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I want to create some charts...

July 19th, 2009 at 07:21 pm

I posted this over in the forums but I know that people who blog don't venture over to the forums a lot and vice versa.

In my ever ongoing quest to get BB on board with our finances and to increase his financial IQ, I thought that introducing some graphs and charts to our refrigerator method might help us out a bit.

I want to be able to create some charts that I can use to visually help him and I understand where our finances are compared to our goals.

We currently pay an extra $100 a month on our mortgage- but in times of 'want' BB suddenly thinks that we can keep the extra $100 "this month." I want to create a graph chart to help him see how important it is to save the extra $100.

We have some savings accounts designated to save for various goals...once again BB sometimes thinks we can raid the savings accounts if the need arose. I want to create a line graph so he can see the importance of compounding interest and disciplined savings.

And BB never thinks we have enough accessible spending money. I want to create a pie chart so he can see how much money we really do have to spend compared to what we save.

...And maybe it would be fun to create a pie chart showing how much of our money is geared towards different spending categories such as bills, food, entertainment ext.

Hey it's Sunday afternoon and I am suddenly motivated.

I don't have Microsoft excel. Is there a website where I can create these graphs for free? Does anyone else have visual graphs that they use or is a column like budget the extent of what everyone is doing?

Posted in Monthly spending tracking | 7 Comments »

7 Responses to “I want to create some charts...”

  1. frugaltexan75 Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 01:05 am 1248051943
    1248051943

    Do you have gmail? I *think* gmail's google documents has a graphing feature. If not, then the other possibility I can think of is open office (free download.)

  2. boomeyers Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 02:35 am 1248057346
    1248057346

    Ugh. I am like BB! Good luck, we have thick skulls. Smile

  3. shiela Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 03:53 am 1248062022
    1248062022

    OpenOffice.org is like Windows but for free. I used the Presentation and it's not that bad, and they also have their version of Excel called Spreadsheets. It's very similar to excel.

    Also a lot of bank websites have those calculators that show graphs.

  4. whitestripe Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 06:43 am 1248072182
    1248072182

    good luck Smile

  5. Broken Arrow Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 01:27 pm 1248096422
    1248096422

    Well, I use networthIQ.com. Basically it's not only a way to track your net worth, but they include a basic line chart that you can share with anyone else online.

    This surprised me, but leave it to the federal government to
    Text is come up with a free charting tool and Link is http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/default.aspx
    come up with a free charting tool. I don't use it, so I don't know if it's applicable to your needs.

    For real charting sites, how about www.onlinecharttool.com or chartgizmo.com? I don't use them either, I can't be sure if they're any good. Still, they're worth checking out.

    If nothing else, I think Google Docs or
    Text is Zoho sheets and Link is http://blogs.zoho.com/sheet/publish-charts
    Zoho sheets are both online spreadsheets that can create charts as well.

  6. six Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 01:30 pm 1248096643
    1248096643

    Google Spreadsheets. I have all sorts of charts there.

  7. gamecock43 Says:
    July 20th, 2009 at 10:23 pm 1248128632
    1248128632

    ohhh...lots of ideas! I'll start experimenting this weekend.

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