Topic: Excel 2010 Help

[ren]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/11195257/excel.jpg

I use this spreadsheet to keep track of all my expenses. All the data feeds into the pivot table and pivot chart. I want to arrange the different sections of the graph manually so I can group certain related categories together. For example, NSLC (where you buy alcohol in Nova Scotia) would make more sense next to Bar expenses instead of with Rent. So I go to manual sort and as it says in the picture, I should be able to drag to rearrange. That doesn't happen though, dragging does nothing. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?

[gpw11]

I'm not sure but you're not spending nearly enough at the bar.

[ren]

I know. I spent too much in prior years and now I'm running low on funds so this spreadsheet is supposed to help me fix that. Going out got cut in frequency and also turned into predrinking, going to places without cover and not buying anything. It's obviously not as fun as going all out but it's not as bad as it sounds.

[scottws]

You're way more of an Excel power user than I am.  I always hear accountants talking about pivot tables, but I don't know what they are.

Why don't you use something like mint.com?

[ren]

Interesting. I had always assumed mint.com was a US thing but I see from their website they have a Canadian section. The auto-pulling from banking information would be really convenient but then I would lose some of the more specific information that I like to look at. Right now I go further than category into specific items so instead of looking at the total for groceries I can go specifically to bananas and have an automatic graph of how many bananas I eat on a weekly basis.

That and I like to mess with Excel to keep my skills honed. Every office-based job I've had I've been able to make myself valuable from Excel skills alone and playing with my own spreadsheets is the best way to learn new stuff.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I think mint is something I'll start recommending to people looking for an easier way to keep track of purchases.

[gpw11]

Jesus.  You're tracking it down to the banana?  Awesome.

And yeah, Mint.com is pretty good.  Canadian support is pretty much fine, with only some info you're going to have to manually input.  I don't find it helps, but it sure is easy.

[ren]

Bananas. If you're going to track things, you may as well go all out

[gpw11]

See, I do get what you're saying here, but I don't really see the purposes of tracking your banana consumption in a financial spreadsheet.  Like, you'll know how much you're spending on bananas, but what can you do with that information?  I imagine you're not consuming enough to work out some sort of elaborate price-hedging arrangement with Chiquita.

[scottws]

If you're tracking it down to the number of individual items consumed, it sounds like you are really getting beyond the bounds of what Excel is designed for and need to look into making your own database-driven application.

[ren]

I just like graphs. I don't plan on doing anything at all with this information, it's just fun to look at.

Scott, do you have any database suggestions? Is this the kind of thing Access is designed for? I've never used any database software before and this could be a fun excuse to learn.