How to add from a cell to the same cell?

[mdk0420]

Hello. I am working on a worksheet for my own budgeting and practicing excel for a new position I will be taking over at my job. It requires me to be at a moderate level in excel, so I'm putting myself to the test making a near fully automatic budget sheet, decorated with late notifications, due soon notifications, and adding different ways to view the data such as monthly, weekly, yearly, even daily.

I'm getting pretty far in this test with the little time I get to work on it, but I'm stumbling over trying to add to a cell, from that very same cell. Say for example, A1=1, and I want to make A1=2, I could always make a reference from A2=1, then do =SUM(A1,A2), but what I'm trying to do that isn't working. I'm getting an error saying that the cell is referencing itself, then the data is displayed wrong when I skip it.

What I am doing is using this formula =IF(AND(F10<F25,G10>=E10),EDATE(F10,M5),F10) to try and add to itself, a month after the criteria is met. F10 is the date in question, F25 is the =TODAY() function, G10 is determining if I paid it in full against E10, if true F10 adds to itself 1 full month (Referencing M5), if false keep itself as the original F10 (Or the original date).

Its late tonight and I have a busy day tomorrow so hopefully I can get some answers throughout the day to test out. Please any suggestions on how to approach this is welcomed. I'm not seeing any way of uploading my worksheet for easy viewing... But here is an image of the worksheet I'm working on. The other sheets are a summary page which I haven't worked on yet and the "database" I guess you could call it lol. Holding all the random references I had to use to make the table work the way I want it to. Probably easier ways to do that too but I'm going to ask everyones opinion if I did this the right way lol.

 

[mdk0420]

Btw so it doesn't confuse anyone, M10 is just a test cell for that function =IF(AND(F10<f25,g10>=E10),EDATE(F10,M5),F10). And M5 is just a reference to how many months to add. That data would probably be placed in the other database sheet. This function works as intended, by adding a month in reference to the other cell if I change G10 to what is owed ($400). The test cell will then add 1 month, making itself 12/25/16. However since this data is not saved, I cannot replicate this over and over. Since it is not adding to itself, it can't use itself. If it was able to add to itself then the function could repeat as the days go on, then if it gets past due, if I did not pay the bill again, it will go red and I will have to input the "Paid" to the full amount or more then the Expense before it adds to itself once again, and so on. I hope this makes sense. I'm trying to make it self sufficient with the only data I would need to add is if its paid or not. Eventually I will be working on a way to clear the "Paid" after the due date passed as well, but that's another challenge for later Thanks for the help in advance!</f25,g10>

 

[FDibbins]

Say for example, A1=1, and I want to make A1=2, I could always make a reference from A2=1, then do =SUM(A1,A2), but what I'm trying to do that isn't working

(did not read all your text - yet)

A cell can only contain data OR a formula, not both.
Also, a cell cannot reference itself, as that will create a circular reference error - something that is generally to be avoided

 

[mdk0420]

Hm ok. If that is no possible how can I save that data? I was trying to look into work around, like making a start date (the first due date, having a cell reference that, then having the "Due Date" date do its calculations off of that, but then the other cell it's referencing won't update. And then when it tries to add 1, it would actually need to add 2, and so on, forever. But in order to add 2, 3, 4 and so on, I would need a cell for just that. Seems like a huge waste of data, and would require me to update that section too. Any ideas on a workaround?