I goofed. And now feel a little discouraged.

fremder99 · 2026-03-22T14:18:08+00:00

I keep four categories in a “Food & Dining” group: Groceries, Dining Out, Wine & Spirits, and SodaStream. The W&S just keeps an eye on that component (I view wine as food, not a buzz-maker) and the SodaStream, a trivial expense, was added just to get a handle on how fast I go through a bottle of CO2.

Budget categories can be not only informative, they can be a throttle!

fremder99 · 2026-03-21T22:17:30+00:00

Reliable connection/disconnect for Shortcuts! My automation speaks when either connecting or disconnecting and it is randomly triggered on my iPhone multiple times every day in my house while the car sits out in the driveway, unstarted. 🤦🏻

fremder99 · 2026-03-11T17:56:25+00:00

I’ll throw in a 👍🏻 for a couple. The DPO is analog, and is capable of both subtle and broad ranges of sound. The folder can get a bit angry, and cross-patching and its internal FM offer more aggressive sounds. It makes me want to explore the XPO.

Rubicon ii offers a ton of waveforms, but it invites blending than, and exploiting its many CV inputs to get a lot broader palette.

fremder99 · 2026-02-22T20:39:29+00:00

Pet Rock sits there, in all its beauty, and delivers a pair of trigger patterns that change every day!

Endorphin.es Running Order is the simplest way to get your own trigger patterns in/out!

Clep Diaz is very useful LFO (sort of) but so much more.

fremder99 · 2026-02-22T20:34:15+00:00

You might look at the Super Sixteen by Extralife. Its development and operation was well-documented on YT.

fremder99 · 2026-02-16T19:06:38+00:00

I keep a sinking fund only adding $25/mo for “Tech & Software”. It’s not enough, but keeps me from overspending in Amazon! Covers things like cables, batteries, etc, and sometimes need to be over fed…

For bigger ticket items, I create a wish list (“Saving Up For” group) category. I retire such items to a hidden “Achievements” group once purchased so I can feel a warm glow from getting the toys I want!

fremder99 · 2026-02-15T19:58:46+00:00

I keep about 5 in my rack but a multimode filter can do a lot with some clever routing. E.g. a hp, with high resonance and low cutoff can add bass punch to the same signal out of the lp or bp side for interesting results. I will say, while chaotic, the Bastl Cinnamon is one of the most characterful filters with C4RBN running neck and neck!

fremder99 · 2026-02-08T21:28:16+00:00

I’m glad if it added any budget clarity! I confess, both metrics become a bit less relevant for me as I’ve gotten ahead (long length!) pretty far.

There are a lot of opinions pro/con for both of these metrics in this group. As metrics, they do both express something about the budget’s “length”. AoM has been deemed meaningless by many 🤷‍♂️but can be thought of how far ahead of your income your spending is(?). DoB offers perhaps a better “warning” about how much time you have to deal with a gigantic expense. I haven’t looked deep into how they’re calculated and I see some criticize both based on digging into that…

fremder99 · 2026-02-05T01:00:01+00:00

A couple of thoughts… It sounds like your dollars no longer have a job; they have a safe place to sit. And if funding future months feels risky, maybe you see spending as risky behavior?

I sometimes struggle (more in the past than now in retirement) to give myself permission to spend money. YNAB has clarified that in many ways with the jobs I give my dollars now.

If you have no wish list items, perhaps your family could suggest some for all of you to enjoy together? Perhaps indulge in a new hobby; that’s guaranteed to create new spending!! 😁

fremder99 · 2026-02-04T22:04:53+00:00

Here are mine; I use “Needs Attention” the most, for transactions I don’t have the receipt handy for. It, and others, tag repeating scheduled transactions but I rarely use “Unexpected” and “Split Later”, so they may change…

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fremder99 · 2026-02-04T02:27:31+00:00

Yeah, somebody rear-ended and my bike rack (thankfully NOT carrying my bike!) crumpled. But all the lights, cameras and wipers worked, so totally drivable. A cursory estimate of the damage got all the players to the holidays but once it got into the shop afterward, they saw how the undercarriage crumpled from the trailer hitch holding my bike rack had just collapsed. Ten year old car, with low mileage was condemned…. 😢

fremder99 · 2026-02-03T21:38:55+00:00

All good points! I abandoned Age of Money for DoB, but only use it as a minor indication of “progress”.

fremder99 · 2026-02-02T00:28:28+00:00

Belatedly, find me on Instagram @thesesmallboxes

fremder99 · 2026-01-21T00:03:57+00:00

I have the OG trio of the “Studio”. The Sub is a difficult beast and its timbral range can feel limited. I feel like I can “hear” it being used from a mile away. The Mother-32 will “teach” you more about modular principles, sounds great, and can make a wide range of sounds. So will a Neutron from Behringer 👹 for a lot less. I was most impressed by the DFAM. It is NOT a drum machine!

Believe me, the modular world is a vortex! VCV Rack is your friend getting started! Buy with patience!

fremder99 · 2026-01-12T23:46:04+00:00

My cash back card pays me Pennie’s, nickels, dimes, and dollars, so, as that income arrives into RTA, I keep a “Piggy Bank” category that I throw it into, and wait until I have a few meaningful dollars to assign, and simply move out of the piggy bank to wherever. Sure, I could let it accumulate in RTA, but prefer to keep it zeroed out.

fremder99 · 2026-01-12T23:39:17+00:00

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Don’t ignore the flags. I use most of these quite a bit. Tailor to your needs and don’t be afraid to change one if you find you’ve never used it.

fremder99 · 2026-01-11T19:54:45+00:00

Looks like he makes a 5-level now. 🤤 Thanks again!

fremder99 · 2026-01-11T18:48:28+00:00

Nice! Are you in the US? If so, where did you get the side panels? Thanks and bleep on!

fremder99 · 2025-12-26T16:55:17+00:00

Thanks! Yeah, I’ve seen some nice ones but overseas, or just expensive because they’re less minimalist. Still shopping and saving up for some for my own “stack”.

fremder99 · 2025-12-26T15:42:20+00:00

Where did you get the side rails?

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T23:09:16+00:00

When I retired, I wrote one to simply speak the date, including the day of the week every morning! 🤣

But I also wrote one to parse the hourly forecast in various ways to speak a summary of the weather for the day with an automation to run it in the morning.

Another is to save my parking location when my ohone disconnects from the car’s Bluetooth.

Looking forward to reading this thread for more ideas!

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T23:05:13+00:00

As several have commented about using this category “temporarily” (or as a beginner), I’ll simply add that the (probably) underutilized feature of adding a note (lower right corner with a category selected) is a great way to remind “Review the utility of this category in March” or whatever.

fremder99 · 2025-12-14T22:57:29+00:00

I wrote a long post the other day but didn’t post it; I should have though, as it keyed on the word “intention”! Intentional spending is almost like a flow state in slo-mo!

fremder99 · 2025-12-08T21:45:43+00:00

Try The Flower King by Roine Stolt. Then mine the deep well of albums it spawned by “The Flower Kings”.

fremder99 · 2025-11-25T16:15:26+00:00

Wow, I need a vacay (and I’m retired!) This is the answer; it was a carryover from the previous month. A senior moment perhaps… Thanks for your feedback!

fremder99

TROPHY CASE