Anyone else get kicks from being organised?

[littlechar]

Working Mum of 2 here, aged 5 and 2. I work 4 days, DH full-time.
We don’t earn huge amounts probably very avgerage salaries, so I have to be organised to cover the mortgage and childcare fees and have some money spare at the end of each month.

The other day a friend caught me navigating the wonderful website that is Tax-free Childcare, and said to me she couldn’t be bothered with all that because it’s too much effort and then it slipped out my mouth “I quite like doing it”… this then made both my friend and me laugh, which then lead to me telling her about my spreadsheet, which I keep to show me all the outgoings for that month, going as far as 3 years in advance with possible pay rises and inflation formulas added in. She was perplexed that I could enjoy let alone be bothered with all of that.

Anyway all this has got me thinking, am I unusual?

I wish I did but no, chaos is my natural state unfortunately.

This is my fantasy. I’m far too disorganised and to be honest, would rather spend my time doing something else.
I’m organised when it comes to work and excursions. Love organising days out and filling school holidays with outings and activities.

I could go on and on for hours about my spreadsheets, in fact I do, much to the annoyance of DP, although I have rubbed off on him a little and he's made a spreadsheet!

I'm not quite as organised as you but I feel so much calmer and in control when I'm organised. I've recently updated my budget and last week I contacted all my pension providers about my change of address. Felt good to get that done. Your spreadsheet sounds amazing though! Did you use a template from somewhere or did you start from scratch?

I love being organised and work as a PA to really channel it 😁

I kept a book of incomings and outgoings before I had children. But once circs changed and there was no longer plenty of money to go around it wasn't as interesting (plus having kids set me back in the organisation stakes). So now I close my eyes and hope pay day comes before I run out of money.

Oh wow, I wish I was you OP! I downloaded the Emma money app (on a whim as it was advertised on Instagram) and it told me I was paying twice for some subscriptions and had a whole load of other ones I'd forgotten about. I have tens of thousands of unread emails cluttering up my inbox. I'd love for you to come sort my life out!

I think I’d love to be more relaxed! I’d love to not care about emails in my inbox. Instead I have to file everything into folders, and it’s only ‘to do’ emails in my inbox.
As much as it helps me to be like this, I do think it stems from an inner anxiety most likely!

Oh Christ no way!
very organised at work, my admin skills are admirable there.
At home I couldn’t give a stuff, bills are all paid, money leftover for savings and fun stuff; that’s all I care about.
I do not derive joy from spreadsheets.

OP you may be my long lost twin sister😂.
I absolutely love spreadsheets!

I made my spreadsheet from scratch, it’s quite simple really, just months across the top at columns, then the rows start with income which is
-DH income
-My income
-Child benefit

Then all outgoings, starting with the largest:
-Childcare
-Mortgage
-Car Finance
-Council Tax
-Gas and electric
-everything else monthy

then anything that comes around quarterly, or 6 monthly, or once a year

I tend to try and pay car tax, TV license and car insurance upfront to avoid the interest charges.

Wow I loved telling you all that!

Yeah I’m like this. Currently the Easter egg hunt questions are printed and next to all the eggs ready to go in 2 weeks, the forms for next terms activities are printed, filled in and signed. Packing lists exist for the rest of our 2025 trips. Meal plans exist for the rest of the year (I edit as needed obviously) The budget spreadsheet is adjusted daily and has tabs open/budgets planned up til 2027 and my Christmas plan is 100% filled out with clickable links to order stuff closer to the time so it doesn’t clutter the house too much 😂

I’ve begun to realise when something awful and uncontrollable happens (not a great couple of years for us) I just start organising the next thing in my notes tabs that I can control. Not emotionally healthy I’m sure, but it’s cheaper than therapy or impulsive online shopping, and healthier than binge eating chocolate so I’m rolling with it 😂

This is me too! I've always been naturally organised, I used to be a PA and loved that job.

I have 0 unread emails in my inbox and they are all filed e.g. holidays, purchases, car, school, household bills, to action etc.

