Urban essay: A landscape, grounds keeping photo journal of transforming a weed lot into a garden. A "How we are doing it from scratch" web log. Topics include: grounds keeping, gardening, planning, landscape construction design, materials, equipment and supplies. Tools for lawn and turf care, tools for gardening, tools for landscape construction, and tool maintenance. Sources for tools and equipment, product evaluations and price comparisons. Garden project cost accounting.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Expense Report


I made a register of all our expenses since January of this year for the landscape work.

The total to date is $5112. The expenses broke down into the following categories:
  • Tools...............................$ 382 (7.5%)
  • Garden supplies...............$ 195 (3.8%)
  • Furnishings/ fixtures.......$ 300 (5.8%)
  • Major services.................$ 4235 (82.8%)
Total..............................$ 5112 (100%)

I had not thought to include finances in this study. The financial report tells a true story. I'm sure I am the last person on earth to figure this out, but I realized that I can find out when I did what by checking the dates of certain transactions. I wanted to know when I fertilized the lawn. All I had to do was check this ledger and discover that I purchased fertilizer the first week of June.

To compile this report I had to go through all my receipts from January, 2009 forward to date. I also had to go through two check registers line by line to glean any transactions for which I did not receive a receipt. In addition to that I went through each monthly folder where I keep the monthly paper collections for any other paperwork or receipts. From now on I will enter transactions on this register as I go.

I also started sub-registers for each of the four categories above. If you want to get a better look at this register, left click on it.

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