ony · June 10, 2025 16:27 · Jan 15, 2017 · Jan 15, 2017 · Jan 15, 2017 · Jan 15, 2017
diff --git a/budgeting.md b/budgeting.md
@@ -155,11 +155,13 @@ I'd expect that something like this will work:
 ```ledger
 2016/12/31 Budget reset
     assets:budget  = $0
+    assets:budget  = 0 EUR
     budget:clothes  = $0
+    budget:clothes  = 0 EUR
     budget:grocery  = $0
     budget:misc  = $0
 ```
-Be careful to list all accounts. Otherwise your transaction may fail to balance. You can use output of `hledger-budget accounts budget`
+Be careful to list all accounts and currencies. Otherwise your transaction may fail to balance. You can use output of `hledger-budget bal --flat -e 2016/12/31 -H budget` to identify what you need to mention there.
 
 ## Finally
 I've added a simple bash script see `hledger-budget.bash` (drop `.bash` suffix). With year-based includes inside of `~/.hledger-budget.journal`. Be careful about account aliases - they tend to miss budget file.

diff --git a/budgeting.md b/budgeting.md
@@ -155,11 +155,9 @@ I'd expect that something like this will work:
 ```ledger
 2016/12/31 Budget reset
     assets:budget  = $0
-    Budget:Bills  = $0
-    Budget:Food  = $0
-    Budget:Clothes  = 0 UAH
-    Budget:Health  = 0 UAH
-    Budget:Medicine  = 0 UAH
+    budget:clothes  = $0
+    budget:grocery  = $0
+    budget:misc  = $0
 ```
 Be careful to list all accounts. Otherwise your transaction may fail to balance. You can use output of `hledger-budget accounts budget`
 

