Squeaky spreadsheet diary

Tiglath

No I haven't heard if they're repeating series 2 - I haven't even seen them repeat series 1. The second half of series 2 starts in February, and believe me I'll post about it here If you felt like splashing out, I think you can buy individual episodes from iTunes for £2.49 so you could get the first episode from there and then watch the rest that you've recorded. I completely missed series 2 of Game of Thrones - if I get Amazon vouchers for Christmas I might buy series 2 on DVD.

With Sky, I search weekly on their website (Sky Find and Watch) for specific things, and if there's something I fancy I do Remote Record from the PC.

Tiglath

Well my planned solo £10 wally-trolley trip to Lidl turned into a +DH Sainsburys trip by car involving several hours, random metal in the road, and 2 new tyres tomorrow which will probably cost £150 upwards plus the cost of a broken foot/air pump thing ... and so the seesaw of cosmic balance is restored . I could really grow to hate cars. The upshot is that I'm now paying the £260 road tax in January instead of an extra payment off a creditcard, because DH can't afford it AND the new tyres. On the plus side, Pets At Home have a proprietary brand of flea drops costing £6 less than Costco for 6 doses, so a saving of £9 every 6-8 weeks if it works.

EDIT: Not prepared to be hit with big car costs which can easily be predicted so I've set up a savings plan to cover the road tax, MOT and servicing. If anything big goes wrong outside that, it's not my problem. It means less on overpaying my debts and adds a month to my DFD, but if I don't do it, it simply won't happen as I'm the only one who plans ahead. I'd rather be covered and know where I stand since I seem to be the one who picks up the bill anyway. Really unimpressed, and the day started so well. On the other hand, starting to build an emergency fund now isn't necessarily a bad thing as we have a big fat zero in savings. Going to set up a standing order from my current account now to make sure it happens.

Tiglath

Giving myself a pat on the back here for immediately working out how to save and pay cash for the road tax, instead of whacking it on my newly-increased credit card limit, which didn't even occur to me. Hard evidence of a mental shift, even if I am currently fuming. :beer:

digging

Tiglath wrote: »

My Google spreadsheet has the following sheets:

- Budget
- Current
- Debt
- Mint card
- Barclaycard
- Amex
- Savings

You need to know some basic spreadsheet formulae to replicate this. There are probably more elegant ways to do it all, but this works for me.

1. Budget is set up to tally what regular payments come out of my current account each month, what comes out of DH's account, our net incomes added together, how much the total outgoings are, and how much he transfers to me automatically so we have equal leftover money each month. My own current account is our main household account, whereas his account handles his personal stuff, his car and our charity donations. This doesn't change very often, only when a direct debit changes.

2. Current is set out like a bank statement: columns called Date, Item, In, Out, Balance. Balance is calculated by cell references. The reference for a new balance in a new row in cell E5 might look something like B4(previous balance)+C5(In)-D5(Out), and is copied down the column. This repeats sequentially every row to the end of 2015, so I have a pretty specific spending plan for the next 3 years. This obviously presupposes my salary stays the same, but allows for changes as they occur eg. a direct debit gets increased or decreased, a bonus comes in. It's all subject to change, but if say BT goes up, I have to go through and update the BT DD for every subsequent month.

It includes incoming salary, all direct debits, the February and March months when I don't pay council tax and water rates, debt payments, projected cashpoint withdrawals for groceries per week, extras like birthdays, and the running total updates at the end of each row. I check my online banking each day and colour in green on my spreadsheet as an item comes in or goes out online, plus check that my spreadsheet balance is the same as my online balance. I aim to always know to the penny where I stand. Current is the sheet where I vary debt repayment according to how much I expect to have left by the day before each payday, so I don't run out of money. If I can see an expensive month coming in 2 months, I can cut back accordingly.

