Do you make a lot of Amazon or Apple purchases? Use ride-sharing services? If so, you might be interested in a tool that automatically updates your Lunch Money transactions based on the email receipts you are already receiving.
This month’s spotlight is on Evan, creator of Email to Lunch Money, from New York City.
1) Hi Evan. Tell us about yourself.
Hey Lunch Money Family! I’m Evan, a software engineer based in New York City. I work at Sentry.io by day, building developer tools. Outside of work, I’m an amateur DJ, 3D printing maker, and open source-tinkerer. I tend to build tools that scratch my own itch, which is exactly how Email to Lunch Money came about.
You can find me on GitHub or at https://evanpurkhiser.com. And if you’re into trance music, my mixes are on SoundCloud!
2) You were one of Lunch Money’s early users. What initially drew you to the platform, and how has it fit into your financial management routine?
I’ve always enjoyed tracking things in my life, and since my first job, I’ve wanted to know where my money was going. Back in the early 2010s, I used Mint, but it always left something to be desired. The UI was rough, and there was basically no API. I used it inconsistently for years until I came across Lunch Money on Hacker News in early 2020.
I immediately loved the UI and the fact that it was geared towards developers. I had the time to fully customize my categories and rules, and since then, Lunch Money has become a daily habit.
Knowing where my money is going really helps me feel okay about splurging. The only problem is the more I use it, the more detailed I want my transactions to be… which is what led me to build this tool.
3) Your tool uses email to update transactions in Lunch Money. Tell us about it.
Email to Lunch Money is a small, self-hosted service that connects your Gmail inbox to Lunch Money. Most financial tracking tools can tell you that you spent $43 at Amazon, but not what you actually bought. Receipt emails have those details, but they’re stuck in your inbox, disconnected from your budget.
This tool bridges that gap.
4) That sounds very interesting. Can you explain how it works?
Gmail filters automatically label receipt emails from supported services (such as Amazon and Lyft). A Google Apps Script picks those up and forwards them to a Cloudflare Worker, which parses each email and determines the right action: either adding a note to a transaction or splitting a multi-item purchase into individual line items.
Every 30 minutes, the system matches those actions against your actual Lunch Money transactions as they sync from your bank and applies the updates automatically.
5) Can you give us a couple of examples?
Certainly! An $87.43 Amazon order with five items will be split into five line items, each with a shortened item name. For a Lyft ride, it adds the pickup, drop-off, and ride duration as a note. You never have to touch those transactions yourself.
It currently supports invoices for Amazon, Lyft, Uber, Apple, Steam, and Cloudflare, running almost entirely for free.
6) It sounds like there is a lot to set up! Do you need to be a programmer to use this?
There are a few moving parts, but you don’t need deep technical expertise. If you’re comfortable following a tutorial and running a few terminal commands, the setup guide walks through every step. The expected monthly cost is essentially $0.
7) Is it possible to extend this to support other services that send email receipts?
Absolutely. Each email source is built as a self-contained module, so adding support for a new service is fairly straightforward. The contributing guide walks through the process: you implement two functions, add some sanitized fixture emails from your own inbox, write tests, and open a PR (and honestly, AI is pretty good at writing these when you give it sample emails to work from).
Square receipts are at the top of my personal wishlist since so many local businesses use it.
8) Is there anything you would like to ask the community?
What receipt emails would be most useful to support next?
I’m curious what gaps people are running into, whether that’s restaurants, grocery delivery, travel bookings, or something else.
Thanks, Evan! One thing I like about this solution is that once it’s set up, there’s nothing you need to run on your own machines… it just works!
That said, setup does take some time, and you should be comfortable cloning a GitHub repo and working with Node.js in a terminal. I ran into a few hiccups along the way, but I’m happy to help anyone who wants to give it a try.
Questions? Chat with Evan in the #🤩-show-and-tell thread on Discord:
V2 API Progress Update 🤖
We’re excited to share that the V2 API is now powering a large portion of both our web and mobile app. This marks a major step forward in performance, scalability, and developer experience.
The new API is more powerful and reliable, unlocking a whole new range of possibilities. We encourage users to build their own tools with V2 and explore integrating it with AI clients to extend their workflows!
Have any questions or simply want to join the discussion? Join the #💻-developers channel on Discord!
Toronto Meetup 🍁
The Lunch Money Toronto meetup is back this summer, and the whole team will be there!
Our last meetup was a blast, and we’re excited to do it again. This time around, get ready for a fun talk, pizza, drinks, and plenty of time to hang out.
- 📍 Downtown Toronto (exact venue TBD)
- 📅 Thursday, June 18 or Friday, June 19
- 🎟️ Free
We’ll lock in the final date based on pre-registrations, so sign up and vote for your preferred day.
Not in Toronto, but want us to visit your city? Fill out this form.
Call for community spotlight nominations 🗳️
Have a story you’d like to share with the community? It doesn’t have to involve building an app. We’d also love to hear how you use Lunch Money or how it’s made an impact in your life.
If you have a story you’d like to share, please fill out this quick form:
Latest from YouTube! 📺
Most budgets fail because they’re backward-looking. In other words, they tell you what already happened instead of helping you decide what to do next.
In this video, Jacob breaks down how to flip your approach and use your budget as a simple decision-making tool, focusing on what really matters: how much flexible money you have left, and how long it needs to last!
Latest from the blog! 📝
Budgeting sounds simple, but sticking to it is where most people struggle.
In this guide, certified Lunch Money coach Sarah Ankney break down three common reasons budgets fail, and share practical ways to fix them so your budget feels clearer, more flexible, and far less stressful.
Looking for more personalized help? Visit our Coaching Directory to connect with John, Jeanine and other certified Lunch Money financial coaches.
Lunch Money in the Wild 👀
Nothing makes us happier than seeing Lunch Money love out in the wild. Here’s a recent shoutout from a community member! 💛
Connect with us on social media! 📱
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