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Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

lunchmoney.cc

71–80 of 135 posts

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#71
Here's a question - has anybody designed a platform yet that can break down and reconcile Amazon purchases?

I've given up on every single household budgeting / tracking solution due to the huge volume of Amazon orders our family places across regular Amazon, Amazon Fresh, Prime Now, etc.

As a result I wind up with a budget that looks like "50% Amazon" and then everything else.

What I'd really like to know is categorically where is that money to Amazon going as a category.

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#74
Have you considered releasing a freeware thing that I can play around with experiment with, which doesn't require payment information?

Also, I didn't see your answer to the guy's question about the safeguards you take to uphold information security measures. Could you comment on this please?

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#75
This is exactly what I want. Like many others, I have my own personal solution, which I used for the last 3 years. But it's far from "complete" and lacks many convenient features your app provides. Including a wonderful UI. The only thing I wish for is CSV imports because my bank is not supported. It nags on me that essentially my most private data is not in my hands anymore but this is so much more useful, I'm enjoying it already.

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#76
post #17

It looks pretty, but unfortunately I found budgeting methods that are not envelope based (such as YNAB where every dollar is assigned a job) are not adequate. After adopting the YNAB method I have seen how far superior it is. If I could combine YNAB's budgeting method with your reporting & analysis we'd have a true winner.

Thanks for the feedback! It is definitely a different way of budgeting. My target audience is more first-time budgeters. I know it would be an uphill battle to convert YNAB'ers since they are loyal to envelope-based method.

What is the difference between the envelope-based method and the categories in Lunch Money? It seems very similar to me.

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#78

Thought-provoking idea: you don't need a personal budget. https://github.com/slowernews/hamster-system#hamster-budget

This is such a stereotypical HN post I almost don't believe it's real

* CLI tools with some wonky syntax

* You don't need X because there is a random github repo that solves your problem! (To be fair, this is within the hacker ethos/mindset)

* Assumption that folks can dip into savings or whatnot if they are over that month

* Assumption that folks _have a net worth_

* Assumption that it's easy to just "tighten up" if you're spending too much

This probably works great for a high earner with extra money laying around and a decent net worth. This would be terrible advice for someone who actually needs to follow a budget. A huge percentage of people are living month to month and don't have the option to loosen up or reactively tighten up after a month of too many expenses.

Some folks don't need a personal budget. That is the minority. Those folks can use wonky CLI utils to keep track of their life.

In that same vein, why even bother? Just add up your net worth and if it's lower than you want, just "tighten up"...

Terrible advice IMO.

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#79
post #65
post #2

Hi Show HN, I'm really excited to share what I have been working on the side since late November last year. I am a one-person team and this project has allowed me to harness and grow from my few years of experience working as a software engineer. I was also able to flex my design muscles a little bit, while learning some marketing along the way. Stack: * Node.js w/ Typescript backend * React + Semantic UI w/ Typescri…

Any specific reason you decided to use Flutter instead of React native for your mobile app, given you use React for your existing frontend?

That's what I wondered as well...

Re: Show HN: Lunch Money, a personal budgeting tool with multi-currency support

#80
post #76
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback! It is definitely a different way of budgeting. My target audience is more first-time budgeters. I know it would be an uphill battle to convert YNAB'ers since they are loyal to envelope-based method.

What is the difference between the envelope-based method and the categories in Lunch Money? It seems very similar to me.

With lunch money it looks like you set up an ideal spending amount per category based on your history. But whether you stay within those limits is completely up to you. It might warn you if you go over in a category but that is about it.

In an envelope based system you can only budget dollars you have (that's where the name comes from, you'd literally stuff cash in envelopes). If you overspend from one envelope/category then you have to take from another envelope. It's perfectly fine to do this, but it just makes the sacrifice that much clearer. For example, let's say I splurge on restaurants this month - then I might have to steal from that vacation budget a bit in order to cover it.

The second aspect is building up money for future expenses. I can set up an envelope/category for a vacation in 12 months and throw 30 bucks a month at it. That money accrues each month and unless I steal from that envelope it's assigned to the vacation so I'll have the expense covered when it comes.

That's the gist of it. There is a ton more information online.

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