Money Saving Spreadsheet to use in addition to Martin's

Rex_Mundi

Just to let everyone know..............

I've updated the download page now so it contains EagerLearners latest version of the spreadsheet.

EagerLearner

Am horrified to see that this year I have spent £1,740 on... cash withdrawals!

That's right - I have no idea what it went on! So last month and this month have started to make a note of cash withdrawals and what that withdrawal was spent on... then I will log those smaller amounts on the spreadsheet under the correct column rather than under 'cash withdrawal'. This should improve things alot!

That's such a crazy amount of money!

notmyrealusername

Thanks again to Eager Learner & Rex Mundi for this fantastic spreadsheet. I only use the savings one but as I put money aside each month for car insurance, car tax, MOT, TV license, haircuts, prescriptions etc it can be really hard to keep track of whats what especially as I transfer the money back into my current account fairly regularly to pay for things that are not monthly ie) haircuts, TV license.

I'm currently trying to amend the savings pots sheet to use as a monthly spend calculator. For example I allow myself £120 for food and toiletry shopping throughout the month but when I spend a fiver in Tesco express it doesn't come out of my main budget so I still end up spending the full weeks amount in the main shop and then end up with no money for something else because I spent the extra fiver on bits and bobs.

My idea was to put a figure in the first column eg. £120 and then every time I buy any food shopping put it in as a minus figure in the next column so I can see a total of how much I have left for that month. Gonna have a fiddle around later but never used Excel so not sure how it will turn out!

EagerLearner

All you can do it have a go until it suits you perfectly! Just make a back-up each time in case something goes wrong...

Maybe you could enter the minus figures in the same cell? ie: =SUM(A1-25-20), where A1 is your total, and the 2 other amounts are what you have spent at the supermarket to date. You can then continue to put other amounts you have spent ie: if you have just gone and spent £35, you would add '-35' at the end of the same calculation/cell. So it would then look like:

=SUM(A1-25-20-35)

HTH and let us know how you get on!


PS: It might sound silly - but rather than altering the tab that is meant for savings, why not use the 'frills' tab for your weekly shopping? Each time you shop, type the amount spent into the 'shopping' column on the frills sheet. It will automatically add up what you have spent to date that month at the bottom of the column? That will help you keep within the £120, which is incidentally also our budget amount for shopping...

GrannyKnits_2

Wow, just found your post and kind offer of download. Wanted to Thank you so much, can't wait to fill it in and see where all my money has gone - could be quite frightening! Should help to get me back on track though. Had to do a bit of tweaking to start with as I ended up just saving a copy of your posts and replies. Then realised how simple it was and downloaded it straight away 2nd time around. Silly me.

EagerLearner

Hi GrannyKnits - welcome to MSE!

I really hope the spreadsheet helps you - it's an easy way of seeing your spending on a chart, rather than just looking at numbers. When you look at the chart and see spending spiralling, or going down, it tends to motivate alot more than just number crunching! I use both the savings tab and the spending tab alot, recently also making a copy of the spreadsheet and entering all our joint spending/saving on that too.

Then each month when the bank statements come in, I get to work entering the data onto the spreadsheet - takes 20 mins a month for my account, 20 mins for the joint account. This then magically appears in the charts.

Plus I am also going to do Mr EL's again (had done it, then our pc crashed and never woke up again - but it allowed us to see that his 'hot spots' are crazy spending just after getting paid, combined with too many cash withdrawals through the month). He now takes out spending money at the beginning of the month and has to make it last... any money saved he hopes to put in his ISA.

For the sake of 40 mins, we now know our spending patterns and have cut down soooo much! Not doing without what we need, just spending more intelligently!

Tinker away and let us know how you get on!

GrannyKnits_2

Thanks EagerLearner that's really useful advice. Good idea to get a joint one going too. :T

Have been tinkering around filling in the figures! Having the charts to look at makes it so much clearer just when we're spending too much. G.pa.Knits also seems to be spending too much at the same point as Mr.EL. I wonder if this is a common event, is it because it's the excitement of all that money going into the account, or because the end of the month seems so far away? I wonder, scope for a bit of research here!!

Anyway back to subject! I think it's really important after putting all the info in, to keep on top of all new spending, saving etc. I guess it's all about me fitting the time to update it into my routine. What better time to do that than after the bank statement comes in, like you do. After all 20-40 mins a month is a small price to pay when you think of the results (and how many hours it must have taken to design it! some people are soooo clever :A )

How did I manage before I found this great site? I didn't is the honest answer but now I have no excuse to slip back with all the support offered here. Thanks again EagerLearner.:T
GrannyKnits

EagerLearner

Glad it's working out for you too - the original version I did not spent too much time on - I tested it, worked on it, then once I saw that it could work on all aspects I perfected it and added more features - then thought folks on here could benefit!

My statements come in at the end of the month, and I hate to admit it, but I get quite excited at the prospect of a quiet saturday morning with a hot cup of coffee, updating the spreadsheet! Since I started using it, in combination with advice on this site of course, I have gone from £0 in savings to £580 in savings! Half of that is from Quidco, but the other half I attribute to the spreadsheet and my (now) beady eyed attention to spending!

Seems like the beginning of the month is a hot spot for everyone - only way round it is the cash withdrawals I think. I will do Mr EL's spreadsheet when we get a new pc and he said month 1 did not go so well (he may just have £20 left in cash), but the way I see it is anything saved is something gained.:T Month 2 will be better I am sure - he's more aware of his spending so that's the key to a good start.

Let me know how you get on in the next few weeks :j

sry

Hi Eager Learner.
I think the spreadsheet is brilliant and I've just downloaded the new version. Just one comment. The Quidco column doesn't total, maybe an addition for you for the future. I'm going to try and figure out how to do it myself.

Thanks again.:j :j

EagerLearner

sry wrote:

Hi Eager Learner.
I think the spreadsheet is brilliant and I've just downloaded the new version. Just one comment. The Quidco column doesn't total, maybe an addition for you for the future. I'm going to try and figure out how to do it myself.

Thanks again.:j :j

Ah, I think that the Quidco cell you enter yourself as you go (ie replace the amount each month) because it has nowhere to total from...

Let me know of any other changes you'd like to see - and keep us posted on what you discover/change about your saving/spending habits!