3. Debt sheet is my debt portrait and has a month per row. Each debt has 2 columns (statement closing balance + monthly repayment), a column totalling all outstanding debt per month, % paid off since my LBM, and an accumulating total reduction of outstanding debt each month as I'm in POAMAYC 2013. I've set cells here to reference cells on the Current sheet - if I increase a Mint payment one month in Current, it automatically increases the same Mint payment on the Debt sheet and recalculates the outstanding balance. The cell formula in Debt is something like ='Current'!H21. The statement closing balance for each debt is calculated by taking a reference from for example the Mint sheet, where I detail per month the opening balance, interest added, payment made last month, closing balance appearing on statement, projected interest next month. I either take this projected interest from what it says on the official statement or I calculate it as a monthly % of the outstanding balance. The formula if calculating is something like = (previous opening balance - payment made + added interest)/100*2.11, where 2.11 is the monthly % interest charged. This gives me an approximate projected interest for each month but I always overwrite with the exact interest from the statement. As I finish paying off one debt completely, I increase the monthly payments on the next credit card in the relevant cells in Current and allow myself a £50 buffer zone each month. Debt sheet shows me which debts I'm focusing on in turn and which month I start really overpaying each card.

3. The Mint sheet etc (one per card) is where I add exact figures as statements come in, and it updates the Debt sheet accordingly as per cell references. So the Debt sheet is my 'source of truth' at any given time but I make changes on the Current and each of the creditcard sheets to recalculate the Debt sheet.

4. Savings is for the future when I'm debtfree - I have monthly rows with cell references from the Current sheet for the exact amount I intend to transfer on payday, as well as an end of the month sweep the day before payday, so I will start each month just with the incoming salary (I'll do the actual transfers manually through online banking). These 2 savings figures per month are totalled in a 3rd column, and it accumulates month per month; I place a marker for when I expect to have a 3 months + 6 months emergency fund.

5. I'm working on a mortgage sheet in terms of when I will start to overpay it and how the total outstanding mortgage will reduce, but this is only in the beginning stages and there are too many variables right now to really make it work.

6. I also have a stocktaking sheet where I list everything in the fridge, freezers and pantry. I change this as I use or add items, and use it for weekly meal planning.

7. I have a Monthly Shopping sheet where I list every penny I spend in 1 of 4 columns - Essentials, Household, Cats, Luxuries. A row across the bottom calculates the increasing totals per month, copies to a monthly grand total at the top and calculates what % of the budget I've spent on each of the 4 categories. I also calculate how much I've gone under or over the monthly budget I've set.

8. The Mega Plan sheet has planned monthly deadlines for paying off each debt, getting a new fixed rate for the mortgage, starting to save for an emergency fund, saving for a holiday at the end of it all, overpaying the mortgage etc.

9. At some point I need to get to grips with 4 different pensions from companies where I've worked, but I have to sort through the paperwork first.

So that's it. It took a while to set up, and even longer as I scratched my head to remind myself of the formulae but it seems to work, and I'd be lost without it. I tinker with it every day. Hope someone finds this helpful, or at least thinks pityingly of me as a total nerd

Brill. I'm going to attempt something similar...but will obviously need a good few hours free to sit down and do it. Thanks for sharing:beer:

Tiglath

I'm glad you've found it useful

I've since added in a Big Savings sheet showing how hopefully we can save up and pay off our secured loan by the end of 2016, £45kish in 2 and a bit years after my personal DFD with the then-free money which previously went out each month on my personal debts. I think on reflection this is more important to me than having a holiday ASAP, much as I promised myself to see the aurora borealis before my 50th - we'll hopefully manage it the end of the year of my 50th instead, so I'm looking 5 years ahead from now. I know anything can happen in the meantime and you can't stop living while sorting out a mess like mine, but I'm going with what's most important to me. Once we're just left with the mortgage to pay down, I can justify a one-off cruise to the Arctic as a reward.

I've also added a Joint Current sheet set out as before, and showing how my personal current and our joint current account would work in tandem once I transfer household direct debits over. I'm loving the clean look of how my current account will be once the household stuff happens each month; there'll be a fixed transfer to the Joint Current for household bills, a fixed transfer to Joint Savings for the emergency fund and the secured loan. The only other things coming out of my Personal Current will be my PAYG mobile, our groceries, my annual travel, birthdays and Christmas. The day before payday I'll still do a sweep of any spare cash into my personal savings just because. That last will be my little luxury to be semi-frivolous with after all this massively hard work to get us out of debt. Years ago I would take myself off alone on European city breaks, and that's something I'd like to do again.

