Alright, let’s talk about sorting out those St. Martin’s expenses. It sounds straightforward, but man, it turned into a bit of a thing for me.
Getting Started – The Mess
So, first off, I had this pile of stuff related to St. Martin’s – not the island trip I wish it was, maybe more like for a kid’s school project or a church fair, something like that. Can’t quite recall the exact event, but the expenses piled up. My initial genius plan? Just shove all the receipts into a big envelope. Real sophisticated, I know. I thought, “I’ll sort it out later.” Famous last words, right?
Predictably, “later” arrived and that envelope was chaos. Some receipts were faded, some were just scribbled notes I barely understood myself. Trying to figure out what was spent where and why was giving me a headache. It was just a jumbled mess of paper.
Okay, New Plan
I realized the envelope method wasn’t cutting it. Needed something better. I didn’t want anything fancy, no complicated software or apps really. Decided to go old school, but slightly more organized: a simple spreadsheet. Fired up the computer, opened up a basic spreadsheet program – you know the one.
I set up a few columns. Nothing crazy:
- Date
- Item Description (kept this super simple, like ‘craft supplies’ or ‘snacks’)
- Amount
- Category (like ‘Materials’, ‘Food’, ‘Admin’ – just basic buckets)
- Got Receipt? (A simple Yes/No)
The Actual Process – Bit by Bit
Then came the fun part: actually putting the data in. I took that dreaded envelope and started going through it, piece by piece. This took ages. For every receipt I found, I punched the details into my spreadsheet. If I had a digital receipt in my email, I’d input that too. The key thing I forced myself to do was tackle it immediately when a new expense came up, or at least at the end of each day. No more piling up.
It wasn’t smooth sailing all the way. Sometimes I’d buy something small with cash and forget to ask for a receipt, or I’d jot down a note and lose it. For those, I just had to put in my best guess for the description and mark ‘No’ in the receipt column. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
Did It Work?
Yeah, eventually it did. Having everything listed out digitally made a huge difference. I could easily sum up totals for different categories, see exactly where the money went. When someone asked “How much did we spend on X?”, I could actually tell them without digging through a paper mountain.
It wasn’t rocket science, just required a bit of discipline. Sticking to entering stuff regularly was the main thing. The spreadsheet automatically calculated the totals, which saved me some math headaches. Way less stressful than the envelope of doom.
So yeah, that was my adventure with the St. Martin’s expenses. Started messy, ended up using a basic spreadsheet. Simple, but it got the job done. Just needed to actually sit down and do it consistently.
