I likewise have far better things to do with my time than building and maintaining spreadsheets.
Me too, which is why it only takes an average of 5 minutes a day.
!! Over the year that’s nearly a working week’s worth of time. Our annual average is maybe 2 hours.
I would not even know where to start, hence a daily diary with all my appointments, family stuff and a running total of what I have in the bank and what comes in or goes out which gets crossed off when it leaves the account. At least I know from a glance where I stand and don’t even have to put the computer on as every bank card, cheque and direct debit is already put down.
I check the accounts on a regular basis for suspicious transaction.
As for spreadsheets, I am partial to the odd macro, pivot table etc.
Oh for the days of when I wrote my running total in the stub of my chequebook. How easy was that!
Yes, long gone now. Still keep a cheque book to pay artisans etc who do not take plastic and all that involves for them.
Me too, really, but having had several years of grim survival back in the '90’s, with the hands of R.B.S clutching my throat, ready to apply terminal grip - willing me to give them the opportunity - I have just continued to run a daily banc rec and cash flow forecast.
It does result in peace of mind. If my income was greater, I’d be a gt deal more relaxed about it but sometimes a bit of dodging and weaving is req’d to keep things from going awry.
The schadenfruede when they went bust and the top dogs got fired was delightful.
Yes, but the bit that hurts was who had to bail out the banks?
Of course, the macro-economics of it were dreadful.
When I asked for help from a berth holder, the recently retired CEO of The Yorkshire Bank, he described the letter of extortion sent by RBS as “A disgrace. Barrow-boy economics”
Under the circs, I was pleasedat the come-uppance of the CEO of RBS and others.
Goodwin wasn’t it, forced to hand back some gong or other? Don’t want to check internet, however I recall the relaxation of bank supervision was one reason (a big reason?) why RBS collapse happened. And one Gordon Brown allowed the relax, though also credited with saving the global economy afterwards?
Discuss?
edit - the Gordon top dog didn’t get fired - except by the electorate…. And that firing worked out well for us all, didn’t it.
We live on a small budget too. We know what our monthly income is. We know what our direct debits are. From what remains, we take out a weekly amount of cash for groceries, fuel & miscellaneous. That way we know exactly how much we are spending. At the end of each month, I have an excel spreadsheet that I enter income & expenditure & a running balance, just to keep an eye on things. Any cash left over from the weekly cash gets put in a tin for rainy day money. It’s whatever suits you & your lifestyle really, but it soon becomes habit. Good luck l.
Rainy day money. Thank you for reminding me. I drummed this into my kids. Always have 3 months of expenditure stashed away for the day when all of your plans and spreadsheets go sideways. Hopefully never, but, it helps a good nights sleep.
There’s AndrOpen Office.
Though if you have the ability to host a service Nextcloud Office might be worth a look.
Plus some cash so you can still buy food etc if shop tills go down via a cyber attack, there will always be small shops, markets etc who will continue to trade.
Thankfully, we don’t have (too) much money, so don’t need spreadsheets ![]()
I discovered, donkeys years ago as a young wife, how to live within limited means.
It now comes naturally/automatically.
Having figured the monthly amount necessary to cover our DDebits for utilities and insurances, what’s left is for us to spend/save as we wish.
Didn’t take us long to realise how much we had to play with, then come up with a more or less standard weekly shopping list - this works financially and provides us with what we need to live and enjoy.
We try to take advantage of special offers only if we really want 'em (not just to fill the cupboards).
We’re careful but not stingy… (an important difference). ![]()
EDIT: I do check the bank balance each morning to ensure that nothing unexpected/forgotten has plopped in and gobbled our cash. CA reckon folk should keep an eye open and swiftly report any unexpected activity on one’s account.
I now realise that although CA show me the balance they will also show me how much is available for me to actually use (ie allowing for imminent DD payments etc) ![]()
Do you mean that your CA bank stat shows the balance per transaction? A running balance?
Cred Mut doesn’t. Nor does Revolut. My Lloyds does. So did my Spanish bank a/c
This means that if I make a mistake on my spreadsheet with Lloyds I can go back to the entry on the bank stat that matches the balance I have on my s/s. I can then quickly work fwd to the entry with the error or see that I’ve missed one out.
With CM or Rev there’s just the balance on the day. As 99% of my transaction are with CM, the mistakes are mostly there.
If my balance doesn’t match the CM balance there’s no way, other than going back ages in history and checking each transaction against the bank stat - tedious.
I have suggested to ‘my man’ at CM, on several occasions, that to add a running balance per transaction to bank stats must be an extremely simple thing for an IT dept to do. I get a fob-off reply.
My ex, a penniless artist, was so good at totting up in her head what the stuff in her trolley cost that she was never a few pence out on a trolley load [3 children to feed] . She had a Polaroid print stuck to her fridge door that someone had taken when there was absolutely nothing in the fridge. This situation became known as ‘The Arctic Wasteland’
How? Maybe for 24-48 hrs, in some cases. They may be small but they will have credit agreements with suppliers payable one month in arrears by bank transfers, possibly by cheques, but the result the same. If the cyber attack takes out retail banking, commercial accounts will go down as well. I doubt very much that ‘small shops/markets’ hold stashes of cash to hand. Not sensible.
When I was in a ‘customer-facing business’ I did everything possible to avoid cash.
By the way, friends who were involved with Richard Branson in his earliest days said he operated with handfuls of fivers.
I don’t know what that is … ?
You have to be able to run a web server, accessible from the internet