Addicted to sums, totals & spreadsheets....Am I the only one?

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt

Yay!:j Sounds like you all have super complex spreadsheets! Just my sort of thing, I love it! They probably put mine to shame!

Denis_UK you are quite right about having withdrawal symptoms once the debt (the and also the spreadsheet) has gone. HOWEVER .... it will have to then transform wonderfully complex into a savings spreadsheet.

There is no chance that I'll do without one, if I'd had one sooner I probably wouldn't have had so much to pay off as beautyandthebeast has quite rightly said!

for t_sharp, I have to say that barclaycard have actually launched wonderfully complex new online service that shows you your spending details in pretty pie charts and limit tickers, bar graphs and nice data summaries. It's almost a shame I havn't spent on my card in over 18months!! However I can now see EXACTLY what I spent back then and where....doh.

I don't see current accounts doing this anytime soon though! Would be good for us and bad for them. We could work out how many bank charges they had applied at the click of a button!!

broke_medic - You may regret being introduced to the wonder that is snowballing they are also addictive. If you go to http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx
Enter your items you have to pay off and the apr percentages then enter the total amount you can afford to pay off each month it will show you what to pay to each of your debts each month in the quickest and cheapest way and avoid excess interest on your debts. It will give you your debt free date too!

You can save and print and copy these tables, it is quite enlightening to see just how much you can shave off your Debt Free date by paying a few extra pounds each month!!

Do any of you follow the snowball method? Or do you do it the 'psychologically' nice route and pay the smaller debts off first so you have fewer number of debts overall but pay some extra interest.

You're hardcore if you do
I have to admit I had planned to do it the snowball way but have ended up doing it the other. Its just SO nice to clear things whenever possible!! It's very hard chipping away at larger balances!!!

Mrs_Tradition

The snowball method on whatsthecost.com has recenty (I believe as it wasn't there a month ago?) added in snowballing by balance opposed to interest. I know to some people this may sounds mad but as you say above it's the psychological aspect of it - actually paying something off!! (imagine that!).

I am working on a new spreadsheet today for the care of my daughter ie nursery, grandparents,etc and I need a formula to pick out every other thursday. I have all the dates in one column, top to bottom until Sept 2010. Every other week my parents and MIL swap looking after her. As I already have a formula in for every other day of the week - I need to create this formula in new column or try to incorporate it with my already lengthy one. Any suggestions, apart from handpicking :-) for the best way to pick out every other Thursday?

Many thanks all
xx

GeorgeUK

=MOD(A1-DATE(2009,9,17),14)=0

17/9/09 is a day that will return True and every 14 day period thereafter.

GeorgeUK

Not sure what else your formula takes into account, but if it's just to see who's going to be looking after tiny, this formula should do. (Bear in mind that you can only have 8 nested functions in a formuls (Like IF)).

=IF(MOD(A2-DATE(2009,9,17),14)=0,IF(F1="gran","nan","gran"),F1)
column F would be looking at who had the childminding duties.

Mrs_Tradition

GeorgeUK wrote: »

=MOD(A1-DATE(2009,9,17),14)=0

17/9/09 is a day that will return True and every 14 day period thereafter.

Thank you!! Off to amend now :-)

MissSearles

I love my spreadsheets
I love having an oppourtunity to make new ones...I offer to help make budgets and sheets for my friends in uni!
My OH always says that if it wasn't for my obsession we would have never been able to afford to move out or pay for our wedding.
I also feel quite smug at the fact that my OH has been working in IT for over 10 years and I can knock up a 6 page all singing all dancing spreadsheet in about 20 mins with built in percentages, charts (just cos they're pretty to look at), IF equations that all talk to eachother when changes are made on other sheets.

Maybe we should have a SSLA (spreadsheet lovers anon) section? :rotfl:

Tulgey_Wood

I took it one stage further: how could I scheme up another way of increasing my income, while utilsing my new found love of playing with numbers at every available opportunity?
Simple: I decided to train as an adult numeracy tutor!
Not only do I get to play with numbers all day, I also get to help other adults who struggle with maths develop the skills they need to take control of their own finances (many adult numeracy learners are trapped in a low earning cycle), and apart from all that, the government pays me a heap load of money to do the training; numeracy is a shortage subject area, so in addition to the usual student grants which apply to teaching courses, there's also a big fat bursary of £9000! AND (if that wasn't enough) hopefully it means I'll be able to teach and earn something like a decent income for the first time in my life once the course is finished!
Hurray for being a maths geek!!!!

brokemedic

Little_Miss_Uni-Debt wrote: »

broke_medic - You may regret being introduced to the wonder that is snowballing they are also addictive...

Do any of you follow the snowball method? Or do you do it the 'psychologically' nice route and pay the smaller debts off first so you have fewer number of debts overall but pay some extra interest.

You're hardcore if you do
I have to admit I had planned to do it the snowball way but have ended up doing it the other. Its just SO nice to clear things whenever possible!! It's very hard chipping away at larger balances!!!

I am completely addicted to the snowball calculator - keep going onto it everytime I have chipped off a bit of my debt to see whether it has impacted upon my DFD. If only I spent as long on my studies lol!!

I know the sensible moneysaving thing would be to use the snowball method but I think I am going to pay off all my small debts first. Luckily (I think every cloud has a silver lining ) my smallest debts had the highest APRs so those are being given a bash at the moment. Once I have paid those off, will move onto my FD one, which has 4.9% APR but the lowest remaining balance.. if that makes sense:rotfl:. It keeps staring back at me everytime I log onto internet banking..

I know it means that I end up paying slightly more interest in the long run but I think psychologically it will spur me on further.. or at least that's my thinking..

brokemedic

kate_pixie

(Stands up) My name is Kate, and I am a spreadsheet addict!

I have a pretty basic spreadsheet for recording my spending diary (and transferring to yearly totals in a bid to scare myself), my debt payments and my monthly bills. I wish it could be more flashy and shiny, but my knowledge of Excel is rudimentary at best. There's lots of pretty colours going on though, so that has appeased my desire to colour code everything

I've just developed a spreadsheet for my daily clicks and surveys too. On a daily basis it can be disheartening to only make 10p from a website, but after 6 weeks of recording it really makes you see what an impact that extra work is having.

Thanks for starting this thread. It's great to meet people who don't think I'm mental! :rotfl:

savingqueen

FANTASTIC!! and a question please....

I'm looking to retrain after youngest starts school in a year or so. I did a "fun & games with maths" course at school last term with my eldest. Found I love maths now (25 years since I scrapped a pass at maths o'level) & passed the optional OCR level 2 course easily. A job as an adult numeracy tutor could be perfect for me! What is the name of the course you took to train as a tutor please?

TIA

Tulgey_Wood wrote: »

I took it one stage further: how could I scheme up another way of increasing my income, while utilsing my new found love of playing with numbers at every available opportunity?
Simple: I decided to train as an adult numeracy tutor!
Not only do I get to play with numbers all day, I also get to help other adults who struggle with maths develop the skills they need to take control of their own finances (many adult numeracy learners are trapped in a low earning cycle), and apart from all that, the government pays me a heap load of money to do the training; numeracy is a shortage subject area, so in addition to the usual student grants which apply to teaching courses, there's also a big fat bursary of £9000! AND (if that wasn't enough) hopefully it means I'll be able to teach and earn something like a decent income for the first time in my life once the course is finished!
Hurray for being a maths geek!!!!