Project: Become a miser.

This is about a little method/script that I came up with that lets you analyse your expenses. Be it the day to day expenses or specific expenses such as trips, purchases, etc. Be it you alone or a group of people.

Cost Parser is a simple way of keeping track of expenses. It’s aim is to give you a basic overview of how you have been spending your money.

What does it analyse specifically? #

At the moment, it is very simple. It gives you:

How does it work? #

Step - 1: You pick any editor/note taking application that is easily accessible (preferably across multiple devices). You do this by following the specific format mentioned in the next step. Ideally, you want a device/application that makes copy/pasting easy.

Step - 2: You starting noting down your expenses in the following format:

#dd-mm-yyyy
[cost1] [category1].[sub-category1] [spender1]   
[cost2] [category2].[sub-category2] [spender2]
    ...etc

yyyy is optional.

Example: #

#01-06
393 haircut k
333 household.groceries k
30 travel.bus a
50 lunch.cafe a
800 fuel k

Step - 3: Whenever you want to analyse your spending, go to narak.github.io/CostParser/CostParser.html and paste in everything you have been noting down and you’re done. You should see your expenditure breakdown.

I have an alarm that goes off at 9 PM on weekdays and 10 AM on weekends specifically set to note down the expenses. I use Google Keep for it. Keep is really convenient because it means that I don’t have to type it on the cumbersome phone keyboard if I’m noting down all the expenses for the day at one go. Also copy+paste directly on the computer and not phone.

Why? #

For one, I needed a way to see where was all my money going. >.< It seemed to be mysteriously disappearing into the ether. I needed to find out what was the source of the moolah disappearage and which day would it be generally. Was it the grocery days (wednesday/sunday) or booze days (friday/saturday).

You might ask why did I build this? Why, when there are loads of applications available that let you do the same thing?
Well, I tried. About 2 applications before I got bored. I didn’t explore more, I probably should have. But simply because building something is more fun and you can make it like you imagine an application like this in your head.

A note taking application of your choice is very simple. You could use Keep/Evernote to sync it across multiple devices. Or drafts in Gmail(or any other email you use). I use a combination of all three.

Since the input source is insignificant to the process (as long as it is text), platform dependence is eliminated.

Um… I don’t know how it doesn’t get in the way. I put it there just because it sounds like something someone from marketing would write.

To Do and future: #

So yeah. #

Go forth and use it!

Please.

 
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