So I’m rapidly becoming all consumed with getting my shit together (sorry for the profanity but sh*t says it all…).
Today I’ve spent the best part of 3 hours familiarizing myself with ‘Google Spreadsheets’ for monthly budgeting. Although I love scribbling on paper and in my daily diary, I have to say after pulling my hair out initially, I now LOVE using this spreadsheet! The one I’m using is ‘Monthly Budget’ under the top right hand drop down menu for ‘Templates’. OK so I know in the 1940’s it would have all been done on paper, and I love to keep things simple BUT having this in addition to fill in and update at weekends is making me VERY HAPPY!
OK, I know you are probably thinking right now “for God’s sake woman, go and get a curvy, hairy, beardy man and misbehave” because quite frankly it is a little bit sad that I am getting so excited about spreadsheets. Trust me, I’ve been thinking that myself recently…..
Infact I know exactly the man I’d pick (in Barnsley) but I’m still slightly “off” men in real-life and not quite ready to jump back in the sheets and do strange and wonderful things…soooooo for now ‘Google Spreadsheets’ it is!
I’m loving the ‘Monthly Budget’ template. CLICK HERE
First of all I worked out how to change the currency from $ to £, next to add extra rows while keeping the formula which does the calculations, I also then changed the spreadsheet to specify what country and time zone. Once that was all done then it was time to fill it in!
I’m filling it in real-time, once a week. This means that I’m adding in all my planned expenses and income and adding in the actual expenses and income as they come in. So when a direct debit comes out in the week I’ll update the spreadsheet, when my son pays me his weekly rent/bills contribution I’ll fill it in on the spreadsheet. By doing this it gives me a real-time up to date tally….isn’t that cool!
Even cooler is the fact that the template comes with a ‘Transaction’ ledger so when you fill it in on the ledger it updates the spreadsheet automatically!
So I’ve brought my February 2018 budget up to-date on my spreadsheet and I’ve taken a snap-shot and it’s below..
I’m hoping budgeting provides enough excitement for me in the coming months to keep me on the straight and narrow until the call of the curvy, hairy, beardy bloke becomes too much to resist….
C xxxxxx
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PS: I was asked about changing the currency settings on the Google Spreadsheet – here is what you have to do
1) Go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets and select Monthly Budget from the template gallery.
2) Open up the sheet and select from the top drop down menu FILE > SPREADSHEET SETTINGS > ADJUST LOCALE/TIMEZONE > SAVE SETTINGS… return to main spread sheet.
3) You will notice that the currency symbol underneath the word format in the top drop down menu has now changed to a £ sign. If the sheet does not automatically change the symbols you will simply have to highlight the cell/cells you want to change the currency symbol in, once highlighted you click on the £ currency symbol from the top of the page and it will change all the $ to £ in the cells you have highlighted.
4) To highlight a cell you simply click once in the box then go and click on the £ symbol. To highlight multiple cells in a row then click on the top cell ie Food then hold down the shift button and select the bottom cell ie category 1 and all the cells inbetween will be highlighted too – then just click the £ symbol to change all of them. Alternatively to highlight several sporadically located cells click on 1 cell, hold down the CTRL key and select another anywhere on the page, keep the CTRL key depressed until you have finished selecting all the ones you want to change then goto the £ symbol and select.
I have changed currency and timezones on a spreadsheet for you. You’ll need to make sure that when you are logged in and save it that it is only viewable by yourself.
You missed ‘tall’ off your list of manly requirements.
hahaha! I like them short too 🙂
I have to confess I’m not a super regular reader of your blog (or of any blogs so please don’t take it as a commentary on your writing here) but I do check in every few months. I want to tell you how impressed I am with your attitude. No matter where you are along your way, you always say “I’m determined!”. I work in A&D and that’s what I say to the clients want to give up because they’ve relapsed: It doesn’t matter that you’ve fallen down. What matters is that you get back up.
Thanks Kate xxxxx That is truly what it’s all about. With regards to fighting my obesity I’ve lost and gained so many times, one could say I’ve failed 25 times but I’ve got up and started again 26 times! Not giving up!!! xxxxx
How did you change the currency on the budget, please?
