Spreadsheet of Savings

Thu, 06/04/2009 - 10:54 — Coupon Maven

When you're new to Super-Couponing, many people enjoy keeping track of just how much money they've saved with coupons. I did this my first year -- and not counting the sales cycles lows (the differences in price between regular and sale) - ONLY counting coupon savings -- I saved over $5400 the first year! I've since stopped keeping track in such a detailed form, but I'll never forget how exciting it was to note that kind of savings in a year's time.

Many of my blog readers want to keep track of their coupon savings too. Forum member Prea posted this Spreadsheet of Savings. It's an Excel spredsheet that allows you to enter the coupons and prices of what you've purchased to calculate your total savings.

Here's a note from Prea on how to use the spreadsheet:

This is the spreadsheet I use to track my savings. The first four rows have been filled in. Do not clear these rows -- simply type your figures over the top of mine. (Others have told me there is a calculation problem if you clear the sheet before starting.)

I did not originally create this sheet, and I do not recall which web site I originally found it on therefore I am unable to give credit where it is due. I have made many changes to it though, and it's what works for me. I hope it works for you as well.

For my savings, I created 5 sheets from the template sheet, one for each store I shop at. Other couponers have found it more beneficial to keep all the stores on one sheet.

I started in August 08 with Jill's first class at the Huntley library. So far I have purchased over $9000.00 in products for a total out of pocket of just under $2000.00! I have never been able to give so much to the food pantry on a regular weekly basis! Not everyone's savings will be in the 80-90% range. It's something you have to work up to so don't get discouraged if you end up in the 30's or 40%'s for a while. That's still a wonderful percentage to have saved so far! Much better than the 0% you used to save, pre Jill!

Enjoy, & a big thanks to Prea for sharing this!

Comments

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 17:05 — hoppmom

Savings showing with a newbie

I am EXCITED to say I bought the DVD about two months ago and was amazed as everyone else has stated at the amount of money I have been giving away. My co-workers and I had a coupon DVD party to start our couponing experience off in a wonderful way. We share coupons and help each other find deals for each family.
I started to use the spreadsheet 7 weeks ago and although I know by looking at the reciept and the HUGE amount of food overflowing from my cabinets and freezer that I am saving money. When I plug my purchases into the spreadsheet I am happy NO that is not the word but anyway I am now saving 44%. Not bad for a two month rookie. I am looking forward to learning more tricks and getting up to the 80% mark or better in the next year.
My co-workers and I share our endevors and encourage the process.

THANK YOU !!!! I spent about the same in the two months YET got about 2-3 times more food and household supplies and beauty products. It is also nice to have my oldest child, who just moved out to "shop"at Mom's when he comes for a visit...

Tue, 11/17/2009 - 17:34 — Coupon Maven

Great!

I LOVE hearing stories like this! :) Thanks for posting!

Thu, 09/10/2009 - 21:26 — brianna928

this was so great!!

so, i just found this spreadsheet today and am so glad because i've been so curious to see how much i've been spending and saving and on average what we're spending a month. took me quite a while to input each receipt but well worth the wait for the excitement of knowing what my totals now are.

i started couponing last november and i know i don't have every single receipt from then til now but i entered 174 receipts starting from mid november up til today (9/10/09)and here were my #'s:
$5978.28 =total value
$4964.34 =total saved
$1013.94 =total OOP
total 83% saved

I'm very pleased and like I said these were all the receipts that I had but even if I spent an extra $1000 OOP from my missing receipts that would =$2000 OOP that only averages out to $200 a month over the last 10 months......when once upon a time our budget was around $600 a month for groceries!!

the most amazing thing about all of this tho is that not only am I able to provide for my family but am also able to give to our church's food pantry give to my neighbors and to my other family members.....i've never been able to do that and here I am with over flow to give to others yet spending tons less than ever before!!!
God is good!

Thu, 09/10/2009 - 21:43 — prea

Yippee!

Feels great when you actually see the total's doesn't it? You know you're saving, but you never realize how much until you see it on paper.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:34 — ohanlon2

line 23

Everytime I enter the date into the spreadsheet and tab over to next column to put in spent $'s and tab over the spent @$'s comes out: 01/01/09 ( something like that) and column 24 does not continue the addition from line 22. I hope that makes sence.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 18:49 — prea

I'll fix it

Thanks for letting me know there's a problem. I'll post when I get it fixed.

Wed, 08/26/2009 - 22:59 — prea

Can you email it to me?

I just loaded the spreadsheet and it's working fine for me. If you want to email it to me I can repair it for you. You'll just have to save it as a new file when you get it back.

I believe a formula may have gotten messed up. You can try the following: highlight one of the working rows, from cell A thru I. Then right click, copy.

Then highlight rows 22 thru the bottom of the sheet with your mouse, then right click paste. This will reset the calculation formulas. If you would rather email it to me, I'd be more than happy to fix it for you and send it back. My email is: couponing@comcast.net

Sun, 06/21/2009 - 22:28 — couponvanalek

Spreadsheet is great! Thank you!

I've adapted this spreadsheet to work for me. My husband made me a deal that I get to "keep what I save" - I don't think he or I had any idea how much that could be!! I needed to put in a column for "subtractions" where I spend my savings...

Tue, 09/15/2009 - 13:27 — heybets30

Another saving idea ...

A friend of mine, her mother used to put all the coupon savings (from Man coupons only) into a jar - at the end of the year she & her husband would use the "savings" as most of their vacation spending money - was HUGE incentive for her to use coupons throughout the year.

I've tinkered with moving money saved, i.e., "you saved $22.50 today" - i.e., move $22.50 between checking into savings given the relative ease of electronic banking. hubby isn't quite on board with that part. Of course I haven't actually done that yet - even with 9 months of couponing. I charge EVERYTHING to AmEx, and I have noticed our monthly Jewel/Dom's/Meijer totals have gone down considerably.

Tue, 06/09/2009 - 21:58 — Stars