About me :)

Its been a while. I know. Im slacking. I do have a TON to write about although a lot of it is too deep to share on a blog, so poo to that. Buuut anyways, I have been busy... crafting and pinning and updating the homestead. But i will try to be the blogger i like to read (ie one who posts) and post far more often.

Confession: I am mildly addicted to Microsoft Excel.

Ok, more like crazily addicted, but really who's keeping track? I pretty much use it all day everyday at work, so therefore anytime i need anything, a list, an invitation, a program, a functional calculating spreadsheet I make it in Excel. A weightloss tracking sheet? Sure! What about a WW points calculator? No doubt! How about a baby registry input sheet? Ofcourse. Maybe even a fully functional bridal sheet calulating anything from budget to actual expenditures and even a cost comparison of favor ideas.You betcha (because you know i totally have one!)! My good friends make fun of me for my spreadsheet love, but they most certainly come in handy. Seeing as i use this bad mamba-jamba of awesomeness everyday ALL day, i am quite the fan of it and can manuever myself around it with ease. My current favorite is my Wedding File. I used it to maintain my wedding budget and all related ideas. It is fully functional with a tab for each area and ended up being a "Pinterest Board" before there was pinterest. Crazy i know BUT it helped me come in a few thousand under budget AND helped be get my greatly desired wedding seat covers . I am more than happy to share with ANY who need it :)

Anyone else have a crazy addiction?

On a side note (which maybe explains a bit of WHYY i have a wonderful relationship with Excel), i find NO ONE ever knows what i do. At times its nice to fly under the radar of random financial/business related questions, because believe it or not people think i became a teacher. But no i did not. teaching was most definitely NOT for me. I remember taking an entry level teaching class and thinkin "Oh heck no, i do not want to do this" so all you teachers out there, props for doing what you do, because i most certainly could not do your job. Having said that, what do i doooo? Well i am a cost analyst, which is similar to a financial analyst, but not to be confused with the financial analysts who deal with stock, bonds, nor those who do financial advising and not to be confused with accountants. Well gee what are there if not those? somewhere in between are these select few wonderkinds who maintain those GINORMOUS budgets for all those programs or projects to do what they gotta do, or build what they have to build. Enter me, little old me. That is what i do. In simple terms. I forecast headcounts and dollar amounts, build spreadsheets and report actuals, approve purchases and track spending. So for example, if the project were "Building a house" i would compile the estimates from all the subcontractors into a central project budget and then essentially approve purchases for materials and then track the actuals spent to build the house (for each subcontractor) so that we did not go over budget. Ofcourse that is just the general snipet of my job, its not anywhere NEAR a full description, but rather a very broad overview. So now you know why oh WHY i do just about everything in excel and know just another snipet about me :)

So there, happy monday.