Keeping track of envelopes in Gnucash

I sorted out my checking/savings account today, using Gnucash to keep
track of what is where. I've set up the transaction to pay my rent
from now until July 2007 and have earmarked the cash for it.

PCFinancial won't let me have more than one savings account, but I'm
faking divisions with Gnucash, a personal finance program. Under
Accounts:PCFinancial Savings, I have “Earmarked” and “True savings”.
Because I can set up automatic bill payments only from my checking
account, I scheduled automatic transfers between my savings account to
my checking account. This is tracked under Assets:PCFinancial
checking:Earmarked and :Actual.

I need to talk to Mark at some point to figure out how my funding is
structured so that I know what kind of budget I have and whether I can
afford to cook for people more often. =) I _hope_ the increased
funding from You-Know-Who translates into a raise in my fellowship, as
it's quite a bit more than my previous funding.

Nice to have everything sorted out. =)

Random Japanese sentence:

You can view 2 comments or e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.

2 comments

Ryan

2009-03-25T07:23:50Z

Just trying out gnucash and was wondering if you managed to get the online setup for PC financial?

Sacha Chua

2009-03-25T16:31:53Z

I hadn't looked into it. I've since then switched to GNU Ledger. It's command-line, it's powerful, it's awesome, it supports my virtual envelopes like a dream, and I've figured out how to get the graphs I wanted out of it.

I manually enter transactions, but I do that every week so it doesn't get to be a burden. Also, you might want to consider using ING Direct, which lets you create lots of sub-accounts if you want. Their interest rate is often slightly better than PCFinancial's top savings interest rate, too, and their GIC management is loads better. You can change all of your GIC options through the Web and you can pre-terminate with a lower interest rate, unlike PCFinancial where you have to call them up (it seems) and the cash is totally locked in.

ING Direct's tax-free savings account is pretty awesome, too.

If you do set up an ING Direct account (and deposit at least $100 into it), you can use my referral code (Orange Key: 29083948S1) for a $13 bonus. I'll get a $13 bonus, too, so everyone's happy. =)

Feel free to check out the rest of my personal-finance posts, and to share your own tips!

Thanks for dropping by!