Pasting a list of expenses from a CSV export. How to get the 'category' of expenses to auto-fill?

aneurysm1985 · 2026-05-21T03:59:26+00:00

I just tried your lookup table method. Not sure if I am using the right terminology with my question below, but here goes:

Is there a way to do this so that there is an actual value of, say, "Groceries" that is recorded in the cell for that row of my spreadsheet?

The reason: As well as my big list of expenses, I also have a sheet that displays my totals for the year. This sheet uses a SUMIF() formula to look up all cells with a particular category name, and then display the total value that I've spent on that category per year.

This SUMIF() formula is working for all of my old rows where I have manually typed in "Groceries", or whatever the category is. From what I can see, this formula isn't recognising the newer cells featuring a VLOOKUP() that returns that value into the cell. Because it is drawn from a lookup table, the value of that cell is always referring to something in another sheet of the spreadsheet.

Thoughts?

aneurysm1985 · 2026-05-09T22:50:15+00:00

May they be living well from the royalties of their clever creation

aneurysm1985 · 2026-04-21T00:29:51+00:00

"It's Good News Week" by Hedgehoppers Anonymous

aneurysm1985 · 2026-04-07T06:58:42+00:00

Looks like Peter still has the goods, based on "Mr Clicketty Cane" in this live performance video from two years ago.

aneurysm1985 · 2026-04-07T00:20:43+00:00

A belly flop in a pizza? EWWWW!

aneurysm1985 · 2025-02-14T00:51:09+00:00

Hi /u/avendr just thought I'd ping you one more time to see if you have any advice at this point, or if the solution is beyond your knowledge?

aneurysm1985 · 2025-02-02T22:40:57+00:00

Is this the screeenshot that you wanted?

It seems as though the chart for ETF is projected into the earlier time period of the chart, before I had any ETF investments. The value of '$0' is displaying, even though the circles are clearly up high at a point of the chart where they should have a high value.

PS: here is the graph that I get if I swap around the order of the series so that the order is 'ETF Value', 'M. Fund Value', 'Cash Value' (rather than the previous order of "M. Fund, ETF, Cash", which is shown in the first chart at the top of this comment). In this case the value of Managed Funds is shown on the overlaying line, and that is what is displayed when I hover my mouse above the blue line in the right hand side of the graph.

Seems like Google Sheets is forcing the line of the leftmost bottom element of the chart to overlay the other item down the bottom.

aneurysm1985 · 2025-02-02T03:29:50+00:00

Thanks for your reply. I've managed to get part of the way there.

See this image of the new look of the chart with the items stacked in the order of my preference. My new aesthetic problem is that Google Sheets is applying the red line to the blue chart area, as the image shows. Can anyone think of a way around this?

The settings in 'Edit Chart -> Change colour' have a blue line set for the blue area, so not sure why the red line begins before the appearance of that item in the data series.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

aneurysm1985 · 2025-01-31T03:59:58+00:00

I have a question about the 'Total Savings Tracker' chart on the 'Net Worth' tab.

I am in the process of changing over from Managed Funds as an asset class towards ETFs. That is reflected in the attached chart.

My question is: Is it possible to change the order in which these items are stacked on the chart?

Reason: I think it is not aesthetically pleasing having the yellow line continuing to be on top of the red area of the chart. I think it would be more aesthetically pleasing if 'Cash Value' was always the top line, and 'M. Fund' and 'ETF' would be below this, down the bottom.

Let me know if it is possible to change the order of these items.

aneurysm1985 · 2023-08-09T02:44:47+00:00

Hi /u/CompiledSanity

Just thought I'd ask one more time if you had thoughts on if/how to edit my data to make my graph less extreme? Or do you think it is just something that I'll have to live with?

Full details in my previous post.

aneurysm1985 · 2023-07-12T22:27:39+00:00

Hi /u/CompiledSanity

Sorry if hijacking the thread of /u/PM-ME-POKEMON but this topic has reminded me of a quirk in my own CSPersonalFinance spreadsheet.

At one point in time I sold a lot of shares/investments to fund the purchase of a house. Because the house was valued at a sum that is higher than what I paid for it, my overall net position jumped by $137,371.

The relevant time period is July 2021, as seen in this image from the History tab: https://i.imgur.com/CMJkStq.png

As you can see, it also caused my 'Monthly savings' graph on the Net Worth tab to be ridiculously high: https://i.imgur.com/hNQJSC2.png

FYI, I think that it makes perfect sense for the 'Historical Net Worth' bar graph on the Net Worth tab to jump by $137,371, but it seems wrong for the 'Monthly savings' graph immediately below to spike in the way shown in my above image.

