Arghhhhhhh - My spreadsheet is giving me headaches...

Kevicho

I made my own, will prob improve it at the point where i get my own place etc as at the moment there are only 2 bills (down from 4) so it all fits on one page

K9cuddles

I love egg money management.. I only signed up for the free £10.0 but forced me to open another savings account so can't grumble.

So not only do I check my spreadsheet 1000 times a day.. I check my egg money management account incase (god forbid) some thing changed! lol

ms_london

I am a spreadsheet fan too :0)

Although I am out of debt, I like to see exactly how much I have coming in and exactly how much I have going out, and what is left. I also have spreadsheets of my savings account so I can moniter the balances without having to log on all the time...

I also write down everytime I use my debit card or withdraw cash, so I know exactly what I have left to spend.

Phew!!!! Glad I'm not the only one :0)

AuntyJean

Thank goodness! I have been told that I am mad because I fill in my spreadsheets every morning and now I know there are others out there I know I'm not cracked after all.

I have two files, one for all my accounts including a page for cash and I created a pivot table so that I can select just one particular week and transfer the total spendings (gas, elect, food, spending money etc.......) onto my Bills spreadsheet which is every conceivable cost on a week to week basis for 3 months on each sheet. At the bottom it checks the amount spent against the account balances and highlights any errors. When all amounts are correct the bottom figure is zero.

At the end of the year I then add up all the costs, (spent a lot less on Christmas this year), and adjust any under/overspendings.

Bargain_Rzl

Eeek! AuntyJean, you sound as bad as me :rotfl: I use Excel loads for my job, and you'd think I'd get sick of making pivot tables etc. but NO!

When I was in my early teens and we had our first computer - an Amstrad 1512 - my mum had a spreadsheet programme on that, and we used to tease her mercilessly about how obsessed she was with it. Well they say we all turn into our mothers :eek:

TBH I don't keep as detailed a record as I should, though I'm in the process of sorting it out again so I have a line-by-line spreadsheet for each account (and for "cash"). What I have at the moment is simply a list of numbers which track the following things:

Block 1: Bank Balances. Shows for each bank account/credit card, the current balance.
Block 2: Uncleared Items. Shows the value of uncleared items against each account/card. I just use formulae to add/subtract the relevant amount within the total cell, and clear them when I've reconciled them with my bank statements.
Block 3: Sundry Debts/Credits. Shows the value of anything owed or owing, alongside the name of the creditor/debtor, for example if I owe £20 to a friend for tickets booked on their credit card, or if I'm waiting for reimbursement of expenses from work.
Block 4: Main Budget. Shows the current total of each of my "Budget Pots", i.e. Savings, Rent, Bills, Travel, Clothes, Christmas, Holiday, Insurance, Groceries and so on. Whenever I buy anything, I adjust the relevant amount.
Block 5: Salary Breakdown. This is the clever bit. This list runs in exactly the same order as Main Budget, and is a breakdown of how next month's salary will be shared between the budget pots. When I get paid, I copy this list and do "Paste Special-Values-Add" to adjust the values in Block 4.
Block 6: This Month. Known odds and ends of expected expenditure. Like if I'm planning a trip to the cinema/shoes are in for repair/dry cleaning needs collecting, the individual values will be deducted from the main budget pots in Block 4 and logged separately.

Total at foot of spreadsheet - which is the sum of all of the above except Block 5 - should always be £0.00. If it isn't, something doesn't balance. If I've underspent on any of the Budget Pots at the end of the calendar year, I clear them out and add up the total, which I split between a "treat fund" and long-term savings.

Does that sound really anal to anybody?

elvis_bloggs

S_a_r_a wrote:

Am I the only one driving themselves mad with there budget??!!

Nope, every day for me, do I worry about it, ......... not a jot.

pault123

I have serious OCD with my spreadsheet I check it almost everynight and fill in any new expenditure from my current accounts and mark off whats been paid. Ive had spreadsheets for years to monitor my finances, started off with a basic microsoft works one with income, expense and profit and now have a 4 page excel sheet with probably a bit too much detail on there I run it month to month.

Page 1 is the summary it details my income due my expenses due and my forecast 'profit'. It then details every source of income and every single expense I have. Once the expense has been paid I add the date it was paid and change the amount to 0 to give me an exact picture of how much profit/loss I will finish the month on. It also has a bank balance checker which ties in with page 2 which is my Expenditure tracker. Every debit/credit that shows on my internet banking I add to this sheet, it has the days 1 to 31 down the side and several columns for what was spent on that day. It adds it all up and checks it against page 1 to make sure the figures balance. (I also use this to track my spending habits.)

page 3 is debt consolidation page which details 3 credit cards, council tax and overdraft. I know exactly where im up to with it all, and add the credit card interest and payments each month. It tells me how much debt ive paid, how long it will take me to pay it at my current rate and summerises what amount is left on each.

Page 4 is what I call my cashflow tracker I can see exactly at any given point in any given week what disposable cash flow I have, its based on what dates my bills come out and when my income gets paid in. I'm usually overdrawn for the first week in a month then become back into credit throughout the month, with a few points where im overdrawn again. Its useful if theres something I need to buy I know when ill have money to spend.

Ive often wondered why I got a strange sense of enjoyment and job satisfaction from completing it, its a bizarre addiction and I like to know im in control of it. Guess im not alone :beer:

tomstickland

I update my spreadsheet every evening and I agree about the bordedom bit. It's a major excitement when £3.20 interest is added to an account etc. Apart from last night when a £50 sign up bonus appeared.

It's a good obsession though.


My spreadsheet is very simple. Date in one column, day number for that month in next column and then one column for each active account, a total column, a daily interest column and accumulated interest column.

JAMIEDODGER

i dont have a spreadsheet as i do it all on paper (think i get that from my dad) lol.

was working on budget for 4 hours last night as i couldnt sleep and have already been on the fone to cc this morning and paid off another £20, found out that although my interest rate is really high...if i pay it all off (only £400) i can do a balance transfer from my other cc at 6.9% YAY!!!!!! (am currently paying 27.9% yikes!!!) so i will be saving every penny to pay off the £400 this month so i can start knocking down the other cc and pay less interest...oh how i love this site!!!!!

dinkylou

Yep, I admit it. I'm a little obsessed too.

I fill in any extra or check my spreadsheet every morning (in the week)

I've been doing it now since last May and its helped me regain control. But yes, I do get obsessed at times.

I love payday, not always because I get more money (which of course is great) but because I can take some of my debt away and can see the total getting smaller.

I adapted Martin's spreadsheet so I can see exactly where the money is going, rather than trying to stick to a budget. That way I can keep myself in check but not beat myself up if I spend more on one thing than I'd like.

Its nice to know I'm not the only one with a small obsession!