The Ins and Outs of 2026

I've been puzzling how to keep track of my different plans for 2026. Please don't say  "Spreadsheet" . 

I needed to keep a Garden balance Sheet (showing what I've spent and what I've harvested); and to keep tabs on my £1 a day spend on food.  It would also be good to record any clutter that I give away or items I'm given. 

Result - I have a new, cunning Plan (I can hear you lot sniggering now. Stop it at the back).

I have found a shiny new Notebook to start me off. 
Everything I possess, money, food, seeds etc is the status quo - or Ground zero - or whatever you like to call it.

In the Notebook I will record the changes in the status guo (the Ins and Outs) that take place every day. Ins on the Right and Outs on the Left.
For example, any food I harvest, anything I'm given for FREE is an IN. 

On the OUT side is anything that leaves the house or my moneybox! 
The cost of any food (or seeds) that I buy is an OUT. 

However, any seeds that I sow from my seed stash or food that I eat from the store cupboard has NO value, it has been written off. When the seeds are sown they will be recorded as an OUT. When they grow and are harvested, they become an IN at shop value. Unless I can save seeds from them, they will need to be replaced and the cost will be an OUT.

Any clutter that I give away is an OUT with no value. 

I'm sure this is as clear as the bottom of the pond.

I understand that plan completely. I was going to suggest some of your many diaries for recording your in’s & out’s. But you beat me to it with your shiny new note book   . It’s a good plan. 
Personally I might record the garden balance sheet & the £1 a day spends in a separate book. You might need more than 1 page a day in the hight of the growing/harvesting season. That might just be me over complicating things.

I have two other "diaries"on the go this year!, One is an A4, Week to View which I've annotated to show which week (R/S, F or L) it is. There's a card that I move forward each week, that tells me what to do each day. It really is a "What to Do" Diary, rather than a "What I did" Diary.
Secondly, I've gone back to my Diary of the Month that I started back in 2022 and forgot about for the next few year!
Its quite nice to look back. For example, on 1/1/22 I became the Moneyless Chicken and, I weighed 6lbs more than I do today.

All the best with your plan Veggie me I'd manage a few days then give up.

All the best with your plan Veggie me I'd manage a few days then give up.

I'm hoping to manage a week before I rethink it.

My cunning plan for recording ins and out is a piece of scrap paper on top of the microwave and a book buried deep in a desk drawer. No guesses whether I'll succeed or fail.

To my way of thinking this IS just a 'spreadsheet' by another name?  I don't like spreadsheets either Veggie but my plans are very vague and 'limited' compared to yours. Each to their own though and whatever floats your boat!

A spreadsheet means computers and working for a living. Those days are over, Vinny. Give me a pen and paper and I'm happy.

A spreadsheet means computers and working for a living. Those days are over, Vinny. Give me a pen and paper and I'm happy.

I even forgo the pen and paper and just blag it!!  Can't remember the last time I wrote something down?

There's a very expensive OUT on the house taking place at this very moment. Roof repairs - slipping slates that require new battens. Fortunately, household things don't count!!