that mentality.

You might be able to easily incorporate that already (or I could after signing up) by adding a "Savings" category. But if there are any places where expenses are graphed or totaled it would need to be discounted.

Anyways, congrats and good luck with the launch! I like how clean it feels.

I try to spend around $600/mth on food, gas, drinks and other entertainment. This works out to roughly $20/day. I keep a running tally in my head day to day on what I've spent and try to stay around $20/day.

This is not a great tracking method, but just having the idea of $20/day in the back of my head curbs my spending a great deal.

Regardless of whether it is an ad or not: You missed a huge chance by submitting to HN before having the app ready. I find the idea of only a few categories appealing, but if I wanted to do this right now I would probably go look for an app that is available right now. I want to test your app for a week or so, give feedback and move on if it doesn't work. Not too keen on signing up on a mailinglist for an app that will "someday" be ready, unless I'm very excited about it or the app is the first one to solve a specific problem. Attention spans are short!

This also works best for me. Write it down straight away. Not some evening, or in the weekend, but right away. I got into the habit because I wanted to save 5 months of expenses before starting as a freelancer.

I have two accounts and a spreadsheet.

Money goes into one account, then I work out all my expenses for the month, rent, petrol, food, isp bills etc. This amount is then transferred to my bill paying account. As the month wears on this account is depleted automatically as bills are taken then next month I refill it.

The other account is a play money account. Anything I need/want during the month comes out of this. At the end of the month any left over is transferred into a saving account.

Been doing this for 15 years and it works pretty well for me.

I'd recommend a combination of billguard and mint. Mainly billguard, both free. billguard allows you to add your debit/credit card accounts. when you make a purchase, bill guard notifies you. it will group your spending habits into different categories. at the end of every week, bill guard notifies you by email with a message similar to this "you have spent $400 this week etc. etc. going into the app itll show you where the money you spent went to. this is a great way to determine how much money you go through a weekly basis.

I did this with a single sheet of engineering graph paper in the 1980s. Rows were spending categories and columns were months and annual summaries. I spreadsheeted it in the 1990s and clouded it in the 2010s. Simple and powerful if you can see it all on one page. Takes just minutes a month. Most the mobile apps I'ver seen use too small screenfulls. And I DONT TRUST THEM INTO MY WEB ACCOUNTS like Mint wants to do.

The easiest way to budget is just stop spending money on stupid stuff, and don't live somewhere with high rent. Don't make large purchases, except perhaps a condo or house so you don't have to pay rent anymore. You don't need to write anything down or manually keep track of stuff in an app. Your online account balances automatically keep track for you. This isn't rocket science.

I have to separate Food into Eating Out and Groceries. I value cooking at home much higher than I do eating out.

TL;DR - Categorize your spendings to at max 5-7. See where you spend max money and try to optimize for it.