Track weekly expenditure - difficult formula - please help!!

[excelhelpme!]

Hi,

I have a weekly expenditure table in excel, in which I include how much I spend every day on FOOD or FOOD OUT, for example. Each day has a 2 columns - one for the cost of the expenditure (on the left) and one for the description (on the right), in which I type - FOOD, FOOD OUT, HOUSEHOLD, BEAUTY, etc to describe the cost.

I'm trying to figure out how to calculate the total amount of money I've spent on each of these expenses. I want this box to appear to the right of all the days of the week.

Can anyone help me?? I've looked everywhere and tried a few different things but I can't figure this one out!

Thanks,
Sarah

By the way, i'm using excel 2003.

1 MON TUES WED THUR
2 A B C D
3 $4 FOOD $6.56 FOOD OUT
4 $6 BEAUTY $101 RENT

[TMS]

You'd probably be better with one list which has date, cost and description and then you could use a Pivot Table to get what you want.

Regards, TMS

[Palmetto]

You should set up your worksheet in a classic database format, then all calculations, reports, etc can be easily facilitated.

A database format means:

1. Top most row of the data table is a header row (doesn't have to be row-1, just has to be the first row wherever the table starts on the sheet)
2. Each cell in the header row is a short descriptive text indicating the type of data expected in the column (i.e. date, name, age, etc)
3. All cells below the header row are records
4. No blank rows or columns are used to "space" the data (resize row height or column width for visual appearance if desired)
5. Blanks cells on a row (record) are OK ( you may not have all data initially)
6. Never use merged cells on the raw data sheet
7. Always use the default alignments (Excel automatically recognizes numbers and text and left-aligns text and right-aligns numbers)
8. Best practice: keep numbers and text in separate cells (i.e. 2lbs is best as 2 in cell and lbs in adjacent cell

Each day has a 2 columns

It's not clear how your sheet is set up, but you should use a single date column and make as many row entries as required for that day. It will *GREATLY* simplify calculations.

I agree on the Pivot Table.
If you create a dynamic named range for the source data and base the Pivot Table on the named range, then you only need to refresh the Pivot Table when new data are added. Dynamic Named Ranges automatically expand or subtract in size as data are added or deleted.