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I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

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Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#31

Post by easymodex »

majewsky wrote: post #27
easymodex wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been in a similar situation and to me it's one of the main reasons why we need cryptocurrencies.

Not at all. The Single European Payment Area solves these issues without wasting a gargantuan amount of energy.

Isn't all the infrastructure, people employed, offices and everything needed to support something also a waste of energy if it can be replaced by some lines of code? Also with your energy wasting straw man remark i assume you are talking specifically about bitcoin which is just one of many cryptocurrencies and a lot of them aren't based on proof of work.

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#32

Post by gkbrk »

I've done something similar recently; but instead of grabbing data from my bank, I chose to enter data manually from receipts.

This makes it work for both cash and debit payments, and doesn't need any maintenance for API breakage. I find doing this data entry calming, to be honest.

I wrote about it here https://gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-budgeting/

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#33

Post by davidjnelson »

air7 wrote: post #25

> As an engineer, it is in my DNA to build things. However, it’s too easy to get stuck in the mindset that you have to build everything. This mentality often leads one stuck with a plethora of incomplete products that grew too complex to finish before losing interest. This. I can relate so much. I feel my instinct is always to roll-my-own because I can and, perhaps more importantly, because I'm not familiar with rele…

The tools in the article, google sheets and zapier are quite good. A few more that might fit are airtable, webflow and stripe. Maybe even look into something like google app maker as well.

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#34

Post by Havoc »

neilv wrote: post #19

For anyone who wants to do things like double-entry accounting with transaction splits (e.g., properly encode an Amazon order for 5 different items from different expense categories, that're paid for by a mix of rewards points, Gift Card balance, and CC), there's GnuCash. You can also do things like record transactions yourself, update with downloaded data, and reconcile against monthly statements (as another way of…

Never really understood the need for double entry in the personal context.

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#36

Post by decasteve »

gkbrk wrote: post #32

I've done something similar recently; but instead of grabbing data from my bank, I chose to enter data manually from receipts. This makes it work for both cash and debit payments, and doesn't need any maintenance for API breakage. I find doing this data entry calming, to be honest. I wrote about it here https://gkbrk.com/2019/04/plaintext-budgeting/

> Or… I could use a shell script to run calculations with SQLite.

I did exactly that and I import the data from the bank’s csv-export once per month. I have a set of sql statements to run and categorize everything and then I manually enter the stuff that isn’t caught by the script. I manually enter cash transactions.

And the end of the year I run a sql statement to generate a report with all of the significant amounts for taxes.

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#37

Post by graphememes »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #14
dguo wrote: post #13

Very cool. Using email notifications to get transaction data is a nice hack. If you do find yourself wanting a more formal API, check out Plaid ( https://plaid.com/ ). I've never used it myself, but I believe the free plan is enough to get your personal transactions.

My bank doesn't provide an API. So I just automated a headless browser to log into my account and download the statements.

Over 18,000 banks provide APIs, what bank do you use? Is it a small credit union?

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#38

Post by graphememes »

tlarkworthy wrote: post #5
sash_ wrote: post #3

But this way you send all your financial transactions through at least 2 additional providers (zapier and google) and your email provider. Not sure if this is worth it.

I prefer this, the finance is lost in the noise of other traffic and no creds to banks are shared unlike mint.

credentials are sent to the bank servers, and a token is stored on the mint servers, credentials are never shared _to mint_

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#39

Post by dnadler »

easymodex wrote: post #18
jedberg wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking in the US is utterly ridiculous. In Europe, if you need to move up to 100,000E in a day, you can do it with a few clicks or taps, and maybe a card reader that they already gave you. In the US, you have to use a wire transfer is you're moving more than about $4,000. And wires cost a lot of money. And they aren't even instant even though they are billed that way. I had to move some money from one account I own…

I have been in a similar situation and to me it's one of the main reasons why we need cryptocurrencies.

I'll take my government insured bank account over cryptocurrency any day of the week.

Re: I got control of my spending with some no-code services and 100 lines of Python

#40

Post by tantalor »

Havoc wrote: post #34
neilv wrote: post #19

For anyone who wants to do things like double-entry accounting with transaction splits (e.g., properly encode an Amazon order for 5 different items from different expense categories, that're paid for by a mix of rewards points, Gift Card balance, and CC), there's GnuCash. You can also do things like record transactions yourself, update with downloaded data, and reconcile against monthly statements (as another way of…

Never really understood the need for double entry in the personal context.

Bookkeeping is basically just tracking your total assets and debts separately. You can break those down into accounts, but it's optional.

In personal context, doing double-entry would have you log a credit (pay from) to your assets and a debit (pay to) to your debts. For example, when you pay your credit card bill with a check. For generic expenses (whether you pay with cash or credit) and income you wouldn't bother with double-entry.

Why would you want to do this? It's all about "balancing" your net worth; when you have expenses or income your net changes, but when you pay a debt then your worth, or "capital" in bookkeeping jargon, is a constant, and follows the basic rule of accounting: assets = liabilities + capital. Doing double-entry is the most reliable way of following this rule.

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