PTPL 206 · Plain Text Accounting: Envelope Budgeting in Beancount

How a phantom currency keeps bank account reports clean Envelope budgeting is the practice of planning ahead for known expenses, by regularly putting money into pre-determined categories, or envelopes. As the name suggests, it is often done with real cash placed into real envelopes. Envelope budgeting can be done in digital banking with a series of separate accounts, but that can be limiting. Unless your bank allows a single account to be split into multiple categories (like UP Bank- Australia-only referral link), you will need to track things carefully on a spreadsheet. Or you can enter the satisfying world of plain text accounting, where you can create as many virtual categories as you need while still keeping track of real-life bank balances. Envelope budgeting in plain text accounting I began with plain text accounting from a position of profound financial and technical ignorance, so it feels incredible to finally be able to say I am now confidently using plain text to run an…