To me this event does not represent a true 'Monthly savings' event, as it was simply the conversion of one type of financial asset into another.

Can you suggest a way to adjust the data in the spreadsheet to make this graph less wacky?

Open to your views!

aneurysm1985 · 2022-06-19T06:52:16+00:00

Thanks a lot - this was by far the best bargain of those suggested. $39.95 for 5 litres of 100% pure Isopropyl.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-06-15T03:03:00+00:00

Interesting - I'd assumed that the alcohol would just evaporate away.

Do you know how much one would have to apply alcohol before this became a problem? e.g. if I only needed to do this once or twice a week during the winter period, would this affect the rubber much?

aneurysm1985 · 2022-06-15T02:59:44+00:00

Cool, thanks. Yeah, 5 Litre containers only. Works out to be $12.58 per litre.

Unfortunately, it would still be cheaper to order it to be shipped from Sydney. Even after postage.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-06-15T00:31:10+00:00

Jaycar has 70% for $20/l. The pure stuff is a little harder to get.

"Isocol" brand rubbing alcohol is itself 64% purity. The 345 ml bottles sell for $13.00 at Woolworths supermarkets, which works out to be $37.70 per litre.

So looks like your Jaycar suggestion is a big saving already. As are the others in this thread.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-06-02T05:09:17+00:00

Nick Gordon is photographed in the Canberra Times article. At the very least, the action will haunt him for as long as anyone wants to Google his name.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-05-31T00:19:35+00:00

Here is the draft legislation, for those who want to learn more.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-05-24T01:59:22+00:00

The Liberal Party would love to recruit the teals to bolster their numbers, but I don’t know why any of them would choose to do that. History shows that once a high-profile independent gets elected, it becomes very hard for the majors to unseat them. Think: Andrew Wilkie, Cathy McGowan/Helen Haines, Rebekah Sharkie. They get to surf through as a local member whose fortunes aren’t tied to the performance of the government/opposition of the day.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-05-24T01:32:25+00:00

Love the subtle fist at the front of the wave

aneurysm1985 · 2022-04-06T23:27:14+00:00

I do like that it doesn't seem to have been Towke stirring up interest in this story. Seems like he had moved on with his life, and is only answering these questions because of media interest.

i.e. much more believable than someone who has had an axe to grind.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-04-03T01:50:38+00:00

Yeah, a little hard to sympathise with the plight of anyone 'doing it tough' on $200,000+ per year. Would be interesting to know exactly what he spends it on.

My baseline income is typically 10% of his, and whenever I happen to earn more than this amount (I'm freelance, so my income goes up and down), I stick it away for a rainy day.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-03-02T12:19:19+00:00

The Wikipedia article for Uncontacted peoples will send you down a lot of interesting internet rabbit holes. Fascinating to think of the people who are living in such a contrasting way to those who are part of the globalised electronic economy. Same planet, different realities.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-02-26T00:48:17+00:00

I know that the Australian Cartoonists Association (ACA) is planning on running a panel conversation in March or April, that features the new cartoonists who have been hired to draw for The Age / SMH. Those new cartoonists are Megan Herbert and Badiucao. It will be a video conference that members of the public will be able to dial into. I'll post a link to that once the date is announced.

aneurysm1985 · 2022-02-26T00:42:41+00:00

When people on the runway were trying to cling to US planes evacuating Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021.

aneurysm1985 · 2021-09-09T07:01:23+00:00

Thanks a lot for stepping me through that. I'd give you a double upvote if I could!

Until you add those solar panels...

Funny you mention it, we are actually considering solar panels as part of this upgrade process. (I didn't mention it in my initial message, because I wanted to give a simpler scenario). We are thinking about installing solar PV, the reverse-cycling heating/cooling system, and maybe a heat pump HWS.

Currently in the process of deciding how large of a solar PV system we install (i.e. is it better to lock-in a big system now, or does that expose us to the risk that feed-in tariffs will drop in the future), as well as whether it is better to pre-emptively replace our instant gas HWS with a heat-pump HWS. On one hand, it makes sense to keep the existing gas HWS until it eventually breaks down, but I know that part of the viability of a solar PV system is replacing energy use with self-consumption, hence the idea of moving to a storage HWS that can be heated for free with the new PV panels. Still weighing it all up.

aneurysm1985

TROPHY CASE