[CS-FSLUG] Confessions of a Dumb Spreadsheet User

[David McGlone]

On Wed, 2011-04-13 at 07:58 +0100, Davo Smith wrote:
> 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).

I just installed homebank and it is nice, but it doesn't have the
ability to download transactions. :-(

> 
> 
> 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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>         >
>         
>         
>         
>         --
>         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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