Regular Ramblings from LookingAhead

scaredy_cat_2

would you share the kinds of things you put on your spreadsheet - am feeling the need to gain a bit more control and def wanna see debt reducing!! am not v good with spreadsheets but dh will do it for me just cna't visualise what i want on it!!

LookingAhead

scaredy_cat wrote:

would you share the kinds of things you put on your spreadsheet - am feeling the need to gain a bit more control and def wanna see debt reducing!! am not v good with spreadsheets but dh will do it for me just cna't visualise what i want on it!!

Ah! Yes of course. I hope I can explain this simply! Bear with me and your OH should know what I mean if they are OK with Excel.

(I might over explain but probably better too much info than not enough??)

I do a sheet per month. Lets start with sheet 1. Name it February.

It will consist of three columns so you can name them:

Details (in column A)
Amount (in column
Running Total (in column C)

In cell C1 you need to put the amount of money you are starting with i.e. 1000. If it is an overdraft figure just put a minus sign before the figure.

I list in column A all the NAMES of my known direct debits so in cell A2 I will type Abbey Mortgage.

I put the totals for the direct debits in column B so in cell B2 I will type (minus sign) -500 (or whatever your mortgage/rent total is).

In column C I have my running total so in cell C2 your OH needs to type the formula: =sum(c1+c2) then press return.

This will take the mortgage away from your opening balance and - hopefully! - leave you with a running total of 500!

In cell A3 I will then type Council Tax.
In cell B3 I will then type -80 (or whatever your Council Tax is)
In cell C3 type the formula =sum(c2+c3) and press return.

Hopefully this will leave a running total of 420.

Now your hubby can click once on cell C3 then 'drag' downwards quite a number of cells (within column C) and this will copy the formula down the column but adjust the numbers - make sense??? I hope so. This stops you having to type the formula in each time.

You can then work your way down Column A adding in all your planned direct debits or expenditure NAMES.

Then work your way down Column B adding in their totals - with a MINUS sign before them so it takes it OFF the running total.

Column C should update as you go with your running total.

When you add your salary or whatever incomings in then you do *not* put a minus sign in front of the figure and it will add it *to* the running total.

Try and put in as many rows as you can of planned/budgeted expenditure and then this way you have a good idea what the balance is going to be at the end of the month.

You can then plan ahead & insert a new sheet for the next month and "carry over" the balance into the new sheet cell C1. This gets added on to the new lot of information so you have your new running total going on in cell C2.

You can plan ahead as many months as you like! Currently I go up to June on mine.

Does that all make sense? I hope so - but sorry if I have over explained things but never sure of people's level of knowledge so tend to go a bit OTT.

I hope this helps anyway!

LA xx

auntie_brenda

I have mine on 1 sheet for the whole year, with 3 columns for outs and 3 columns for ins each day. I enter all DD's at the start of the year, plus my wages for each month and weekly housekeeping and then I can amend if necessary, takes a bit of time but hey, I don't have a life!

Then a formula to pick up the balance from the end of the previous day, add all the ins and outs and it gives a new balance.

I like it this way as I'm not interested in what I have today, but what the balance will be at the end of the day before pay day. It will also show me what will happen the following month so I can decide if I really can pay that bill without dipping into savings. like that's really gonna happen


Edit to add - I also use it as a financial diary so put on reminders to cancel £1 for 3 months mags and look for car insurance etc.

scaredy_cat_2

thanks so much both of you

Looking ahead thats amazing thanks :A - i reckon i could do that following those instructions as i have used a tiny bit ages ago - but really clear instructions - that will be my task this week - thanks very much

LookingAhead

scaredy_cat wrote:

thanks so much both of you

Looking ahead thats amazing thanks :A - i reckon i could do that following those instructions as i have used a tiny bit ages ago - but really clear instructions - that will be my task this week - thanks very much

You're welcome - good luck with it!

lynsayjane

well la, it's thursday night so no prizes for guessing where you are!

hope your having a fabulous time and that it was well worth all the scrimping and saving!

will be looking forward to hearing all about it tomorrow

xxx

LookingAhead

Hello LJ! How are you enjoying your time off? How nice of you to remember my night out! You're a sweetheart.

Well last night was ace. I was three rows from the front so I could see every bead of sweat! (Is that a good thing??)

Not too sure about Lional Blair (he was the host) but hey, you need someone to bind it all together and he fits the bill I suppose.

I sat there in the interval with a little tub of chocolate ice cream thinking "I saved every penny for this and I'm loving it!" (The whole evening I mean not just the ice cream! )

The dancers were soooo young (most of them) and soooo fit...!

Envious? Moi? Hmmmm.

So, in a word: FABULOUS.

lynsayjane

now if you'd said every bead on their dresses i'd have been impressed, sweat...only in certain circumstance....(sorry my bad!)

anyway sounds like you had a great night, am very very pleased and of course i remembered, i wanted to go too!

the time off is going good, though i'm being soooo lazy, i'd had all these big plans on things i'd do but instead i've not seen much of the mornings and spent the avo's on here! tho yesterdy i did one fun thing...i payed off one of my credit cards! twas my bank charges money but the 0% ends before the next statement! today i'm actually going to have a productive day...if i ever get dressed and off this bloomin site! :rotfl:

scaredy_cat_2

i am SO glad you managed to go - hadn't caught up with that part of the thread yet just the last bit and the bit where you were saving!! so am really pleased for you - glad you had a great evening and no debt because of it!!

kathfisch

So glad you had a lovely time LA, things are so much more enjoyable when you don't have to feel guilty about the cost... just think when you're debt free there'll be so much more like that!