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Build a weekly household budget rundown with Claude Cowork
WorkedEvidence: Described by posterPosted Last checked
Kate built a Claude Cowork budget folder that turns Sunday CSVs into an HTML dashboard, including a $47.23 Costco ask.
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Give me my weekly rundown. Read the philosophy, structure and operating-manual files in this folder, process the new credit-card and bank CSVs, auto-sort obvious transactions, ask me about ambiguous charges, then generate an HTML budget dashboard for groceries, gas, DIY and discretionary spending with debt progress and a 4-week trend view.
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Optional stronger version
Our rewrite with extra checks. The poster didn't test it.
Before you start, ask me 1–3 short questions about the details below and wait for my answers. Once I've answered, confirm the plan in one line and run the whole task start to finish. Goal: Turn this week's bank and card CSVs into a no-shame household budget dashboard I will actually open. Questions to ask me first: - Which four spending categories matter most right now? - Where do the CSV exports live, and what should auto-sort vs ask me? - What debts or payoff counters should stay visible every week? Inputs (fill in or confirm): - Philosophy notes: [MIRROR RULES] - Accounts, debts, paychecks, fixed costs: [STRUCTURE FILE] - Category targets and CSV rules: [OPERATING MANUAL] - New CSVs: [CARD / BANK FILES] Rules: - Follow the philosophy file (mirror, not a cage; no guilt lectures). - Auto-sort clear merchants; ask about ambiguous charges in a short list. - Track groceries, gas, DIY and discretionary unless I rename them. - Build an HTML dashboard with trends and debt progress. Checkpoint: After sorting, list ambiguous charges and wait for my labels before the dashboard. If you get stuck: If a CSV column is missing, say what you need and stop rather than guessing amounts. Verify before you finish: Category totals equal the sum of sorted transactions before rendering charts. Output: A short Q&A for ambiguous charges, then an HTML dashboard plus a two-line daily-report format. Done when: I can open the dashboard each Sunday and ask for a daily report on weekdays.
AI tool
Outcome
Kate at Sorted State hated maintaining budget spreadsheets after a job change, a year in Australia and a 1936 fixer-upper with roof, furnace, plumbing and electrical costs. Kate installed the Claude desktop app and used Claude Cowork on a local folder with three markdown files: a financial philosophy (mirror, not a cage), a structural list of accounts, debts, paychecks and fixed costs, and an operating manual for four categories (groceries, gas, DIY, discretionary) plus CSV processing rules. Each Sunday Kate drops credit-card and bank CSVs in the folder and says "give me my weekly rundown." Claude auto-sorts charges, asks about ambiguous ones (for example a $47.23 Costco charge), and builds an HTML dashboard with spending bars, debt gauges, a furnace payoff countdown and a 4-week trend view. On weekdays, "give me my daily report" returns a two-line summary of what's left in each category.
Evidence: Described by posterThe person describes what happened in words, without screenshots or video.
Source
- Posted
- by Kate @ Sorted State
- Last checked
- Method:
- How we verify
https://sortedstate.substack.com/p/claude-give-me-my-weekly-rundown
Context: No single long prompt is quoted; recreated from the Cowork triggers and file setup. Self-reported system.
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