A User's view of Hledger

Learning about hledger

Help for future me

As I have been entering my hledger transactions recently, I have been making more use of the comment feature. For those who are new to comments, this is a note that has meaning to you, the human being, but is generally ignored by hledger.

What’s one example of something useful to add as a comment? For me, it was to record information about a new kitchen faucet that we are in the process of installing. My goal is to have quick access to the type of faucet, because some day I am going to need to replace the insides of it when it won’t shut off completely. I want to have the faucet brand and model number easy to find, because that’s the information I will need to find a replacement cartridge or whatever to fix the problem.

Additionally, the date that it was purchased is nice to know. I will normally have just a vague memory of when I bought something, if I rely on memory only, after a few years. If an appliance goes out, it’s useful to know the date that it was purchased. Perhaps it’s still under warranty. Or perhaps I need to shed a few tears about how short something lasted.

Here is an example of how you could add a comment to a faucet purchase:

2025-01-20 Big Box Store

  expenses:home $95.00 ; Acme kitchen faucet, model XYZ

  liabilities:MustardCard

Now, I have the date it was purchased, the brand, and the specific model number. Because I use the word “faucet” in the comment, I can quickly find this transaction. Finally, I included the word “kitchen” in the comment, so that it’s clear that it was not a bathroom faucet.

Now, sometime in the future, all this information will be available and accessible should I need it. And I am hoping that will be many years from now!