budgeter-rs

A personal finance tracker with a productivity gamification layer. Log study sessions and activities to earn a spendable cash buffer on top of your regular budget.

How it works

Set a budget end date and starting balance. The engine calculates a daily spending allowance that makes the money last until that date. Separately, you earn a productivity cash buffer by logging activities — the buffer is capped at £500 and the point-to-cash conversion rate decreases as the buffer fills, so there's always an incentive to spend it down rather than stockpile.

All monetary values are stored as integer pence to avoid floating point errors.

Getting started

Requires Rust ≥ 1.85.

git clone <repo>
cd budgeter-rs
cargo build --release

Create a budget:

./target/release/budgeter-rs new 2025-12-31 --starting-balance 1500 --savings 2000

Show today's summary:

./target/release/budgeter-rs show

Open the REPL:

./target/release/budgeter-rs

REPL commands

Command	Description
help	List all commands
show / summary	Today's income, expenses, and productivity stats
balance	Savings, investments, buffer, and end date
net worth	Total financial position across all accounts
transactions	All transactions sorted by date
delete <N>	Delete transaction N
upcoming [days]	Upcoming transactions in the next N days (default 30)
search <term>	Search transactions by name or note
categories	Income and spending totals by category
history	Monthly income and expense breakdown
forecast	Daily spending allowance from today to end date
activities	All logged productivity activities
point stats [date]	Point conversion breakdown for a given day
income	Add an income transaction
expense	Add an expense or subscription
activity	Log a productivity activity and earn cash
spend	Spend from your productivity buffer
savings deposit	Move cash into savings
savings withdraw	Move cash out of savings
investments deposit	Move cash into investments
investments withdraw	Move cash out of investments
set end date	Change the budget end date
export	Export all transactions to a CSV file
exit / quit / :q	Exit

Activity types

#	Type	Points
1	Anki	1 pt/review, 5× for new cards, 5× for writing mode
2	Reading	max(chars/1000 × 50, hours × 350)
3	Listening	hours × 150, 2× audio-only, 0.5× background
4	Speaking	hours × 50
5	Writing	max(chars/1000 × 200, hours × 400)
6	LeetCode	easy 50 / medium 100 / hard 200, 2× for daily challenge
7	Lecture	hours × 150
8	Programming	hours × 350
9	Exercise	light 75 / moderate 175 / intense 300 pts/hr
10	Meditation	hours × 100
11	Typing	hours × 100 + 2 pts per WPM above 40
12	Music	hours × 200

Transaction types

• One time
• Monthly
• Monthly standing order (skips weekends and UK bank holidays)
• Every 30 days
• Yearly

Data storage

The budget is saved as JSON in the platform data directory:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Budgeter/Budgeter-rs/
• Linux: ~/.local/share/Budgeter/Budgeter-rs/
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Budgeter\Budgeter-rs\