Notes: the household binder
A note can be a quick line about why groceries ran over — or a full card in the household's binder: which policies you carry, how a bill gets paid, who to call when the water heater dies. Notes hold both. A plain note stays plain forever; the extra structure is there when you want it.
Plain notes
A note is a title and freeform text (markdown works) — nothing else is required. Everything beyond that joins the note only when you add it: a date pins the note to a month, and dated notes linked to categories show up on the budget page for that month; undated notes are timeless reference cards that just show when they were last updated. You can also link a note to categories and transactions, so the story behind the spending lives next to the spending itself.
Sections turn notes into a binder
Once you have more than a handful, group notes into sections — Insurance, Accounts, Monthly bills, whatever fits your household. The Notes page becomes an index: sections roll up on one screen, and opening one shows its notes. Notes you haven't filed anywhere sit in an Unfiled group, exactly as they were.
A note can also carry more than text:
- Who it's with — the institution, company, or person.
- Details — labeled facts like "Beneficiary" or "How to access", faster to scan than prose.
- Tags and a link to the relevant site.
- A recurring bill — roughly what it costs, how often, when it's due, and what pays it.
Every note shows when it was last updated, so you can tell at a glance whether a card still reflects reality. The binder is at its best as the "everything someone would need to know" record: written once, kept current, findable by search.
Ledger sections: the bills, totalled
A section can be laid out as a recurring payments table instead of a plain list. Notes with a bill attached show their amount, due date, and payment method in columns, the section's row shows the monthly (or yearly) total, and the bills a human has to pay are called out above the ones that pay themselves — because the manual ones are what break when nobody's driving.
Checklists that reset themselves
A ledger section can also run as a checklist: each row gets a box to check off when you've paid or handled it. Checks clear automatically at the start of each month — on whichever day you choose — and yearly items clear on January 1. Open the section mid-month and it shows exactly what's still waiting on you; on the first, everything starts fresh. Nothing to reset by hand.
Related: Logging fast · Plans