Alright, alright, bear with me. It ain't perfect, but I just thought of this 2hrs ago and I had a little fun creating this.
Know the Hogwarts house point system? Points are awarded for good behavior and deducted for rule-breaking. These points are tracked in large hourglasses with gems (rubies for Gryffindor, sapphires for Ravenclaw etc). Then at the end of the year Dumbledore awards Gryffindor the house cup the house with the most points wins the cup.
As a massive HP fan slash finance nerd, I figured it'd be fun to do a budget tracker in this style. I included the Ilvermorny houses, because I have more than 4 categories to track. I tried to match the house with the budget category:
Gryffindor - bravery: going out/entertainment. Yes, this is bravery to me. I'm a solid introvert.
Ravenclaw- wisdom: personal spending. I used to keep this category down to zero, but I've learned there's wisdom in taking care of yourself.
Hufflepuff - loyalty: gifts. The 'Puffs are kindness personified. Alternatively, this could be a food budget (dorm by the kitchen? The 'Puffs know what's up).
Slytherin - ambition. Paying down my mortgage is my most ambitious goal, thought it was fitting.
Ilvermorny houses (the colors on the spreadsheet are randomly chosen, as there are no house colors):
Thunderbird - adventurers. Travel, of course!
Wampus - warriors. Their symbol is a cat-like predator, so I'll use this as my cat fund (mostly for vet trips and food)
Pukwudgie - healers. Great place to save up for the yearly health insurance payment plus a little buffer for out of pocket stuff.
Horned serpent - scholars. Of course investments, as that's the best proven way to build wealth.
Alright, some rules! Feel free to suggest changes, I just made this up on the fly.
1. Fill in a block in the left column when you've saved for that category. Fill in the right column when you spend. That way you can see how much catch-up you need to do to stick to the original plan. Or how much wiggle room you have. Especially handy for big expenses, like travel.
2. I used a grid of 24 rows, for updates twice a month. You won't save/spend the same in every category, so divide your yearly estimate by 24. For example, I save 2 rows every month. One row for travel is 100, so I save 200 a month. If I can only save 100 due to unforeseen circumstances, I can still fill in 1 row instead of 2. Incidentally, most of my travel is paid for by my May bonus, so I won't save evenly across months, rather than just 1 or 2 lump sums. I feel this type of tracker is great for that.
3. For investments: the saving part is setting the money aside, the spending part is actually buying stocks. For mortgage: saving up vs making the payment. Et cetera.
4. If you overspend and you're already at the top of your column, you fill in the bottom cell of that column black (or multiple cells, as much as you've gone overboard). The black at the bottom signifies that the foundation of your House is rotting and you should do something quick! Sell something, make extra income, tighten the belt on groceries or something. Then you can fill that black cell back to the original color. In no way can you rob other House foundations for this. That's just shoveling shit around and you might accidentally create a chamber of secrets. Don't do it.
5. You are not in 1 house. Hell, you're ALL the houses and you want to win them all! You win when your savings columns are filled and you haven't overspent. A full spending column is okay - that's why you've been saving. But no overspending.
So, what do you guys think? I'd love to make a real life representation of this with real hourglasses, but that's ironically not in the budget. If there's someone with magic excel skills who can add that little bit of sparkle to the spreadsheet, I'd really love that too!
I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
