UPDATED: due to the many questions & comments I’ve gotten on this tool, I will be holding a FREE LIVE WEBCAST on Monday, January 10th at 8pm PST on this blog to share more of my vision on how this works, and help you get your grocery budget together for 2011. For details, please see this post.
Rejoice! It’s here!
The new and improved Savings Tracker 2011 is available for FREE download in either Excel or Google Docs.
What is this Savings Tracker?
If you’re new, you should know that I care about numbers. A lot. And it’s important to me that you see that your hard work couponing pays off. My free Savings Tracker will enable you to see exactly how much you’re saving each month and year-to-date thanks to your coupon-clippin’, penny-pinchin’ ways. And even more importantly, you’ll be able to set a grocery budget for each month and track your spending against your budget!
How do I use it?
First decide if you want the Excel or Google version. Download and save to your computer. Then, get acquainted with this spreadsheet. You’ll notice there are several tabs. I HIGHLY recommend you read the “Getting Started” tab first. From there, decide what your grocery budget will be for each month, head to the “Summary” tab and enter in the appropriate months for the “Goal” column. This is the ONLY place you’ll make an entry on that tab – everything else is hard coded with formulas (i.e. don’t touch!).
For each month, there’s a new tab. Using your receipt, enter how much the shelf price was, the coupons you used, rebates, and so forth. The formulas in the spreadsheet will do all the rest calculating your savings in dollars and percentages, and letting you know exactly how much you have left in your budget for the month.
Anything new for 2011?
Based on your comments, I’ve added a “tax” column. Go ahead and enter your sales tax here (if you pay it). I’ve also added an “Earn Credit” column so you can jot down if you received any Catalina coupons or Register Rewards. But please note, my intention is that when you redeem them, you simply include them in your coupon totals. (After all, these ARE coupons.) I will provide further illustration in January.
This is great! Can I share it?
I would LOVE for you to share my work with a friend, your blog’s readers, Facebook followers and the like. However, I have one small request. Please just direct them to my site HERE for the download. In other words, don’t make the download available directly from your site – I want folks to come here to get it so I can keep tabs on its use. As you might expect, this is for personal use only.
Um. I’m still lost.
I plan on spending considerable time in January showing you how I’m using my own Savings Tracker to manage my goals. So if you learn best by seeing, just wait! It’s coming!
Wait, is this free? What’s the Catch?
No catch. It’s free. Consider it my holiday gift to you for being ridiculously rad and awesome readers and following me on this frugal journey.
Oh, and if you ever want to find it? Just look in the “Downloads” tab under my Navigation Bar – it’s there now!
{ 51 comments… read them below or add one }
← Previous Comments
Thank you so much for making this for 2011! I used your 2010 spreadsheet all year and it has been so helpful! I love being able to not only track my spending, but to be able to “prove” to my husband, friends, and family that couponing is NOT a waste of time!
Thank you!
Thank you so much for this resource! I used this religiously last year and it was so rewarding seeing how much I was saving as well as keeping me on track to not overspend. So appreciate it!
Jane
I used this all this past year, and just came looking today to see if you had the updated version for this coming year. I will be directing my Thrifty Thursday readers here to check out your work.
Thank you!!
Thank you!! I loved the 2010 tracker; it satisfied my need for organization and my love of Excel spreadsheets! Looking forward to saving even more this year.
YAY! Loved the 2010 tracker and have been very much looking forward to the 2011!!!
Very cool, will post on my Facebook page! Thanks Angela.
I loved the savings tracker and am excited to use it again!! Thanks for putting this together!
I’m trying it for the first time in 2011, it looks amazing. Thank you for providing this wonderful resource.
Thanks everyone!!
Can’t wait to try this out and actually set up a food budget. We tend to shop every 3 days if not everyday. Talk about overspending in the store.
Thanks so much for offering this tool.
Awesome Angela! Glad you got it going in Google Docs too! I’m posting about it tomorrow afternoon. Thanks so much for all the time you put into it!
Thanks! This was super helpful last year!!
as a personal statistics freak i love this and can’t wait to use it!
I am VERY excited to try your 2011 spreadsheet!! I am new to your blog and have enjoyed using your saving tips a lot!!!!
Thank you!!
Awesome! I love this. I’ll be sharing it with my readers (and directing them here to download.) Thanks!