School admin is always up to date. Lunches booked a month in advance, after school club booked and paid for, I have all of DDs holiday clubs booked and paid for the rest of the year. A set of uniform in the next size up already bought and stored away.

Holidays are always planned at least a year in advance. We have two booked for this year and one booked for summer 2026! I like having things to look forward to and plenty of time to save for them if we need to.

I used to have a budget spreadsheet that I updated monthly but have relaxed that a bit now as fortunately there's enough money coming in to be comfortable. DH and I still have a monthly "finance" meeting though, it was yesterday actually and we went to a café and went through the credit card bill, do we need to amend standings orders to our savings accounts, how much is in premium bonds, pension forecasts etc.

Despite sounding incredibly boring to some people I find it all weirdly enjoyable! I agree it may stem from anxiety though. My mum was a complete scatterbrain and life growing up was often stressful. I am the complete opposite but find I cannot cope with disorganisation.....it really stresses me out and makes me feel out of control.

@Bodonkaand @GameOfJonesWow, you are my inspiration!!
I too am hoping to become a little more relaxed when finances improve (DC2 gets 30 free hours in September so that’ll help, but more so when they start school 2 years after that). I aspire to have premium bonds and finance meetings with DH 😂
We too tend to book holidays a year in advance, it would give me anxiety not knowing when I was going to have a holiday and where, it’s like I HAVE to know what’s coming up and if something throws me I feel extremely stressed and upset by it. When both DC were newborns for example I really really struggled!

I used to think that when I had more disposable income I could step off the organisation bus, but in all honestly I think it’s who I am now and I truly enjoy it.

But anywho it’s great to hear how everyone else is getting through!

OP - Do you feel that being this forward thinking means that you don't live in the moment - unable to enjoy it as you're planning constantly?

Yes I think so in some ways. In some ways it allows me to be in the moment doing something I enjoy. However I think it mostly stems from anxiety and a case of having to be careful with our money or we would drown. I have seen close friends go into debt and it’s a horrible place to be.

I've spent a lot of time trying to be more organised, but I never ever feel truly on top of things because my full time workload is basically unmanageable. When I worked part time when the dc were little I was organised! I hate feeling disorganised!

@littlechar when the free hours kick in it really helps. The nursery years were the absolute hardest for us, DDs are both now in school and it is so much easier. We did divert the money we were paying to nursery to savings and overpaying the mortgage once they started school which is the best thing we could have done as we were used to living without the money by that point!

Are you me?

Never have any unread emails and folders for everything - work and personal life exactly the same. Currently have about 70 emails in my work inbox, I’m dealing with all of them but it’s getting a bit silly.

in fact today I was super anxious about them so spent 10 mins on a spreadsheet to ‘clear my mind’. Think there’s something about organising the cells etc to re-centre yourself.

I’ve always kept a spreadsheet for personal spending and have a tab for monthly gas and electric readings going back to 2007

I dream of having my finances before me on a spreadsheet, but I don't know where or how to start. OP can I please ask a very basic question: are these Excel spreadsheets you use?

No I actually use Google Sheets. It’s an app on apple if you have an iPhone? It’s basically the same as excel.

I dont have any majorly fancy formulas in there. It’s literally income minus outgoings for the month with disposable income at the bottom. When an annual bill is due, so for e.g. buildings insurance in July, I have “due here” written in the cell so I know what’s coming up. It just helps plan everything so I don’t, god forbid, get caught out!

@PositivityVibes I love the meter readings back to 2007!! I have my childcare fees back to 2019 when DS started and it’s something like 40k from then till now 🤯

I hate doing it, much like exercise but I like the feeling after its done which is why I do it. **

Same here 😁

I’m not organised but I do love some organisation as long as someone else does it. I also love a spreadsheet. I work a lot with them, I have complicated formulae, pivot tables, lookups etc. It is because I’m not organised that I love them. I have learned to use excel to do the things I need to do in far less time so I can do the other stuff I don’t have time to do because I’m not organised. 😆

My favourite thing. Spreadsheets, to do lists, notebooks, coloured pens ...