WTBSEs 'Starting From Scratch' Savings Diary.

MrCrimeFiction

Hello everyone. I've been AWOL for the last week :eek:

WTBSE and JoJoc - I'm great thanks and well my savings is going so so. The new house is draining the ££ away but it will be worth it.

My "Saving for Xmas 2015" thread is keeping me really busy on here as I'm updating it every few days.

It's snowing AGAIN :mad: Wish it would just get a bit warmer. Especially in the morning when I have to scrape the car and wait for it to heat up :rotfl:

January is such a long month. Still over 2 and a half weeks to payday.

Everyone well?

MrCF

atush

I am well, but we had another windy night which keeps me up.

AS for jo jo, it is easy to spend that little on groceries when you eat out 2 nights lol! Cheating

As for business accts look at costs carefully. some business accts have high charges such as a charge if you take cheques etc.

If you want to keep the business money separate, also look at a separate current acct if the Business one's charges are too high.

Have you got insurance for your business?

WantToBeSE

Mr CF, nice to see you again. I am so jealous of snow. Part of me would REALLY like some snow, but the other part of me would hate it as I cant afford to lose money (many, if not all, of the houses I have on my books are rural and snow and ice makes the narrow 1 track roads impossible to get down).
We just have rain, rain and more rain at the moment. I can cope with that
I am well thanks, ticking along quite nicely, although I would like the savings to have started by now. Just waiting for payday (28th) and then I can begin my savings masterplan..mwahaha (that's my evil masterplan laugh btw ). January seems to have dragged on and on, I am looking forward to February!


Thanks for the advice about business accounts, atush. I am going to have a good look through the ones that NatWest offer before tomorrow (when I am expecting the bank to call about it). That way I am not going in blind.


Jo, are you having a nice dinner at your MILs? Have you been suffering any sickness or anything pregnancy related? I was very lucky with my pregnancies, they were very uneventful and I never had any sickness really.

WantToBeSE

atush, what do you mean about insurance for the business? I have PLI/Employers liability, is there other stuff I need?

Eco_Miser

WantToBeSE wrote: »

I am trying to work out how to do this stupid spreadsheet for my accounts, but its proving a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.

What's the difficulty? Can I help?

I'd start with something simple, and add complications as needed, after you get the first part working.

So columns headed Date; Description; Code;In; Out; Balance.
A row for each transaction: Code is a short code for each source or destination of funds, so you can do analysis with the SUMIF() function, when you get the other stuff sorted; and Balance calculates the running balance, something like =F3+D4-E4 in F4 and copied down the column.
Use a separate sheet in the workbook for each account. You can do the same again with your best guess as a forecast/budget.

If you'd already done the above, and it was something more complex you are having difficulties with, sorry, I may still be able to help.

atush

WantToBeSE wrote: »

atush, what do you mean about insurance for the business? I have PLI/Employers liability, is there other stuff I need?

That is what I meant.

WantToBeSE

Good Afternoon


Still waiting for the bank to call.


EM- I am just confused about EVERYTHING, lol. The spreadsheets are just for my personal banking, nothing to do with the business (yet! I will do a business one once I have worked out the personal one).
What I want is to save for C'mas, for my car fund, for school expenses and Book/Clothes all in separate 'pots' in the same account.
I want to keep a running total of each of these pots, plus a running total of the whole account.
Is this possible do you think?


At the moment I have a spreadsheet with 10 columns (I will just put C do show whats in each column, not to be confused with cell).


C1- Date
C2- School Expenses
C3- RT (Running Total) for School Expenses
C4- Christmas
C5- RT for Christmas
C6- Car Fund
C7- RT for Car Fund
C8- Clothing/Books
C9- RT for Clothing/Books
C10- Total in the account.


The ones in Bold are my 'pots'. Each time I Deposit or withdraw from those pots, I write how much I have deposited/withdrawn and its written in either red (withdrawl) or green (deposit).


Is there an easier way of doing this? And by 'easier' I mean VERY EASY

Eco_Miser

Your notation gets confusing when I want to refer to cells, use A, B, C etc to refer to columns, as the spreadsheet does. Like
A- Date
B- School Expenses
C- RT (Running Total) for School Expenses
D- Christmas
E- RT for Christmas
F- Car Fund
G- RT for Car Fund
H- Clothing/Books
I- RT for Clothing/Books
J- Total in the account.

So assuming that each running total column has a formula that adds your entry to the cell above, such as =C3+B4 in C4 and column 10 adds all the running totals, that would do it, and can't really be simpler.

Having typed the formula into C4, you would copy it, and paste into E4, G4, and I4, and the formula =C4+E4+G4+I4 into J4, then select then row C4:H4 (by dragging the mouse), then put the mouse on the bottom right corner of H4 and drag down for as many rows as you need. Magically, all the running totals appear (unless you have zero display suppressed). Put your opening balances in C3, E3,G3, and I3, and copy H4 to H3. Again you might have done this, or you might have typed the formula into every cell. Let me know if I'm giving too much that you know already.

My own spreadsheet is slightly easier to enter, but much more complicated to set up in the first place. It's handling 7 different bank accounts and does transfers between them with a single entry. I wonder if not having complicated formulae would actually make it work faster?

How are you getting the red and green numbers? a format with different colours for positive and negative, or conditional formatting?

colsten

Eco_Miser wrote: »

Having typed the formula into C4, you would copy it, and paste into E4, G4, and I4, and the formula =C4+E4+G4+I4 into J4, then select then row C4:H4 (by dragging the mouse), then put the mouse on the bottom right corner of H4 and drag down for as many rows as you need. Magically, all the running totals appear (unless you have zero display suppressed). Put your opening balances in C3, E3,G3, and I3, and copy H4 to H3. Again you might have done this, or you might have typed the formula into every cell. Let me know if I'm giving too much that you know already.

Christ.

I am quite a spreadsheet wizzard myself and I don't doubt your instructions are correct, but why on earth would you do this if you can buy a fully fledged personal finance software package for less than the cost of a meal out? One that lasts you a lifetime, and is a lot more functional and intuitional than any home-made spreadsheet will ever be?

Eco_Miser

colsten wrote: »

Christ.

I am quite a spreadsheet wizzard myself and I don't doubt your instructions are correct, but why on earth would you do this if you can buy a fully fledged personal finance software package for less than the cost of a meal out? One that lasts you a lifetime, and is a lot more functional and intuitional than any home-made spreadsheet will ever be?

My spreadsheet does exactly what I want it to, and cost nothing but a little time.

As for lasting a lifetime, I've already gone through at least 6 computers, and the software wasn't compatible in most cases.