Try typing this into a predictive text phone: “Tidying treacle in Cornwall.”

Now expendable can make calculations for stoozing as well.  Stoozing, if you haven’t heard that word, is when you pay for things on a credit card that charges 0% on purchases so that the amount you would normally pay off the card with each month is moved into a savings account instead.  This way you can earn interest until the 0% period ends.  Here’s an example.

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As I wrote previously, I’ve been keeping tabs on how much electricity I use.  Last week I got a whole-house electricity monitor called an OWL from natural collection and have been playing around with it.  It’s surprising how surprising the results are, if you see what I mean.  I know that switching on the kettle uses more electricity, but I was a bit taken aback at how much more.

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This is a quick guide to using Expendable for modelling home finances.  If you want to be able to predict how much time or interest can be saved on a mortgage by using an offset facility, or want to see the effects of using a cash ISA or regular saver account, or any other type of savings account, this might be for you.

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I’ve just uploaded a rough-and-ready program for modelling mortgage offsetting.  Mortgage offset accounts are like savings accounts linked to a mortgage, but instead of earning interest they reduce the interest charged by offsetting the loan amount.

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