[this is a ymoyl update.]

gnucash gives me a very simple and accurate account of my expenses, and i’d like to be able to just plug the number it gives me into the graph each month. in order to be consistent with all the earlier months on the graph, i haven’t been able to do so. before i started using gnucash, each mortgage payment was recorded as one lump sum expense. now, mortgage principal payments and escrow deposits are not recorded as expenses, so i’ve been adding them to the gnucash’s expense total each month. today, i went back and readjusted the expense totals of all the months since i made the downpayment on the house. i reduced them by the total mortgage principal payments and escrow deposits in each month and increased them by any payments which came out of the escrow account. from now on, i can just stick gnucash’s expense total into the file each month, and have less to think about. escrow deposits are now recorded as just increasing another asset, and payments which increase my equity in my home are considered investments, not expenses, just as i don’t record purchases of treasury notes as expenses.