[CS-FSLUG] Confessions of a Dumb Spreadsheet User

[Davo Smith]

If you want to add another alternative to the list - I've been using
HomeBank ( http://homebank.free.fr/ ) for a couple of years for our
accounts. It was a big improvement on the complex spreadsheet I was using
before that. (I also briefly tried out GnuCash, but found it far too
complicated for what I wanted to do).

Davo

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 11:29 PM, Don Parris <parrisdc at gmail.com> wrote:

> @ sjm - I tried GnuCash, and it's ok, except for splitting my paycheck
> - income & taxes, etc.  I managed to do it successfully once, and then
> 2 weeks later, it was like having to learn it all over again.  For me,
> it was pretty frustrating - I didn't have the patience with it that I
> would have liked.  Of course, I'm a little older now, and might try it
> again.
>
> @ Tim - When I started this spreadsheet project, the idea was to track
> my spending so I could establish a reasonable baseline.  Over the
> first 2 years, I managed to improve my tracking - and, of course, my
> spending habits.  It's been very helpful, to say the least.  I like to
> keep it 'reasonable' and do use it to help me achieve my goals.
>
> Even so, I tend to dread manually entering the receipts, and my
> favorite thing here is that I can accomplish more with less effort.  I
> only use cash in certain situations, so the ability to simply import
> my transactions is really helpful.  Yes, I still have to categorize,
> but that helps me to verify the transactions.
>
>
>
>
> On 4/12/11, Tim Young <Tim.Young at lightsys.org> wrote:
> > Of course, any time someone talks about how you can put 10 years
> > worth of data into any one thing, my thoughts immediately switch over
> > to thoughts about "backups"  :)
> >
> > My wife and I use a database package that we created, that does about
> > the same sort of thing.  The end result is that we can better see how
> > we have spent our finances instead of giving us strict guidelines on
> > how to spend the finances.  When we were first married, we had some
> > long discussions about the concept of a "budget."  I was thinking
> > that a budget was supposed to guide your spending habits (put
> > limitations on spending), while my wife thought it was something that
> > let you observe how things are spent and give you a baseline to
> > compare things to.  We have the world's most flexible "budget".  As
> > missionaries, we do not have a consistent income (the amount changes
> > fairly regularly), and we spend about 8-months of the year driving
> > from one mission to the next, so our gas expense changes
> > dramatically.  So our "budgeting" program allows us to change the
> > budget after the fact.  We look to see where our funds were spend, we
> > look to see how much came in, and then we change the budget
> > accordingly, though the sum of all budget items never exceeds the
> > amount that came in that month.  If we go over budget in a category
> > one month, we keep a negative amount in that category until we "pay
> > it back off" the next month or two.  Originally, I thought this was
> > the most insane form of "budgeting", as it threw out the concept of
> > being a guideline to follow.  But it does do what it needs to do, in
> > that we can see, month-by-month, how we have spent our money and make
> > sure we are not over-spending for our income.
> >
> > All that to say, it is fun to learn new technologies, but it is
> > better yet to hear that you have a good budgeting system that works
> > for you.  I think we all need to be wise stewards of our finances,
> > regardless of the wacky ways, technologies, or methods we use.  And
> > it seems like you may even be having some fun while doing it.  :)
> >
> >      - Tim Young
> >
> > On 4/11/2011 7:11 PM, Don Parris wrote:
> >> Now you all can come along and tell me how you do it back in
> >> Cleveland.  Or Machu Picchu or whereever.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://cs.uninetsolutions.com
> >
>
>
> --
> D.C. Parris, FMP LEED AP O+M
> Minister, Security/FM Coordinator, Free Software Advocate
> https://www.xing.com/profile/Don_Parris
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/dcparris
> http://www.facebook.com/don.parris
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
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