A Thread for After Debt?

rising_from_the_ashes

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Rising your snapshots scare me! Imagine keeping track of each individual item you bought this week… Mine is more simple or I’d never maintain it! That’s why I decided not to keep the SoW, it could be simplified but it doesn’t keep track of individual accounts!!

:rotfl:Funnily enough I was going to say that I was sure that by the middle of last year it ended up just saying "Asda" - "Groceries" - amount spent & amount before savings ..... but ..... I've just been and looked at last years file & I did actually keep doing it right the way through!:o

ETA I do know a lot of people don't list individually and just write "groceries" and the totals ...... mmmmmmm maybe I am a bit anal about it!

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Ps. Rising you forgot your savings on your spreadsheet... ASDA Milk is 2 for £2

*sigh* - oh I wish .... that's £1.28 for a 1 Litre carton :eek: - I'm Lactose (and wheat) intolerant and my milk spend comes out at around £350 / year:eek::eek::eek:.

Cereals are another one that get me ....
24 Oatibix = £2.68
24 Wheatabix = £1.78
23 Own brand = £1.12

It all adds up unfortunately:(

JulieGeorgiana

Rising Don't you find the SoW has too many tabs??? 4 per month!! I have 2 years of ALL my bank accounts on one tab! It would drive me crazy it really would...

EDIT: Deleted all the complicated stuff for Aly!

samtoby

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Rising Don't you find the SoW has too many tabs??? 4 per month!! I have 2 years of ALL my bank accounts on one tab! It would drive me crazy it really would...

This is my Bills Account for Feb... I have this for each month. The layout for my Current and Savings Accounts are the same only they show different things.

NB. Red just means I have to check the bills for exact amounts.



This is one of mypots broken down further, I just make it bold once the money is in the pot so I have a running total (which matches what's in the savings account):



This is my 'log' for my credit card spend which links into a 'pot' for paying it off:



As you can see all my 'accounts' are very simple and just follow the same pattern.

Below is my Groceries:



This is what i can show you before you all think i'm crazy.

But basically I go for very simple. Yes I use formulas, but again very simple ones.

My Bills and Current Accounts always go over 1 year in advance and take into consideration inflation of rent, gas and electric etc.

How impressed?! Much more in depth than mine. But its what ever works for you I guess. x

rising_from_the_ashes

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Rising Don't you find the SoW has too many tabs??? 4 per month!!

I actually have 5 Cheryl very kindly added an extra one for me last year as I wanted to keep track of the pets costs separately.....

I could probably go back to 4 now as I've now added the Grocery & Toiletries/Cleaning one together - as I'm doing the Grocery Challenge & my budget incl T&C it seemed easier to keep them the same ......

The others are:
Regular payments (all DD's listed on here)
Cats *
Dog *
Anything else (clothes, stationery, DIY, garden, hair & well everything else not covered anywhere else!)

* these are really only separated just now as I had the spare tab with combining the G/T&C and being dog-less I thought it would be interesting to see how much the cats cost - also the "dog's money" is going into a pot just now ready for when the new one arrives (hopefully!):) so I wanted to have a budget for it - but not incl it with the cats - or I'd be very likely to just overspend on them just now while there was "spare" money in it IYSWIM:o

Ohhhhhh, think I need help!

**clears throat**

"Hello, my name is Rising and I am a ......." (will leave it up to you to decide!)

rising_from_the_ashes

samtoby wrote: »

How impressed?! Much more in depth than mine. But its what ever works for you I guess. x

I think you've hit it on the head Sam:) ...... I would find a spreadsheet like JG's really complicated to keep track of .... it's more a "proper accounting" one IYKWIM and I find this sort of thing hard to follow

I find that as all I have to do with the SoW is update the relevant tab - and the totals page updates the totals itself , it's easier to follow it suits "my brain" more:)

However, it doesn't show what the actual balance of your account is - which isn't what I need it to keep track of but can totally understand the reasoning / ease of doing this in the one place.

JulieGeorgiana

While I find the SoW really in depth and complicated while not keeping track of your accounts.

I've a friend who's an accountant... her's is MUCH better then mine LOL

I really thought mine was simple! No wonder DH's eyes go crossed when he looks at it!!!!

The SoW is great if you want a total at the end of the year of your overall spend in different areas. Which I don't because I budget foward instead.

Hopefully the stuff we've posted between us will give some people ideas... and they can make their own versions that work for them...

I think I may joining you at the DFA meetings

samtoby

I try to keep mine simple; simple life for me suits better x

altheavlive

Having scrimped and saved and for the first time in over 10 years I can honestly say I am debt free however I am constantly apnicking about over spending and not having the money to do things but am also finding it disconcerting that I have money left at the end of the month

Although it is all a big buzz I am still living like I have no money and finding that helps it is also keeping me focussed as I know I may be jobless in two months as my contract comes to an end and I will still have bills to pay

I am also foccussing on saving for a deposit for a house to help keep the spends down

AlyBaly

Hi everyone, hope you are all well, waves to Roo. :j

Please don't take this in a bad way but this thread is now freaking me out. so I think I will stay on the side lines, keep up with you all and post where I need help or can offer help but I cannot see me ever getting into such detailed speadsheets.

I have set up somethng much more basic which I am happy with. The weird thing is in my job I work with numbers and complex calculations so its not all the figures so I actually don't know what it is that is making me feel this way.


I am actually now typing rubbish so will leave it at that

JulieGeorgiana

Altheavlive Welcome to the mad house

Aly Aww, don’t feel that way… I [STRIKE]will[/STRIKE] have delete it all for you and made it all simple again. TBH I never even thought I was going into too much detail… maybe it’s just my way of compensating out of fear!

I have often wondered what else is available which might be more simple! Maybe you should share??

Just stop waving to Roo... Roo is waving back... OW OW OW OW!