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The Howlett House: Second Year of Accounts

When I started recording all the financial comings and goings of the Howlett house on the 1st of January last year I hoped it would last the whole year, but wasn't sure whether it would. Well, it did and we're now planning to continue for another year.

Here's how our spending for 2009 breaks down:

 image

What this chart tells us is where we can make drastic changes in 2010.

  • Unsurprisingly, I guess, the largest pie chunk goes to bills, which includes not only stuff like gas, electric, phones and Council Tax, but also the real biggy -- the mortgage.
  • This last year we "finished" the house and so that part of the pie will shrink down to nothing this year, all being well, as there's no DIY or decorating left to do.
  • The big anomaly in the data was the biggest single outgoing of 2009, which was buying a brand new car at the tail-end of the year. Normally the Car segment would only be 2 or 3 percent. Buying a car screwed with the charts a little.
  • The Food category would be better named "Groceries and going out" as it covers all supermarket shopping as well as dining out. Combined with bills, these two categories are the only two that we can't really do much about. It's the other categories we can either get rid of or shrink down massively. If work stopped coming in as readily as last year then we now have an idea what the minimum income we'd need to get by would be.
  • One thing we did manage to do was pay off our loans, so that's another chunk that can go. What I'd like to do transfer is that 5% of the pie in to the measly 2.7% we put aside as savings.
  • I can't remember what I put in the "Entertainment" category, but the fact it accounts for a quarter of a percent doesn't so much about how much fun we had last year, does it!

As an exercise it's been interesting, but not too surprising. The money goes pretty much where I'd have expected. What I've got out of it is a better idea just how much goes in to each category and where changes can be made.

The plan for 2010 is drastically reduce the total outgoing of the house. The bigger ("five year") plan is to start chipping away at the mortgage - paying in lump sums whenever we can. I'd love to have it paid off within the next 5 to 10 years, rather than 20 years, which is how long it will take at the current rate.

The Accounts Package

Now we're in a new year I've had to make some changes to the Flex app I use to record finances so it can start afresh and use data visualisation to compare and contrast the running totals for this year with those from last year.

If you want to do the same for your house then now is the time to start (assuming you can remember what you've spent in the last four days, so you'll have a full record for the year). Once you've set up scheduled incomings/outgoings such as bills and wages, then all that's left to do is input what else you spend. We do this through an Android app I wrote. It's not actually that much of a chore once you get used to it!

If any of you do want to do it then either email me or leave a comment and I can send you either the Domino or LAMP version of the app.

Comments

    • avatar
    • Dragon Cotterill
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 04:07 AM

    I suspect that I will certainly need this for this year. We're planning big changes in the Dragon household. Hopefully the pitter-patter of a little Dragon. Like you, I want to throw a huge wedge of monies at the mortgage as this will make a huge dent in the long term fortunes.

    So far this year, my only expenditure is travel. South West Trains, with ever a watchful eye on my wallet, have done a lot to lighten mine, whilst fattening theirs. :(

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Mon 4 Jan 2010 04:13 AM

      Are you wanting a copy of the code or going to bake your own?

      Good look with baking a little Dragon btw!

      Show the rest of this thread

  1. Hi Jake.

    Happy New Year. I'd love to try out the Domino version of the app if possible.

    • avatar
    • Doug Finner
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 05:35 AM

    A few years back, we decided to split 'dining' out of 'food' using the logic that we need to eat but we don't need to eat out. When we saw how much of out budget went to dining out, we modified our behavior.

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Mon 4 Jan 2010 06:24 AM

      Same here. The chart I showed above show "top level categories" only. The "food" category is then split in to two subcategories - supermarket and eating out, so we know how much we spend on each. Like you I was shocked to see just how we spend on dining out. Hopefully that will be something else we change in 2010.

      Show the rest of this thread

  2. "This last year we 'finished' the house and so that part of the pie will shrink down to nothing this year, all being well, as there's no DIY or decorating left to do."

    Hah.

    Having spent many years observing those of my gender that have attached themselves to the opposite gender, I say this unto you:

    1. Get it in writing.

    2. In stone.

    3. Hard stone. Not sandstone. Don't fall for that trick.

    Whenever I have heard anyone tell me that the house is finished, invariably they are doing something new and exciting to the house six months later.

