Spreadsheetmania

*So I still don't have a working camera, hence never posted those reveal pictures mentioned last month...I'm hoping to borrow a camera over Christmas. I'm sure you've all forgotten by now anyway!

I made a joke to a friend the other day, after becoming obsessively involved with making a spreadsheet to use for household costs, utilities and rent payments for myself and my roommates, that maybe spreadsheets should be my new hobby. I even joked that perhaps I should start a blog about them.

Well, I didn't go quite that far (though I wonder if the url AdventuresInSpreadsheeting is taken? Things To Do While Making a Spreadsheet?)  I did decide though that my beloved, and can I say it, beautiful, work of spreadsheet-ness was worth at least a quick post. I mean, just look:

Pretty colors, right? And it's got all the functions 5 flatmates could need. It's based on the spreadsheet created by my soon to depart roommate, but I gave it an updated format, and included important contact info, more room to write the details of your purchases, and some nice colors. It was a great excuse to finally learn all the excel formulas and how to make them work. 

Now I want to make spreadsheets for other things, too.

In case you're wondering, the function of this spreadsheet is to allow roommates who pay a house bill (such as the electric bill) or buy something for the house (such as TP) to be evenly and easily reimbursed. Since our landlord doesn't care the amount of each of our checks, so long as it adds up to the total rent, we deduct money owed to each other and adjust the amount of each person's rent check. This way we don't have to pay the rent and then pay each of the roommates who bought something one fifth of what they paid (yes, there are 5 of us.) The spreadsheet also allows any roommate to transfer money to one other roommate for purchases instead of splitting a cost across all 5 roommates if desired. This also is an original function of the spreadsheet this was replacing. It comes in handy if your roommate buys you a few groceries while they're at the store, and you don't have any cash on you. We use it on Google Docs so that each roommate and access and update it from their own computers, or from wherever they are able to get online.

If you live with roommates, and would like to give this template I created a shot, or just if you are are curious, you can view it here. I've wiped out the personal information such as our rent rate and address, so this is just blank to let you get a sense of how it works. If you live with multiple roommates and wish to use my spreadsheet, just email me and I will email you a blank template you can start with. I will even adjust it to work for 3, 4, or 5 roommates if you wish!