Gardening Mode made fun

[aamex]

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@kjm79 wrote:

I tried pasting a screen shot of my worksheet but it's not cooperating with me at the moment. 

Basically I listed all of my accounts and their respective balances.  I divide the total of my balances by my total available credit to track my total utilization.  I also track the individual util per account.  I track the change in percentage monthly.  It looks kind of like this. (Edited to include actual worksheet shot, finally)

Date		3/11/2011	4/11/2011	5/17/2011	6/17/2011
Account	Limit	Balance	Balance	Balance	Balance	UTIL
Dell	$5,000.00	$2,899.38	$2,783.99	$2,596.90	$2,191.54	43.83%
CFNA (t)	$2,200.00	$1,076.44	$1,033.44	$983.44	$838.44	38.11%
CFNA (k)	$2,200.00	$1,022.99	$922.99	$863.57	$563.00	25.59%
JcP	$1,800.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$12.69	0.71%
Juniper	$3,500.00	$2,021.71	$1,615.44	$0.00	$0.00	0.00%
BB	$500.00	$39.90	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	0.00%
MilStar	$6,850.00	$234.00	$0.00	$0.00	$195.00	2.85%
Target	$200.00	$22.36	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	0.00%
NavyFed	$15,000.00	$0.00	$0.00	$3,313.00	$2,599.00	17.33%
	$37,250.00	$7,316.78	$6,355.86	$7,756.91	$6,399.67
Closed Accounts
Tribute	$2,250.00	$1,743.32	$1,691.97	$1,640.38	$1,488.58	66.16%
Total CL Available/Used	$39,500.00	$9,060.10	$8,047.83	$9,397.29	$7,888.25
Total Utilization		22.94%	20.37%	23.79%	19.97%
Change in UTIL			(2.56%)	-3.42%	(3.82%)

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oh my gosh....you're my idol!!  i have to do this!

[kjm79]

Not only is is great to see the balances decreasing on the accounts but to see the UTIL % dropping too, feels great and helps you keep pushing to bring it down.  It also helps if you are planning on making a pruchase.  You can see what an additional balance will do to your UTIL if you let it report.  SOOO helpful.  I love Excel! 

[aamex]

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@kjm79 wrote:

Not only is is great to see the balances decreasing on the accounts but to see the UTIL % dropping too, feels great and helps you keep pushing to bring it down.  It also helps if you are planning on making a pruchase.  You can see what an additional balance will do to your UTIL if you let it report.  SOOO helpful.  I love Excel! 

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I basically have no reason to pay for my report any more! I love excel too! I have the Overview, AAoA sheet, Inquires, Utilization (inspired by you)...why pay for the report anymore..I can wait on the scores especially since i'm gardening anyway

[kjm79]

I still pay for my reports, just not as often.  I find majority of the time what my util on my excel sheet is doesn't match what's on my reports.  Mainly because of the different reporting times by various creditors.  And I buy it to check for accuracy of course.  I do hate buying a new report and not seeing the score move though!  Have fun gardening, as much as possible anyways!