January spending & saving results

I just finished updating my Savings Tracker for January. Turns out, I overspent by $50! The good news is I was able to get a LOT of food and household items though. Much of the meat was turned into freezer meals and we have enough Quaker to see us through the summer months. This total also includes diapers, paper products, health & beauty items, and the like. I also entered my receipts from today's trip and this month. Here is how my Summary is shaping up. (I simply hid months March - Dec to give this a cleaner look):

So basically I acquired $1,121 worth of food so far in 2010, but I only paid $471, or 42% of that amount...pretty cool, huh? You'll notice that coupons saved me $207 so far in 2010...so all those out there that think they'll only save you $0.10 here or there, take note! Discounts such as store sales still provided the bulk of my savings - that saved me another $443.
 
I've already spent a fair amount so far in February, but my goal is to use up some of my freezer meals and spend $50 less this month in order to make up for overspending last month.

Finally, as I was piecing this together today, I realized there are some formula errors on the Summary tab of this tracker. BOO!! I will correct them on the download version in the next couple days as well as show you how to correct them yourself. If you're fairly comfortable with Excel (and hopefully you are if you're using this!), the corrections should be pretty straight-forward to make. Stay tuned.

Comments

[Keri]

Hey...we must've missed you at WAGS! :) The boys would have been so happy to see eachother. So, I am still amazed that you can do even $349 for the whole month. I need to get to that point, since that is close to what I am spending every 2 weeks. :( How long were you couponing before you go to that bottom line? I need more help on getting there. I think I do a good job of getting deals, but I guess it's just not translating into bottom line savings.

[Angela Russell]

I'll most likely be back this week with my Register Rewards! I can tell you when I first started couponing, I was spending more like $500 - about what I had been before. I was just getting twice the amount of stuff!

My initial goal was to get to $200 or less, but I see now that's not a reasonable goal. I'm trying to eat better in losing weight, and I would like to be able to pay for fresh, local produce every week. I think $300 is perfect for us - as you can see this month, we didn't even make it.

My pantry and freezer are getting SOOO full...that honestly, I don't need to make a lot of trips. Probably the best way to save money is to just try to avoid the store!! Try picking a week that you will do NO shopping. That alone will save you!!

Please also note that we keep a separate budget for Terry's work food. It was just getting too crazy to try to meld it altogether. Since he's up there for 48-hour shifts, it makes sense to just have him have his own food budget per month for dinners with the crew, lunches, and snacks. Wherever possible though, we try to plan so he can take food to work.

HTH a little...but remember, everyone's budget, "bottom line" and pantry will be different. Do the best you can do!!

[julie]

Thank you for this spread sheet. I'd been keeping track on paper, but this is much easier.

[Mississippi Mama]

I noticed the summary glitch this afternoon when entering my Kroger receipt, so I'm looking forward to the fix! I know NOTHING about Excel, so I hope you make it really easy for dummies like me. :)

[Roni]

I noticed it and was able to fix it....Thanks I love this spreadsheet.

[Angela Russell]

Great! I won't have time to get to this tonight, I've got a much more pressing project on my desk. But for anyone else proficient with Excel: if you notice the references for the Discounts column, they are pointing you to a wrong field. You would just need to make the adjustments. More to come soon. THe monthly tabs are all correct though (at least to my knowledge!!).

[Keri]

Ang...thanks for the tips and advice. I think I need to work on building a better stockpile so that I can cook more from the pantry. I try to only buy things with coupons that are free/ nearly free/less than I would normally pay, and I'm still shopping at Winco for the "needs" based items. Right now my goal is just to stay within a monthly budget period...maybe after that I can start trimming or examining what I need to trim. I only go to the store once a week, so I don't know that I can cut back on that anymore with needing to get produce/dairy. I have to say, the freezer meals are definitely helping us save and eat more at home.