Financial
Weekly Receipts Envelope (#10)
Submitted by blowncue on Tue, 2008-02-05 06:17.This template prints onto a 4 1/8" x 9 1/2" envelope (aka #10 size or "business" envelope). Top line allows entering of month/year/week.
6 x 35 table with columns for date, details, bank, debit or credit card, amount, and expense type.
Ideal for heavy plastic users who generate piles of receipts and dream about reconciling their bank statements and tracking their expenses.
Test print onto a piece of paper. You may need to set print setup to "landscape" for your envelope. Feed them in one at a time to avoid off-center printing. Text and margins reconfigurable with OpenOffice Writer.
I divide each month into 4-5 weeks and print one envelope per week.
For week 1, I put 2/1 in the top row and 2/7 in the bottom row. Then for week 2, 2/8 in the top row and 2/15 in the bottom row, and so on.
I put a "D" if a debit card, "C" if a credit card, "$" if I used cash.
For cash back during POS transactions, I use two lines for my entry, with the second line saying "W/D" in the "Details" column and "$" in the "Type" column.
For gas purchases, I enter in the Details column the vendor, price/gal and # gals.
If I need a receipt for tax, warranty or reimbursement purposes I put a "T" "W" or "R" on the left edge of a given row. I use different colored highlighers and zigzag over the corresponding receipts. You can try colored stickers.
You can always print on both sides for 70 rows if you love to itemize expense categories.
I designed this template with an emphasis on creating an envelope you could carry with you to collect receipts.
I use personal finance software so I do not worry if I have a receipt covering multiple types of expenses, I just write "MIXED." I categorize when reconciling paper to digital. If you use paper I suggest you write "SNEAKERS" instead of "CLOTHING" at this stage. I find it's easier for me to classify from specifics than to have to remember specifics from a category.
The #10 envelope is big enough to hold the stupidly long receipts you get if you fold them in half.
Monthly Receipt Envelope
Submitted by jonglass on Thu, 2008-01-10 21:11.This is just another envelope for your receipts. Last year, I used the official receipt envelopes by Doug, but by the end of the year, I was quite tired of all the work it took to cut out, fold and glue them. I thought they were a bit too complicated, so one day, while playing with a piece of paper, I came up with this idea for folding and cutting. The form is just the weekly expense form I made last year for the template contest that you can find somewhere on this site. ;-) You can find the template HERE.
Putting it together:
If you are using scissors, it's only a couple cuts, and with a straight edge and X-acto knife it's even faster. Cut on the solid lines, and fold on the dotted lines.
Gluing is rather simple, too. I fold the sides, glue them, and then fold up the bottom flap, and glue that on the outside, but you could fold the sides, and glue the bottom flap on the inside.
To be really spiffy, you can take the two top corners, and, holding them together, cut a bit off (in an S-curve shape), so that, when it's all folded together, you have a notch in the back of the envelope. (If anybody wants help on understanding this, I can post an image on Flickr.)
Use:
Quite straight-forward. As you accumulate expense receipts, just toss them into the envelope. If you want or need to for business purposes, you can notate the expense on the front (or on the expense form I posted earlier--if I find a link, I'll add it here).
You can, of course punch these for adding to your binder, or for archiving purposes.
Both a PDF and OpenOffice.org drawing files are enclosed, so you can modify it if you wish.
One last point. I made this in A4 size, but I'm suspecting that US Letter should work OK, too.
One Year of Monthly Zero Based Budgets UPDATE: 1.2 version for OpenOffice/NeoOffice & Excel
Submitted by supenguin on Mon, 2007-09-03 00:44.Zero based budget spreadsheet for doing a budget for 12 months. Based on the concept described by Dave Ramsey.
Update: 1.1 includes some tweaks and a iWork '08 Numbers version.
Update: 1.2 includes a major bug fix for the OpenOffice/NeoOffice & Excel version. The way totals were calculated, all months would reflect the totals from January. This bug was not present in the Numbers version.
Note:I had to zip the Numbers version to get it to attach. Unzip it and then open with Numbers.
At the beginning of the month, fill in the income and expenses you expect for the month. Include how much you will save for emergencies, debts you will pay off, and money you will give away. The difference between your income and all the other things should equal $0. Live on this budget and then fill out the "actual income" and "actual expenses" sections at the end of the month to see how you did.
