Saturday, February 14, 2009
K.I.S.S
My current mentality for expense tracking and hopefully for my future financial planning, is to Keep It Simple, Stupid.
As I had previously mentioned, I prefer to keep my expense tracking simple. Now let me see if I can get a sample copy of my expense tracking sheet up for you....
Silverelf's Expense Tracker
Now, I have these main sections in the spreadsheet:
1) The monthly expense records
2) Fixed expenditure tab
3) Wishlist tab
4) A graph tab that shows how much I save each month. Actually more like how much I overspend each month. Let's be honest.
For the monthly expense records, I do not have a record of how much money I have in the bank because I was always horrible in accountancy and I know that I would just fail to make the numbers tally. So that information does not exist. I just track monthly expenditure vs income.
I also do not keep separate records for Cash, Credit Card etc expenditure. They go into one nice long table but I will record the payment mode in the cell appropriately named "Payment Mode". I do not actually do anything with that info though.
I also have a corner to show me how much money I have spent and how much I still have left that month. This will help give me an overview of how deep the shit that I am standing in is.
Every month, I will start a new sheet with my monthly pay in the income area. If I get a bonus , I will include them in as well. I've also included GST credits and stuff like that in the income area.
I try to update the tracking sheet daily, but often times I forget so I will try to remember what I spent and add in the amount. This means that my tracking is not 100% accurate but at least it should be about 90%. I find it important to follow through to the need of the month instead of gving up and starting the next month. Don't give yourself chances to slack off!
*P.S. I love February. Less days. Reach goalpost faster*
Next for the fixed expenditure tab, this is where I enter everything that recurs every month. It's good to have it like this for me because I can see what I HAVE to pay for every month. Of course it serves as a good way for the better disciplined to trim down on fixed expenses. The total I get from this page will be entered as the first expenditure entry on the monthly expenses tabs. *I don't know how to automate this*
Next is the wishlist tab. It's for things like that trip you want, that nice laptop etc etc. I put in stuff like that there and look at the total. It's not for calculation purposes, but more for a projection of how much money I need in the future. Erhmm.. or rather want.... cos these are not needs.
Finally we get to the Graph tab. This is where I manually input the amount of money left at the end of the month. Again, I haven't figured out how to automate this..... so.. it's done manually!to see a healthy positive trending on this graph.
And so that's how it is. Feel free to comment and suggest stuff to me.
This entry is part of a series of entries that I shall be entering in my blog to get myself into a 'manage my personal finance mode'
1 Adorations
My current mentality for expense tracking and hopefully for my future financial planning, is to Keep It Simple, Stupid.
As I had previously mentioned, I prefer to keep my expense tracking simple. Now let me see if I can get a sample copy of my expense tracking sheet up for you....
Silverelf's Expense Tracker
Now, I have these main sections in the spreadsheet:
1) The monthly expense records
2) Fixed expenditure tab
3) Wishlist tab
4) A graph tab that shows how much I save each month. Actually more like how much I overspend each month. Let's be honest.
For the monthly expense records, I do not have a record of how much money I have in the bank because I was always horrible in accountancy and I know that I would just fail to make the numbers tally. So that information does not exist. I just track monthly expenditure vs income.
I also do not keep separate records for Cash, Credit Card etc expenditure. They go into one nice long table but I will record the payment mode in the cell appropriately named "Payment Mode". I do not actually do anything with that info though.
I also have a corner to show me how much money I have spent and how much I still have left that month. This will help give me an overview of how deep the shit that I am standing in is.
Every month, I will start a new sheet with my monthly pay in the income area. If I get a bonus , I will include them in as well. I've also included GST credits and stuff like that in the income area.
I try to update the tracking sheet daily, but often times I forget so I will try to remember what I spent and add in the amount. This means that my tracking is not 100% accurate but at least it should be about 90%. I find it important to follow through to the need of the month instead of gving up and starting the next month. Don't give yourself chances to slack off!
*P.S. I love February. Less days. Reach goalpost faster*
Next for the fixed expenditure tab, this is where I enter everything that recurs every month. It's good to have it like this for me because I can see what I HAVE to pay for every month. Of course it serves as a good way for the better disciplined to trim down on fixed expenses. The total I get from this page will be entered as the first expenditure entry on the monthly expenses tabs. *I don't know how to automate this*
Next is the wishlist tab. It's for things like that trip you want, that nice laptop etc etc. I put in stuff like that there and look at the total. It's not for calculation purposes, but more for a projection of how much money I need in the future. Erhmm.. or rather want.... cos these are not needs.
Finally we get to the Graph tab. This is where I manually input the amount of money left at the end of the month. Again, I haven't figured out how to automate this..... so.. it's done manually!to see a healthy positive trending on this graph.
And so that's how it is. Feel free to comment and suggest stuff to me.
This entry is part of a series of entries that I shall be entering in my blog to get myself into a 'manage my personal finance mode'
Comments:
Secret gardens sounds amazing :); Good luck on managing your money; I have faith you will do well in your spending :)
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