Keeping Track Of Your Savings

Last week, I asked for end of your totals. During the course of the discussion, Jennifer asked a very interesting question, one that has plagued couponers for years:

When you track your percentages you obviously need to know the orignally cost and then the sale cost after you have used coupons.

2. Do you count your +UP rewards as coupons in your tracking? If so, is it a separate column or in with your MC?

My response was as follows:

Jennifer what do YOU want to track? Regular retail, sale price, amount paid? Since you are new to this, I think that would be beneficial on some level – you will be able to see what the lowest sale price and at what price point you are willing to “buy”.

Ann

I firmly believe that anyone just beginning to get serious about saving and couponing should keep a price book for a minimum of two years. Yes, it is a lot of work, but a price book will prevent you from overpaying, and it will help you to recognize the minimum amount you need to buy on a “stock up sale” to get you to the next “stock up sale”. This is especially important with a frequently used household item that may never have a coupon. A great sale is the best you can hope for in some instances! Since sales are so regional, a price book will also help you become familiar with the sale-cycles of your local stores.

However, I do believe that keeping track of your totals and including the retail price of the item could be a shortcut to tracking prices.

For instance to track saving:

Amount due, coupon total, amount paid, tax

This will give you the basics of the amount of the order (after card if applicable), the total amount of coupons you used, the amount you finally paid, and ho much of that was tax.

A better minimum option might be:

Amount due before card, amount due after card, coupon total, amount paid, tax

What neither of these options will give you (obviously), is the items you purchased, their retail price or how much was paid for with reward coupon (+up, RR, ECB or gift card from a prior deal), and how many reward offers were earned.

By expanding to include these columns (product, retail price, reward), you could get a truer picture of what you are “buying” and what you are saving, and how much work you are putting forth to make these savings happen.

When I tracked my first 10 years or so, there wasn’t a Rite Aid +up, Walgreens RR or CVS ECB to earn or use, so I could not have used those columns. Also, there wasn’t a shopper’s club card to break out to even those totals until the early 90s (grrrr Wegmans), so that column was not applicable either. When I began it was:

Subtotal, coupon total, amount paid.

The same sales ran over and over, so keeping track of sale-cycle items wasn’t difficult.

I also did a LOT more rebating back then, because until the early 90s rebates were plentiful and paid well (grrrr P&G). Whatever my OOP costs were, they could be reduced by 100% or more (coupon moneymakers) when that rebate check arrived. It was delayed gratification as opposed to the instant gratification we have at the cash registers today.

So, what columns do you use? How do you keep track? Excel spreadsheet or a 3×5 card? Any input would really be helpful, especially to those just starting out!

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