    So when you're getting it written in stone, get a penalty clause put in there. ;-)

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Mon 4 Jan 2010 07:27 AM

      Note the "quotes" I put round the word finished ;o)

      Karen isn't as much to blame for the never-endingness of the DIY as I am really. Men need projects! I'm already having to stop myself from mentally planning a loft conversion (guest bedroom and kids' games room would be good, but will have to wait...).

    • avatar
    • Jorge
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 07:26 AM

    If you want some inspiration for future enhancements you might want to check out these sites.

    www.Wesabe.com (also available in UK)

    www.mint.com (not currently available in UK)

    I use mint.com personally and it has a very nice clean interface. They also provide a number of mobile apps, which allow me to check up on spending on the go.

    • avatar
    • jay
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 08:59 AM

    Hi Jack

    Hope u have more fun this new year! I am interested in the domino version of the accounts app - lovely work as usual and take care!

    • avatar
    • Fernando Rodriguez
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 12:12 PM

    Hi Jake, happy new year.

    If is possible I'd like to try your Domino version.

    Many thanks

    • avatar
    • Palmi
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 03:09 PM

    Happy New year to you and your family Jake ;)

    if possible I'd like also to try your Domino version. Great Job.

    • avatar
    • Adam
    • Mon 4 Jan 2010 04:53 PM

    Hi Jake, do you import some of your data from your bank accounts? I normally export a Quicken file from my online bank account and then import it into Quicken. Some of the transactions are already categorized. Are you able to import certain file types into your Domino app, say csv files?

      • avatar
      • Jake Howlett
      • Tue 5 Jan 2010 03:26 AM

      Hi Adam,

      No, it doesn't import from my bank account. It would be too much (for me at least) to remember not to manually enter transactions I know would appear in there at the point I imported a bank statement. Then there's the issue of duplicates and that bank statements don't really tell you much about what the outgoing was (just shop's code).

      Possible but just not the way I wanted to do it personally.

      Show the rest of this thread

  3. Jake, kindly send me the Domino Version. Thanks a lot for the same.

  4. Hi Jake,

    I want to use the application for tracking my spendings. Really fantastic application.

    Please send me the Domino version.

    Can we show the incomings also?

  5. I tried doing this a last year with paper and it was nasty...so I gave up. The lamp version would be great please.

    Thanks

    • avatar
    • Michael Herman
    • Tue 5 Jan 2010 10:35 AM

    Hi Jake,

    I'd love a copy of the Domino and Lamp versions...

    I need to start using it to find out where all the money goes!?!

    ...or at least to help jumpstart my flex dev skills... : )

    Beautiful work btw (as always).

    • avatar
    • Jani Krunniniva
    • Tue 5 Jan 2010 12:02 PM

    Hi Jake,

    I would like too have domino copy.

    • avatar
    • Frank Westmoreland
    • Tue 5 Jan 2010 12:31 PM

    If you would be so kind to send me the domino copy of code... Thanks...

  6. Jake, I'd love a copy of the Domino app... thanks!

    • avatar
    • Srinivas
    • Tue 12 Jan 2010 06:23 AM

    Hi Jake,

    I would like to have domino copy. Thanks

  7. Hi Jake, excellent work!

    I tried to accomplish almost the same as you, but in a different perspective.

    Let me explain!

    I want to keep my finances monitored, but the worst part is to input and classify data.

    Based on the point that we spend money thru credit cards/debit cards/wire transfers/and cash, why not "import" our bank statatement/ eletronic credit card statement, etc?

    By importing, it could be as simple as going to the bank/Credit card's website, copy than paste in our "app".

    That will make sure all your expenses are into the "app". Now what we need is to classify them.

    Of course we could make some "rules" to auto-classify if some "REGEX" match!

    I did a lot of "brain work" on this, if you want to discuss, It'll be an honour.

    I have been playing with Groovy/Grails to do that, but you're by far ahead of me.

    Thanks!

    Anyway, I'm interested in the LAMP version! ;-)

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Written by Jake Howlett on Mon 4 Jan 2010

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CodeStore is all about web development. Concentrating on Lotus Domino, ASP.NET, Flex, SharePoint and all things internet.

Your host is Jake Howlett who runs his own web development company called Rockall Design and is always on the lookout for new and interesting work to do.

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