You should be able to print it out in various sizes, but I have found landscape letter size works about the best.
License details included as part of the spreadsheet itself.
Day planning with to do list and expense tracker
Submitted by irian on Fri, 2007-07-13 23:51.This template fits a page size 2.75x4.25 inches, which results from dividing a letter sized page in 8. The template has a weekly calendar (names of days are in Spanish, sorry, but they can be easily modified), with space for appointments on the left side. On the right side, there is a small to do list, for all things that need to be done that week not tied to a particular date. At the bottom track, I use that space as an expense tracker: it has three columns, where the left one is used for the day (no need to add the full date since this is already a calendar), the description in the middle and the amount in the right.
The template was created using Inkscape. It allows me to have an overview of relevant things per week in a format small enough to carry even in my pocket. And because the paper size is a fraction of a letter size paper, there is no waste of paper. I tried creating an 8-up version, but doesn't work as well due to the reduced margins in my printer, so I deleted it.
I'm including the template in PDF format, as well as the source file for Inkscape (SVG format).
Works best printed on pieces of 1/8 letter paper. It is tiny, and very portable, so a small pen is recommended. I print a bunch of these, and punch them at the top, then use a ring to bind them together, along with a protective/decorative cover.
Monsters Categorized Expense Tracker
Submitted by monsters on Thu, 2006-12-28 16:40.A personal expense tracker with categories.
Here is my adaptation of an expense template, 4 up in ODG and PDF (I folded mine, so i've got 4 sheets for re-use).
I’ve added a categories column, and category legend (so you only use 1 letter to specify the category) with a couple lines (maybe too small) for entering your own category.
Every now and then, drop it in your inbox for processing and grab a fresh one.
Matt's Budget Card
Submitted by tmhorne on Fri, 2006-08-11 17:01.A simple budget template based on another one and the widget set.
Print from PDF directly onto a 3x5 index card.
Keep-It-Simple Financial Planning (Part 2)
Submitted by jordanjm on Wed, 2006-06-07 06:13.
Last Week in Keep-It-Simple Financial Planning (Part 1) I shared the economic theory of utility, which says that people have an unlimited amount of desires, and only limited means to fulfill them. Is Debt bad? I shared the basic financial terms for understanding how debt works, and then we walked through a Net Worth analysis. This week we are going to start where we left off, and make a plan to get out of debt.
The first rule of financial planning is Do Not Go into More Debt. Plan to spend only as much as you bring in every month (or less). If you use your credit cards make sure new balances are paid in full each month. Credit cards become crutches and all too often we find ourselves not having enough balance on the card when a true emergency arrives. However, if you find it hard to wean yourself off the credit card, then make them hard to use. Wrap them in paper, and freeze them in ice. Or slide them in an envelope that gets tucked away in your filing cabinet. Because the cards are no longer accessible, you become forced to consider how you use your cards.
Keep-It-Simple Financial Planning (Part 1)
Submitted by jordanjm on Sun, 2006-05-28 10:02.When you look at your finances, do you feel empowered or depressed? There are few things in our personal lives which run to such extremes as our finances. Do you understand how to pay off your debts? Will you be ready for your retirement? Will you be able to retire? Do you get calls from collection agents because you have late bills? When an investment advisor tells you they have the perfect investment, do you know how to do the research for yourself, or do you blindly follow along, and get burned when the "hot" investment is a failure? If any of these are true for you, then I have good news: you can live comfortably now, pay off your debts, and prepare for the unexpected problems in the future.
Mind Mapping for Business
Submitted by chrisbrogan on Tue, 2006-05-09 10:00.
There's an exercise I practice about once every three months that I call "Should I Quit?" In it, I map out all the reasons why it's a great idea to stay at my current place of business, and I map out all the things that bother me, and that might merit my packing up and moving on. I use it as a way to purge frustration, but also, as a way to uncover new thoughts about a situation or topic that I believe I have all the answers for, and there's where mind maps come in.
Mind maps are an excellent tool for unlocking information and connected ideas by representing information in a visual medium. I'm a big convert to using mind maps. I use them for blogging, for story ideas, and other creative endeavors, but I also use mind maps for business in a number of ways. Here are some of the uses I have for the new Hipster PDA Edition v3 Mind Map card.
