When I started recording all the financial comings and goings of the Howlett house on the 1st of January last year I hoped it would last the whole year, but wasn't sure whether it would. Well, it did and we're now planning to continue for another year.

Here's how our spending for 2009 breaks down:

What this chart tells us is where we can make drastic changes in 2010.

• Unsurprisingly, I guess, the largest pie chunk goes to bills, which includes not only stuff like gas, electric, phones and Council Tax, but also the real biggy -- the mortgage.
• This last year we "finished" the house and so that part of the pie will shrink down to nothing this year, all being well, as there's no DIY or decorating left to do.
• The big anomaly in the data was the biggest single outgoing of 2009, which was buying a brand new car at the tail-end of the year. Normally the Car segment would only be 2 or 3 percent. Buying a car screwed with the charts a little.
• The Food category would be better named "Groceries and going out" as it covers all supermarket shopping as well as dining out. Combined with bills, these two categories are the only two that we can't really do much about. It's the other categories we can either get rid of or shrink down massively. If work stopped coming in as readily as last year then we now have an idea what the minimum income we'd need to get by would be.
• One thing we did manage to do was pay off our loans, so that's another chunk that can go. What I'd like to do transfer is that 5% of the pie in to the measly 2.7% we put aside as savings.
• I can't remember what I put in the "Entertainment" category, but the fact it accounts for a quarter of a percent doesn't so much about how much fun we had last year, does it!

As an exercise it's been interesting, but not too surprising. The money goes pretty much where I'd have expected. What I've got out of it is a better idea just how much goes in to each category and where changes can be made.

The plan for 2010 is drastically reduce the total outgoing of the house. The bigger ("five year") plan is to start chipping away at the mortgage - paying in lump sums whenever we can. I'd love to have it paid off within the next 5 to 10 years, rather than 20 years, which is how long it will take at the current rate.

The Accounts Package

Now we're in a new year I've had to make some changes to the Flex app I use to record finances so it can start afresh and use data visualisation to compare and contrast the running totals for this year with those from last year.

If you want to do the same for your house then now is the time to start (assuming you can remember what you've spent in the last four days, so you'll have a full record for the year). Once you've set up scheduled incomings/outgoings such as bills and wages, then all that's left to do is input what else you spend. We do this through an Android app I wrote. It's not actually that much of a chore once you get used to it!

If any of you do want to do it then either email me or leave a comment and I can send you either the Domino or LAMP version of the app.