this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2025
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97
Best ‘simple’ budgeting app (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by paulcdb@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
39 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Ok, so I’ve tried a few open source apps for tracking money and they’re either too complicated, a hassle to setup or don’t use mysql/mariadb so would require setting up PostgreSQL 😖

I’m currently using forecast for the iPad which is great but I’m trying to wean myself off Apple giving they’re going to shit too and find all the docker versions I’ve got working are too complicated /faff to use and seem to focus on what you’ve already spent.

So anyone have suggestions for: Simple docker setup Mysql if it won’t do flat file 3 month future forecasting based on recurring transaction

I don’t care what I’ve spent, I want to know, based on the recurring transaction, what my balance is over the next 3 months, so I know if i have spare money to spend/save.

Seems a lot of budgeting apps miss that somehow. 🤨

——— Edit: theres a lot of replies to sort through but thanks to everyone for responding.

I’ve done spreadsheets but it’s still a hassle to setup and I have enough going on to be faffing about trying to learn graphs which is what i’d really like.

I’ve also tried a lot that are listed on https://selfh.st/ but even actualbudget doesn’t seem to be able to forecast unless i’m missing something?

DollarDollar seems interesting but requires postgras and actualbudget seems nice but unless i’m missing something still can’t show future cashflow even if you add something as recurring?

Seems odd that all these apps offer tons of features for what you’ve already spent but nothing for how much you have to spend over the next 2-3 months which is all i care about. 😕

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[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 49 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Try https://actualbudget.org/ It's like the old YNAB. You can self host or use the desktop version.

[–] __init__@programming.dev 4 points 4 days ago

Yep, actual can do this sort of forecasting with schedules

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I have only used new ynab, what is old like?

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The old one was better because it had no fucking subscription, and also you could reconcile future transactions which was way better for monthly stuff. For example, at the end of the month (30, 31), you have received your salary but you want to reconcile it NOW for the next month (one or two days in the future) so that you can work on your future budget right now. You can't do that with the new YNAB.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Nice so Actual is free to use? I thought the connection to the bank must cost money. That's awesome.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Depends, here in Europe they use GoCardless, which has a free tier. As long as you're okay with syncing your accounts only once a day, or once every couple of days you should be good. Not sure how it is in other countries though.

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I never use connections to my bank so I wouldn't know if the feature even exists, sorry. But the whole thing was a paid application that went open-source. I download the "app image" thing because it's easier for me, but you have alternatives (desktop or web client).

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Do you input everything manually? Like if you spend $40 at the store you type that in?

[–] heavydust@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 days ago

I used to do it on the phone with YNAB, but now it's only 2 or 3 minutes on my computer in the evening.

[–] mac@lemm.ee 1 points 4 days ago

I just wish the graphs were better.

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 4 points 3 days ago

Libreoffice calc

A standard spreadsheet does wonders man

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 3 days ago

Actual budget is amazing.

[–] marauding_gibberish142@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I just use a spreadsheet with LibreOffice, and with their viewer on Android, I can just sync the spreadsheet and viola.

[–] undeffeined@lemmy.ml 6 points 4 days ago

And Viola!

[–] s08nlql9@lemm.ee 3 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Is it hard to use LibreOffice in Android?

[–] pineapplelover@lemm.ee 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I don't think you can edit, just view

Edit: actually this app says it can edit

https://f-droid.org/packages/at.tomtasche.reader/

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 days ago

Kinda, but it works.

[–] WalnutLum@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago

Hledger!

Command line, plain text files so anything can read them, and GPL!

[–] HelloRoot@lemy.lol 9 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I've recently looked into https://github.com/firefly-iii/firefly-iii because it has autoimport for my banks API.

It uses mariadb by default and the GUI looked relatively simple.

Whether it fits your needs depend on your budgeting method.

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 6 points 4 days ago (2 children)

As others have said, a spreadsheet is the simplest. If you do your banking with a credit union, chances are they make MX available to you in your online banking. A lot of banks use MX too. Their software provides the projections and forecasting you seek, as well as Open Banking connections to all of your other accounts. If you have loans, it also has burndowns of outstanding debts. Extra bonus: MX doesn't sell your data.

Disclosure: I used to work for MX.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Can you elaborate on this some more?

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sure thing. On which part would you like more detail?

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The whole thing 😅 how do I know if my bank uses MX?

