I’ve been trying to get my finances in order for a while. I’ve been looking up different software to help me budget, but I can’t find privacy respecting software besides Firefly III, which is self hosted. I usually try to find a few options then evaluate from there, but was wondering if you guys had any recommendations to throw in the mix!
Not to detract from the recommendations and finding what works for you, I do recommend starting with a simple spreadsheet first. You don’t have to stick with it, but it’s a good start.
Benefits are you get use to logging your transactions, and you can do this manually or by CSV import. Not only can it do the math for you, but you can use multiple formulas to summarize various things.
For instance I enter all my recurring bills into the sheet per month, and it calculates my money both on what has posted (how much do I have today) and end of month (how much is left at the end).
I also categorize the transactions then table it. How much have I spent on groceries vs dining out? What percentage of my income is that? That’s where you really start seeing where your money is going and you can start making educated decisions on where you spend.