Personal Loan dilemma

[disneysteve]

Backtracking expenses online is so convenient for seeing where most of your money goes

I tend to disagree with this. Backtracking with your bank statement or credit card statement can give a big picture view but a lot can get lost. For example, if it says you spent $50 at WalMart, it doesn't tell you if you spent it on groceries, new sheets or Coke and video games. You need the receipt for that. For someone who really needs to get a handle on where their money is going, just looking at the online overview probably isn't sufficient.

[cypher1]

I tend to disagree with this. Backtracking with your bank statement or credit card statement can give a big picture view but a lot can get lost. For example, if it says you spent $50 at WalMart, it doesn't tell you if you spent it on groceries, new sheets or Coke and video games. You need the receipt for that. For someone who really needs to get a handle on where their money is going, just looking at the online overview probably isn't sufficient.

I'm not saying for anyone trying to manage their money/track expenses, should no longer needs to save their receipts, or should charge everything to a card. But for just STARTING OUT, when you can look up x amount going to grocery store + Y went to the bar +Z went gas, you can get a rough summarization of monthly costs vs net income. At that point, you can start breaking down those reciepts, IE groceries or fast food, toiletries, hobbies, clothing, etc. Kind of like zooming in from forest to trees, macro to micro economics for subjects, maybe not the best analogies for this topic

[disneysteve]

for just STARTING OUT, when you can look up x amount going to grocery store + Y went to the bar +Z went gas, you can get a rough summarization of monthly costs vs net income. At that point, you can start breaking down those reciepts, IE groceries or fast food, toiletries, hobbies, clothing, etc.

I agree. Start with the big picture and then get down to the nitty gritty details.

[jpg7n16]

Is there a formula that you use to automatically calculate everything?
im not good with spreadsheet

Microsoft has free budget templates on their website that are setup to do all the calculations for you.


Budgets - Templates - Microsoft Office


Usually the formulas are easy: =A+B <-adds cell A and B, =sum(A:A) <-sum of column A -- Things like that.

It may take some getting used to at first, but once you see what the cells say, they're very basic math. "I'd like to add this cell, plus this one, plus this one".... =Click + click + click --- and you're done. (Click is you clicking on the cells you want to add together)

Even if that's too hard, the spreadsheets already have all the formulas in them, so you shouldn't have to worry about anything.

[cypher1]

Is there a formula that you use to automatically calculate everything?
im not good with spreadsheet

Others may have more convenient or advanced calculations/sheets, but this is what I used for basic +- auto calculations within Excel for my checking account. I can't remember if this was in the MS Excel template, or if I googled You can customize to however you like, or find it's not worth the hassle.

=IF(AND(ISBLANK(E3),ISBLANK(F3)),"",G2-E3+F3)

So in order to use this formula, you want to setup in this order (or how I did it):

So titled columns:
A: Date
B: Item#
C: for "X" cleared check
D: Description
E: Payment/Debit
F: Deposit/Credit
G: Balance

So listing above titles columns in Line 1 (Again, this can all be modified to your preference))
Line 2 having an "existing balance" $xxx in column F: Deposit/Credit
Line 3 including the next bill (E3) or deposit (F3), and paste that formula in Balance (G3).

=IF(AND(ISBLANK(E3),ISBLANK(F3)),"",G2-E3+F3)
Explanation:
So if there is a value in E3 or F3, then G2 (previous balance above) minus E3 (current expense) plus F3 (current deposit)= current balance G3.

Going foward, line 4 , G4 (Balance), you can't just copy the existing formula since its for that previous line G3. If you highlight Line 3 Column G3 (that formula should display under fx), the cell is selected, but there is a tiny black box on bottom right hand corner. Move your cursor onto that tiny box, and while holding left click, drag that selection down a few cells to auto populate the formula. So instead of =IF(AND(ISBLANK(E3),ISBLANK(F3)),"",G2-E3+F3) next one in G4 is =IF(AND(ISBLANK(E4),ISBLANK(F4)),"",G3-E4+F4) and G5 is =IF(AND(ISBLANK(E5),ISBLANK(F5)),"",G4-E5+F5)
You can see where manually changing those variables in every line can be a nuisance. And adding your transactions will be easier than writing down.

This is just one simple example of thousands of how Excel can be used for finances. This type of format I use for mainly checking/savings, and keep another page within the same spreadsheet for tracking bill/info as mentioned earlier.
Regardless of software, always remember to BACKUP DATA whenever you have a chance, and keep copy (s) on differnt systems/drives, without mentioning passwords or other sensitive material if found. I cannot stress that enough to anyone.

[Quoc414]

Thanks for the help guys
One last question, I don't have Microsoft excel on my comp. Can I still use the .exl files if I download OpenOffice?

[cypher1]

Thanks for the help guys
One last question, I don't have Microsoft excel on my comp. Can I still use the .exl files if I download OpenOffice?

I would say no since they're written differently and each offers varis options within their applications. Then again, I'm not familiar with Openoffice Calc(?) spreadsheets. MS Excel uses primarily .xls and Excel 2007+ uses .xlsx for extensions.