YNAB budgeting with ledger-cli

budget.ledger

; This is a simple method of maintaining a budget using
; double-entry accounting software.

; Usually, double-entry accounting keeps track of 
; assets, liabilities, income, and expenses. However,
; income/expense categories are different than budget
; categories. For one thing, income/expense categories
; continually grow, where budget categories tend to rise
; and fall. I decided to replace tracking my income/
; expenses with tracking my budget.

; One counterintuitive thing about this method is that
; when you have money to spend in a budget category,
; the balance will be negative.

2017-01-01 Opening Balances
   Accounts:Checking         $3210.98
   Accounts:Savings          $7654.32
   ; Only include credit cards that are paid in full each month.
   ; Their balance counts against the funds available to budget,
   ; which means they can be paid off immediately by
   ; "transferring" the funds between the accounts.
   Accounts:Credit Card     $-1953.79  
   Funds:Emergency Fund     $-5000.00
   Funds:Rent/Mortgage      $-1059.00
   Funds:Car Loan            $-503.00
   Funds:Groceries           $-673.51
   Funds:Cable/Internet      $-103.00
   Funds:Phone Service        $-73.00
   Funds:Vacation            $-900.00
   Funds:Spending            $-600.00

2017-01-01 Paycheck
   Accounts:Checking         $1555.00
   ; To follow a YNAB like scheme of budgeting last month's
   ; income, new funds are held in a budget category for
   ; next month. Then when the new month rolls around, the
   ; other categories can be funded from this category.
   Funds:Next Month         $-1555.00

2017-01-02 A. Mortgage Bank
   Accounts:Checking        $-1059.00
   Funds:Rent/Mortgage       $1059.00

2017-01-03 Visa Mastercard payment
   ; Here is an example of making a payment for a credit
   ; card that is in the budget. Notice how no budget
   ; categories are adjusted here. That's because transfers
   ; between budgeted accounts don't affect budget balances.
   ; If the credit card was not a budgeted account
   ; (perhaps because it could not be paid in full),
   ; then a budget category would need to be created for its payments
   ; and those payments would look like the mortgage payment above.
   Accounts:Checking         $-976.89
   Accounts:Credit Card       $976.89

2017-01-04 Auto Savings and Loan
   Accounts:Checking         $-503.00
   Funds:Car Loan             $503.00

2017-01-05 Piggly Wiggly
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-170.00
   Funds:Groceries            $150.00
   Funds:Spending              $20.00

2017-01-12 Piggly Wiggly
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-160.00
   Funds:Groceries            $160.00

2017-01-15 Paycheck
   Accounts:Checking         $1555.00
   Funds:Next Month         $-1555.00

2017-01-19 Piggly Wiggly
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-152.00
   Funds:Groceries            $152.00

2017-01-20 America Online
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-103.00
   Funds:Cable/Internet       $103.00

2017-01-22 Better Buy
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-388.78
   Funds:Spending             $388.78

2017-01-23 Circuit Town
   Accounts:Credit Card       $-64.79
   Funds:Spending              $64.79

2017-01-25 Cingular Wireless
   Accounts:Credit Card       $-73.00
   Funds:Phone Service         $73.00

2017-01-26 Piggly Wiggly
   Accounts:Credit Card      $-202.10
   Funds:Groceries            $170.00
   Funds:Spending              $32.10

2017-01-31 Credit Union
   Accounts:Checking            $0.32
   Accounts:Savings             $1.19
   Funds:Next Month

2017-02-01 Monthly Allocation
   Funds:Next Month          $3111.51
   Funds:Mortgage/Rent      $-1059.00
   Funds:Car Loan            $-503.00
   Funds:Groceries           $-673.51
   Funds:Cable/Internet      $-103.00
   Funds:Phone Service        $-73.00
   Funds:Vacation            $-100.00
   Funds:Spending            $-600.00

Also, I would blow my spending money when it became available. This led to misery because I had no spending money for the rest of the month. The solution I found was to add funds to my spending account slowly, over time. For example:

2017-01-01 Monthly Allocation
   Funds:Next Month        $600.00
   Funds:Weekly           $-600.00

2017-01-01 Weekly Allocation
   Funds:Weekly            $120.00 = $-480.00
   Funds:Spending         $-120.00

2017-01-08 Weekly Allocation
   Funds:Weekly            $120.00 = $-360.00
   Funds:Spending         $-120.00

2017-01-15 Weekly Allocation
   Funds:Weekly            $120.00 = $-240.00
   Funds:Spending         $-120.00

2017-01-22 Weekly Allocation
   Funds:Weekly            $120.00 = $-120.00
   Funds:Spending         $-120.00

2017-01-29 Weekly Allocation
   Funds:Weekly            $120.00 =    $0.00
   Funds:Spending         $-120.00

@tblyons How has this been working for you? Could it work to use this system plus a nor.al expense tracking system? I want to avoid virtual transactions if possible.

I really like how you have modeled the "use last months income" bit from ynab.