Hi there, OK so to do your own you’ll need to go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets and select Monthly Budget from the template gallery. Open up the sheet and select from the top drop down menu FILE > SPREADSHEET SETTINGS > ADJUST LOCALE/TIMEZONE > SAVE SETTINGS… return to main spread sheet. You will notice that the currency symbol underneath the word format in the top drop down menu has now changed to a £ sign. If the sheet does not automatically change the symbols you will simply have to highlight the cell/cells you want to change the currency symbol in, once highlighted you click on the £ currency symbol from the top of the page and it will change all the $ to £ in the cells you have highlighted. To highlight a cell you simply click once in the box then go and click on the £ symbol. To highlight multiple cells in a row then click on the top cell ie Food then hold down the shift button and select the bottom cell ie category 1 and all the cells inbetween will be highlighted too – then just click the £ symbol to change all of them. Alternatively to highlight several sporadically located cells click on 1 cell, hold down the CTRL key and select another anywhere on the page, keep the CTRL key depressed until you have finished selecting all the ones you want to change then goto the £ symbol and select. Hope this helps! Cxxx
here is a link to one I’ve changed the currency and time zone on…. please remember when you are signed in to Google to make your copy only accessible by yourself https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zO08dwq5pb9CSMXXHsolfLJPufBB2_J9vz9A9a7F9GI/edit?usp=sharing
Thank you so much for this. I will commit half a day to having a good look at it. Anything that will help mildly dyscalculic me to avoid the painstaking and usually inaccurate adding up is worth a good look!
J x
Do you have a spread sheet for your weight loss/gain. I would like to know what you use to keep track
Hi Brenda… yes I do, its on my computer at work. I’ll hunt down what I have been using, its very simple. I must admit that its been a few months since I logged anything down as I went off the rails a bit but now you’ve reminded me I’ll start logging and sharing xxxxx
yes I have lost a couple of pounds and want to start logging it as it does help. I used a really good app that helped but then it was withdrawn and I went off the rails a bit too.
I’ll need to try this. Have you stopped saving for Christmas?
Hi Sarah..our Christmas Club at work is taken for 10 months from payroll for on end of February to end of November xxx I’ll save £1000 that way. It goes into a separate Christmas Club account…I also have the £300 every month for 12 months going straight in from payroll to my Credit Union savings account. Xxxxx If So manage to maintain this all year I will hopefully have built up a 4 or 5 month emergency fund by that time xxxx
I meant to ask …. why have you posted a photo of my husband … 😉
If your husband looks like this adorable man then you are a very lucky woman!!!! Xxxx
Brilliant! I just love spreadsheets and tend to use Excel but I think I will give these a go too. I have spreadsheets for Weekly grocery shops/Meter readings/ Monthly savings/Household Running costs.
When we moved into this house we found a set of old exercise books that my husband’s aunt, she had lived here before us, had used as her speadsheets going back over 40 years!
When I enthuse about my spreadsheets folk tell me to “get a life” Ah but it’s my spreadsheets that give me a life!
I don’t know Carolyn. I have always gone by the philosophy “don’t sweat the petty stuff and don’t pet the sweaty stuff”. However I think you are nailing it. Budgets are all about the little details and your curvy hairy beardy man sounds very pet-able.
I am a pencil pusher but I do love my Excel spread sheet as it adds and subtracts for me and after years of pushing the buttons on my adding machine I have better things to do with my time and fingers.
Hi
I notice you collect wartime leaflets on Pinterest and mentioned you would love to own some. I am about to put a set up for sale on my Etsy shop but before I do would you like to choose three and I will send them to you as a gift. If you email me I will send you a picture and you can choose. I plan to put them in the shop tomorrow so if I don’t hear anything before then I’ll have to go ahead and put them all up.
I always like to see vintage enthusiasts!
Tiri
That would be fab!!! Thank you!!! My e-mail address is 1940sexperiment@gmail.com 🙂