diff --git a/budgeting.md b/budgeting.md
@@ -148,6 +148,22 @@ Now balance for assets looks like this:
                 $-16
 ```
 This means that our current assets are off by $16 from our budget and current expenses.
+
+## Reset budget
+Sometimes we start budgeting later than.
+I'd expect that something like this will work:
+```ledger
+2016/12/31 Budget reset
+    assets:budget  = $0
+    Budget:Bills  = $0
+    Budget:Food  = $0
+    Budget:Clothes  = 0 UAH
+    Budget:Health  = 0 UAH
+    Budget:Medicine  = 0 UAH
+```
+Be careful to list all accounts. Otherwise your transaction may fail to balance. You can use output of `hledger-budget accounts budget`
+
 ## Finally
-I've added a simple bash script see `hledger-budget.bash` (drop `.bash` suffix). \
+I've added a simple bash script see `hledger-budget.bash` (drop `.bash` suffix). With year-based includes inside of `~/.hledger-budget.journal`. Be careful about account aliases - they tend to miss budget file.
+
 Since budget will be enabled only during `hledger-budget` I've changed from virtual postings to real ones.
diff --git a/budgeting.md b/budgeting.md
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ No need to read further if you this report satisfy your needs.
 
 ## Bucketing
 Sometimes we don't need such detailed distribution of expenses.
-That's to `hledger-rewrite` addon we can re-write original journal.
+Thanks to `hledger-rewrite` addon we can re-write original journal.
 Let's re-distribute our expenses into a buckets of budget by adding virtual extra postings.
 ```ledger
 ; examples/budget.journal
@@ -147,4 +147,7 @@ Now balance for assets looks like this:
 --------------------
                 $-16
 ```
-This means that our current assets are off by $16 from our budget and current expenses.
+This means that our current assets are off by $16 from our budget and current expenses.
+## Finally
+I've added a simple bash script see `hledger-budget.bash` (drop `.bash` suffix). \
+Since budget will be enabled only during `hledger-budget` I've changed from virtual postings to real ones.
diff --git a/hledger-budget.bash b/hledger-budget.bash
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+journal_file=${LEDGER_FILE:-$HOME/.hledger.journal}
+budget_file=${LEDGER_BUDGET_FILE:-$HOME/.hledger-budget.journal}
+
+if [[ -r "$budget_file" ]]; then
+	hledger-rewrite -f "$budget_file" -f "$journal_file" | exec hledger -f - "$@"
+else
+	exec hledger "$@"
+fi
diff --git a/budgeting.md b/budgeting.md
@@ -0,0 +1,150 @@
+The main answers I need from budgeting:
+
+* How much extra money I can spend without compromising ability to pay my bills? 
+* How big my earnings should be to cover my expenses?
+* How can I optimize my expenses?
+
+
+## Tracking your expenses
+One of my favorite reports `hledger` supports is
+```sh
+% hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -Q
+Balance changes in 2008:
+
+                      ||  2008q1  2008q2  2008q3  2008q4 
+======================++=================================
+ assets:bank:checking ||      $1       0       0     $-1 
+ assets:bank:saving   ||       0      $1       0       0 
+ assets:cash          ||       0     $-2       0       0 
+ expenses:food        ||       0      $1       0       0 
+ expenses:supplies    ||       0      $1       0       0 
+ income:gifts         ||       0     $-1       0       0 
+ income:salary        ||     $-1       0       0       0 
+ liabilities:debts    ||       0       0       0      $1 
+----------------------++---------------------------------
+                      ||       0       0       0       0 
+```
+
+To limit output only to `expense` just add query:
+```sh
+% hledger -f examples/sample.journal bal -Q '^expenses'
+Balance changes in 2008q2:
+
+                   ||  2008q2 
+===================++=========
+ expenses:food     ||      $1 
+ expenses:supplies ||      $1 
+-------------------++---------
+                   ||      $2 
+```
+Now you can see your total expenses and distributed over your accounts.
+
+No need to read further if you this report satisfy your needs.
+
+
+## Bucketing
+Sometimes we don't need such detailed distribution of expenses.
+That's to `hledger-rewrite` addon we can re-write original journal.
+Let's re-distribute our expenses into a buckets of budget by adding virtual extra postings.
+```ledger
+; examples/budget.journal
+
+= ^expenses:clothes
+    (budget:clothes)               *-1
+
+= ^expenses:(food|supplies)
+    (budget:grocery)               *-1
+
+= ^expenses: not:^expenses:(clothes|food|supplies)
+    (budget:misc)                  *-1
+
+= ^equity:unbalanced
+    (budget:unknown)               *-1
+```
+Now our query looks like this:
+```sh
+% hledger rewrite -f examples/budget.journal -f examples/sample.journal | hledger -f - bal -Q budget   
+Balance changes in 2008q2:
+
+                ||  2008q2 
+================++=========
+ budget:grocery ||     $-2 
+----------------++---------
+                ||     $-2 
+```
+This looks fine but isn't much different from prev section.
+
+## Planning/allocating budget
+```ledger
+; examples/budget.journal
+
+= ^expenses:clothes
+    (budget:clothes)               *-1
+
+= ^expenses:(food|supplies)
+    (budget:grocery)               *-1
+
+= ^expenses: not:^expenses:(clothes|food|supplies)
+    (budget:misc)                  *-1
+
+= ^equity:unbalanced
+    (budget:unknown)               *-1
+
+2008/4/1 Budget for 2008q2
+    (budget:clothes)               $10
+    (budget:grocery)                $5
+    (budget:misc)                   $2
+```
+This makes our output look like:
+```
+Balance changes in 2008q2:
+
+                ||  2008q2 
+================++=========
+ budget:clothes ||     $10 
+ budget:grocery ||      $3 
+ budget:misc    ||      $2 
+----------------++---------
+                ||     $15 
+```
+You can interpret this report like: you still can spend $3 for grocery and $10 for clothes.
+
+## Offset assets according to budget
+This helps to identify how much money I left unbudgeted or free for extra expenses.
+
+```ledger
+; examples/budget.journal
+
+= ^expenses:clothes
+    [budget:clothes]               *-1
+    [assets:budget]                *1  ; compensate budgeted expense from assets
+
+= ^expenses:(food|supplies)
+    [budget:grocery]               *-1
+    [assets:budget]                *1
+
+= ^expenses: not:^expenses:(clothes|food|supplies)
+    [budget:misc]                  *-1
+    [assets:budget]                *1
+
+= ^equity:unbalanced
+    [budget:unknown]               *-1
+    [assets:budget]                *1
+
+2008/4/1 Budget for 2008q2
+    [assets:budget]  ; subtract budget from assets
+    [budget:clothes]               $10
+    [budget:grocery]                $5
+    [budget:misc]                   $2
+```
+Now balance for assets looks like this:
+```sh
+% hledger rewrite -f examples/budget.journal -f examples/sample.journal | hledger -f - bal assets   
+                $-16  assets
+                  $1    bank:saving
+                $-15    budget
+                 $-2    cash
+--------------------
+                $-16
+```
+This means that our current assets are off by $16 from our budget and current expenses.
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