Trip financial planning spreadsheet

**WQFTruckster** · #1 3rd December 2008

Hello everyone,
I put together an Excel spreadsheet on my site to use for trip financial planning (trip cost and savings calculations). I hope it will be useful for someone. Please, let me know what you think.

Motorcycle Trip Financial Planner | The Adventure Motorcycle Blog

**AtlasRider** · #2 3rd December 2008

Very nice! You could make this more accessibly by making it into a Google Doc.

I'm going to use this for my trip.

Thanks!

**WQFTruckster** · #3 4th December 2008

Hi Atlas,

Thanks for the comments! Unfortunately Google docs (like Zoho) does not cooperate with Excel's charts and graphs. You can, however, download the file and upload it to your Google docs account. Functionally it should work, it just doesn't look as nice and the charts don't show up.

I've also been told it works fairly well in OpenOffice (a free alternative to Excel).

Love your blog BTW! I've been drooling over your Utah pics. One of these days I've gotta make it out west.

**PocketHead** · #4 4th December 2008

wow this spreadsheet is awesome

**AtlasRider** · #5 4th December 2008

WQF,

OMG I went back to the page and just saw the Zoho things that displays the spreadsheet. It didn't load for me the first time for some reason. In the mean time I was converting it to a Google Doc. Here's mine:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...M6tqOQfvHHzPaw

I pretty much copied what you did (didn't feel like calculating the interest stuff). This really is a VERY nice resource. I am all about trying to quantify as much as I can. I know it will all go to hell on the road, but that's half the fun! I've just started to take a realistic look at what it will take to make it to TDF and back, and this has opened my eyes to the kind of saving I will have to do.

Thanks for posting this! If I have any additional ideas I will post back here.

Glad you liked my pics of Utah. There really are some amazing sights out there.

**WQFTruckster** · #6 7th December 2008

Just a quick update. I just put up version 4 on my site which includes added functionality for "2 bike" planning.

**britch** · #7 30th December 2008

A very useful little tool, thank you for sharing that with us, and the link to your blog as very interesting and full of good information
Thanks

**gixxer.rob** · #8 30th December 2008

Thanks WQFTruckster ! That is fantastic, a fair number of hours have gone into that to get it working the way it does !

And yes it works very well in open office (2.4)

thanks for sharing !

**WQFTruckster** · #9 4th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by gixxer.rob

...a fair number of hours have gone into that to get it working the way it does !

Yup. It was fun though. I love Excel. I'm such a nerd

Glad to hear others are finding it useful!

**UKTomo** · #10 7th January 2009

Thats a great spreadsheet. I often mess around working the true cost of things with Excel but that is one well polished spreadsheet. Love it!

**Mombassa** · #11 7th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by WQFTruckster

Yup. It was fun though. I love Excel. I'm such a nerd

Glad to hear others are finding it useful!

How did you manage to prevent row/columns from "unhiding"?
Nice tool though...

Here are some data points from my trip:

http://www.nohorizons.net/Pages/RTW%20costs.htm

**jcfalkner** · #12 7th January 2009

Thanks for putting that together.

**WQFTruckster** · #13 7th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mombassa

How did you manage to prevent row/columns from "unhiding"?
Nice tool though...

Here are some data points from my trip:

http://www.nohorizons.net/Pages/RTW%20costs.htm

Hi Mombassa, I'm not sure I understand your question. If you right click on a column or row, you can hide it. I've never had a problem with them unhiding. I also locked the non-user changeable cells in the sheet to prevent accidental changing, but I don't think this locks the "hiding". Let me know if that doesn't answer your question.

Wow, that's a detailed cost list you have there! That puts my sheet to shame.

**Mombassa** · #14 7th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by WQFTruckster

Hi Mombassa, I'm not sure I understand your question. If you right click on a column or row, you can hide it. I've never had a problem with them unhiding. I also locked the non-user changeable cells in the sheet to prevent accidental changing, but I don't think this locks the "hiding". Let me know if that doesn't answer your question.

Wow, that's a detailed cost list you have there! That puts my sheet to shame.

It seems a lot of the options are greyed out in the Excel. Maybe a version issue? I still run 2002. Yeah, I worked a while on those costs. It was basically my budget that I updated with actuals as time went by. I like your approach, as mine is not variable to the extent yours is.

**WQFTruckster** · #15 8th January 2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mombassa

It seems a lot of the options are greyed out in the Excel. Maybe a version issue? I still run 2002. Yeah, I worked a while on those costs. It was basically my budget that I updated with actuals as time went by. I like your approach, as mine is not variable to the extent yours is.

I believe the options are greyed out because the sheet is "protected". If you are interested in unlocking the sheet to modify it for your own needs, then send me a PM and I will give you the password. It was created with Office 2003, so I wouldn't think 2002 should be a problem.