Thursday 6 January 2011

Stats about life

From the beginning of 2010, I began using a google spreadsheet (with a form to submit amounts) to track my own (and business) expenses. It started simple, but then the German tax system came into being in my life.

I categorized it into different category, means, and sub-categories, organizing it like:

  • Category: Fun, food, transportation, work expenses, rent, house expenses, communication, insurances, health, education, tax;
  • Type of transaction: cash, debit, credit, or income;
  • Account: in which account (or none if cash);
  • Details: for tracking trips abroad, the amount spent in Fodaphone communications or in my Deutsch Course;
  • VAT: because I can deduct German work expenses;

I mind say that the “Filter” function from google spreadsheets is quite powerfull: Excel doesn’t have such simple function.

Here are some interesting facts:

  • 41 go-out at night since May 2010, averaging €18;
  • €16.6 in average in 57 dinners out;
  • 93 lunches averaging €8.5;
  • At least 70 times to the supermarket;
  • €100 spent in music;
  • €130 spent in 8 book purchases (can be more than 1);
  • €150 in sports (mostly swimming at BBB);
  • €105 spent on my bike;
  • more than €600 spent in transportation in Berlin (BVG);
  • Had 63 (paid) coffees, averaging €3.4, meaning that I had company and they were neither Portuguese nor Italian coffees, which are quite less expensive;

Just imagine what banks can figure out from our life.

2 comments:

André Rodrigues Santos said...

Tenho quase a certeza que o q eu gasto é 50% em noite.. São fases :)

Farinha said...

Even I can figure out a lot about your life:
- You're not going out often enough. 41 times since May? That's hardly once per week. Shameful...
- Nightlife in Berlin is not that expensive. 18€ is barely enough for 4 pints in Ireland. And 4 pints in one night is nothing.
- A lot of dinners out, you. Good life... :P
- At €10 a book, that's quite a bit of reading. I myself have a plan to read at least a book a month in 2011.
- I thought transportation in Germany was more expensive. I think I spend about that per year and that's only from 1 bus each way to work every day...

I should do something like this. And I even started last year, using some webapp, but then got lazy and stopped. The numbers weren't pretty...