One, I pay cash as much as I possibly can (fuck surveillance finance), so using something that brings in my transactions isn't that much of a time savings. I have a minimal number of monthly scheduled transactions, so bringing those in manually just isn't really that painful.
Two, it adds a tiny bit of friction to my spending. This is a good thing (at least for me). If I know I have to write down the amount, and if only briefly think about what I've already spent this month, it slightly dissuades me from conducting the transaction.
Again, this works for me. Sharing in case it works for you.
I think I have the opposite mindset. I prefer putting everything on credit cards because then I don't have to keep a receipt or remember exactly what I spent where if I go to multiple places in one day. Plus bills/online subscriptions/etc that aren't cash-friendly.
I'd like something like Privacy that creates temporary credit card numbers, but is also anonymous from the provider side. Sort of like buying a new visa gift card to use every month.
But I also like getting points to use while traveling
I've settled on Capitol One. They call them Virtual Cards. I have lots of temporary cards, mostly I use them for specific vendors (utilities, different SaSS subscriptions) so if some low security site gets hacked it won't work anywhere except with that vendor.
I'm not sure if that feature is only for specific cards they offer.
You could combine this with a quick cronjob to send notifications about daily/weekly spending but I don’t know an easy way to send texts without dipping into Twilio, which is difficult. If you’re okay having emails notify you, that might work.
Maybe enter purchases in a linked spreadsheet from your phone to your desktop to track purchases? Might just be better off sucking up purchase information from your bank’s API to your spreadsheet. Smaller bank APIs tend to suck though.
I have the spreadsheet sync to my phone. I thought about a little form front end for it, but it's really not worth it for the amount of data points I collect ($today, $amount, $location).
Since I review my finances weekly, there's really no need for notifications. Habit is enough. My bank already sends me notifications for possible fraud (almost always incorrectly, but I suppose I'd rather it err in that direction than the other).
Simple works for me, but there are certainly some ways to add complexity to it if that's helpful to you.
> You could combine this with a quick cronjob to send notifications about daily/weekly spending but I don’t know an easy way to send texts without dipping into Twilio, which is difficult. If you’re okay having emails notify you, that might work.
Why?
One, I pay cash as much as I possibly can (fuck surveillance finance), so using something that brings in my transactions isn't that much of a time savings. I have a minimal number of monthly scheduled transactions, so bringing those in manually just isn't really that painful.
Two, it adds a tiny bit of friction to my spending. This is a good thing (at least for me). If I know I have to write down the amount, and if only briefly think about what I've already spent this month, it slightly dissuades me from conducting the transaction.
Again, this works for me. Sharing in case it works for you.