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Different financial institutions (FI) will all have different appearances, because of the nature of how MX is implemented, and whether on desktop or mobile. In the case of my credit union, it's right here:

The interface of MX Platform on desktop looks like this:

You might see something like this in your online banking home page:

There are two ways that MX can get data from other accounts which you have to explicitly link in your bank/CU interface. The first method is through Open Banking protocols, which are mercifully obfuscated from the end user. Seriously, if you're having trouble sleeping, try reading some of the Open Banking specifications. :D One selects their FI from the list, and enters creds and 2FA challenge. The other method is screen-scraping, but again this is abstracted away from the end user.

One of the features where MX slaps more than anyone else (for now) is identifying the source of debits and classifying them. Underneath the hood, debit and credit card transaction strings are chaos. But even if MX gets it wrong, you can manually re-classify your expenses, and it will apply that to future transactions (optional). I already mentioned the burndowns, but if you have an idea for a saving schedule, MX will provide reminders and factor in your growth. Platform will also provide reminders for almost everything.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

[–] lka1988@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Ah, ok, I get the general idea now. UCCU uses this software, too (you said you worked for MX, which is based in Lehi... I also work in Lehi 😅), but I gotta be honest - I'm not a huge fan of the mobile app. It just feels like a PWA. But that might just be UCCU's implementation, so, IDK.

Thanks for the explanation though!

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Hello (former) fellow Lehi worker! Although I was remote except for the onsite weeks. I'm not a fan of 99% mobile apps, maybe more than 99%. I didn't work on mobile, but I am quite sure that it is in fact a PWA.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I feel like you meant to reply to another comment. Were you referring to Moneymanager EX?

[–] JayleneSlide@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Negative all around. I was replying to OP. The company to which I referred is MX. The public-facing product (API) is actually called Platform, but it's very explicitly white label software. Customers will generally have little to no idea that they are using MX Platform. It might actually say MX somewhere, but that can be eliminated in implementation.

[–] GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 days ago

Thanks for the info!

[–] Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show 6 points 5 days ago

If you already have a Nextcloud instance you could try Cospend. It's a nextcloud app, but looks really simple to set up.

[–] tarius@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

I tried Firefly, Actual, Maybe, and ended up with Dollar Dollar Bill Yall

[–] sevenoverthree@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I basically track everything with obsidian and spreadsheets. It's a lot more work in the front, but it trains better habits for owning your own shit.

Don't use services that track all your activity down. It should be pretty obvious as to why.

At the very minimum, log into all your credit cards and bank accounts and start cutting and pasting what you want to track into an excel spreadsheet. With a little youtube searching, you can make formulas and all kinds of good stuff that will get you a 90 percent accurate picture of all your activities.

[–] null@slrpnk.net 2 points 3 days ago

Don't use services that track all your activity down. It should be pretty obvious as to why.

This doesn't really apply here.

[–] variants_of_concern@lemmy.one 3 points 4 days ago

I tried a few and ended up just going back to a spreadsheet since I can make it do exactly what I'm thinking instead of trying to figure out how an app is supposed to work and then see if i can make that fit into my thought process.

I just have my reoccurring bills then split them up by paycheck plus add in a few things like gas and I can pretty much plan my whole year and see what's expected to be left of each check and then decide how to divide that up approximately

[–] HadOwenKiRoast@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've been using https://purrse.app/ lately, it's from a very small (one man I think) parisian dev.

Works for me and the wife, we just need a way to split costs (a bit like splitwise but without the bloat)

[–] HybridSarcasm@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Doesn’t seem to be possible to self-host

[–] jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

That's a tough one. There's not a ton of great options for personal accounting apps, much less self hosted ones. I used Pocket Smith (subscription based) for years which actually does what your looking for. Decent product overall. I switched from them to Quicken mostly because I'm an anal retentive personal accounting nerd and the fact that they couldn't produce a conventional income statement or balance sheet was a long running frustration of mine.

If I had to choose another platform again, I would go with spreadsheets since it can be as simple or complex as you want to make it. I know that's not really what youre looking for. Wish I had a better suggestion.

[–] Thoven@lemdro.id 1 points 4 days ago

I use the tiller extension in Google sheets. With the community savings budget template to allow for 0 based or "envelope" budgeting. One of the few things in my life so far ahead of every other option I couldn't bring myself to ditch it and selfhost.

[–] Showroom7561@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

I don't know if it works in iOS, but I found that Moneymanager EX was by far the easiest to set up.

Basically, you keep the database on your NAS and run the software client on Windows, Android, etc. and just open the file from there.

But I'm considering Firefly III just for the web interface (no software client needed).