Because of my job I would need work's permission for any kind of shares portfolio, as I work in Compliance and sit above Chinese walls, so potentially have access to inside information on M&A etc. Cash ISAs though will definitely feature largely in our future, and I'll investigate other possibilities like paying more into my work pension. I don't have sufficient knowledge yet on any kind of sophisticated investing, and I have a very cautious approach to risk now so it may not be for me at all.

All this is several years in the future and life does throw a spanner in the works occasionally, as in the car fiasco yesterday, but I really would be lost without my spreadsheet. Perhaps I use it to disguise my aging memory It's helped to refocus me beyond just the paying off debt phase - I move between the magnifying glass view on our current situation and the telescopic view on where I want us to end up, and it means I'm not obssessing purely on debt which can be quite depressing. Plus it keeps me off the streets in the evenings

Once you have all your basic data entered and your formulae worked out based on cell references, you'll be away These things evolve, and it can be as simple or as complicated as you like so start small. I would personally recommend running your Current sheet like a bank statement projected into the future, because I've found it the easiest way to keep track of regular bills and outgoings and to spot ahead for extra spends like birthdays, and keep another sheet which you update with remaining debt balances. Good luck!

Tiglath

I think DH has had a mini-LBM. We were discussing the merits of planning ahead for things we know will happen. He's scared of bank accounts; he got defrauded via telephone banking so won't even consider online banking. As an alternative, I suggested that he increase the money he transfers to me on payday (£50 which he won't miss), and I put the extra aside into a separate savings account for him ready for Christmas/birthday presents and train tickets for ad hoc journeys up and down the country. I can do an online transfer to his bank account at a moment's notice when he needs it. He's quite in favour of that instead of worrying about hitting the creditcard at certain times of the year. Ideally he'd sort out and manage his own savings account, but I think this is a step in the right direction. I don't mind acting as Chief Financial Officer of House Tiglath in the meantime, and it should mean he's actually decreasing his creditcard balance with his current overpaying instead of adding stuff to it and ending up in a static situation. Progress

lurvlyloz

hi tihlath. just caught up on your diary over the past couple of days.

great that you OH has had his mini LBM. all helps doesnt it

Tiglath

Hmm, I've had a letter from ING Direct saying they're transferring savings accounts to Barclays. Years ago I put a bit in a savings account with them, but I thought I closed the account at some point. Worth a phonecall, I guess, just in case they're holding a bit for me. It won't be much, if anything at all. EDIT: £11 on its way to my bank account by the end of Wednesday.

I had my promised salted caramel latte today to celebrate a good day and it wasn't very nice - next time I'll have a gingerbread one. Picked up a couple of Savoy cabbages in Mr T for 35p each - they can be chopped and frozen. Chicken pesto pizza + garlic ciabatta tonight - a whole £1.15 per portion.

I've decided to 'fantasy play' the stock market - pick say 8 stocks I like e.g. Costco on NASDAQ, pretend to invest £1000 in each, pick a couple of index tracker funds and pretend to invest £1000 in each of those, and see where I end up with dividends and capital growth. Just something to keep me occupied and learning, because clearly my spreadsheet isn't complicated enough ... :beer:

Waiting for my next Amex and Barclaycard statements over the next couple of days.

Unreal ... DH has just told me that his son hasn't received years of pocket money because the name on the account was wrong, and he's never bothered chasing it. He's just kept paying it every month. If they can track it down, that could be £2.5k to make a dent in stepson's student loans.

Tiglath

A bit more synchronicity ... Northern Rock have announced they miscalculated the interest on loans since 2008. DH might be in line for having his balance recalculated in his favour. Should get a letter in a few days.

specialkaye

Fingers crossed for you on tracking down the pocket money and the interest.