This is awesome. I’ll be directing my readers to your site to download. Thanks!
I used the 2010 spreadsheet last year and loved it! It is great to be able to track our spending and our savings.
thank you so much! my new year’s resolution is to save at least $100/month using coupons and this will help me keep up with it. yay!!
I was trying to keep a file with all my grocery receipts so I could keep a savings tally, but this will be much easier. Thank you!
I just saw the post on Money Saving Mom and checked it out for myself. I have been using Excel to track my savings all these years. I am going to try your 2011 Savings Tracker to see if it is easier to track. I linked your webpage to my blog here: http://moneystretchingfamily.blogspot.com/2010/12/2011-savings-tracker.html. Thanks for sharing this with us, it puts us on the right track to another year of great savings.
Thank you so much! Cannot wait to use this. I will be sharing on facebook and directing people straight to you!
Woohoo! I was just going to use last years for the next year but I’m going to download this new shinny one instead! I’m going to share with my readers and send them over! Love this!!
Thank you so much. I used your 2010 spreadsheet and it was so helpful. I love being able to show my husband how much I saved this year.
Thanks Angela! I’ve been using excel to track my expenses for the past year but it is no where near as detailed and cool as this! Thanks so much!
This is such a great tool. Thank you for sharing! I added a link on my blog as well.
Thank you for posting this tracker for 2011. I stumbled across your 2010 version and enjoyed using it. I am excited to see the changes you made because I tweaked the 2010 version to make it more applicable to me. Thanks again!
This will be my first time to use this. I am nervous and excited. Thank you for all the time you invested in this and for sharing it with us.
This looks really neat! I’ve downloaded it and can’t wait to start playing with it. I blogged about it and left a link back to this site. Thanks again!
This is awesome! Thank you so much for all of the effort that you put into this.
I just saw this on another site I visit and decided to give it a try. It looks like a great product and I look forward to using it and the updates. I’ve already paid it forward by posting your link on a seperate site I visit.
I was just talking to a friend this weekend who suggested I should start tracking my savings. This came right on time. Thanks for offering this for free.
Thank you so much for this and for making it for google docs as well! I’m excited to see what my savings are. Just really starting out and I’ve had so many useful tips from you!
I LOVE it! Thank you for sharing your hard work with us! This is a fantastic resource.
I do have one tiny question, as this will be my first time using it. I see on the monthly details you included a rebate column. I assume this is a rebate we’ve earned on the purchase? If so, I suppose I have an issue with it being deducted from the amount paid column. I count my OOP spending before rebates, not after. Hmmm… and on typing this out, I’m thinking that instead of putting it in the rebate field, I should just put it in the Earn credit field instead. (Of course, keeping tabs on it in that awesome rebate tab you made!)
Thank you for creating this spreadsheet for all of us to use! I look forward to your posts through out January where you show us how you utilize the Savings Tracker. I can’t wait to see how much I am really saving each time I shop!
Thanks this looks amazing. I am excited to see how much I really save. How do I enter RR from Walgreens or gift cards from Target? Would they be considered a rebate?
Thank you! Thank you! I used your 2010 tracker ALL year long and absolutely LOVED it!! Thanks so much for making another one this year!
Hello! I found your site from moneysavingmom.com and I am really looking forward to looking around. I can’t wait to try out the savings tracker. Thanks!
OMG! Thank you so much! I wanted to track my savings and this is totally awesome. A lot better than my chicken scratch on paper. lol
Thanks, I used the 2010 tracker and loved it. I’m excited for the changes especially the tax column it will make it so much easier. I just downloaded the google docs version but I don’t see the tax column. Am I just blind?
I used your tracker last year and liked it a lot….easy to use and you can see your saving (and spending). Thanks for the 2011 update….now I won’t have to delete and try to remake a new one. I will be able to compare last year to this year. Thanks!
Anyone see the sales tax spot? I can’t seem to find it. I wanted to be able to track that as well.
BTW, thanks for offering this resource. I am excited about it. I just hope I’m good about keeping up with it. I have been a couponer for about 13 months now and I would like to know how its affecting our family’s budget.
I think it may have been omitted in the Google Docs. I will need to update, sorry!
I can tell you this…I’m personally NOT going to bother with the tax column at all. I feel that it overly complicates things. I’m simply including the tax in with my shelf cost.
I LOVE this!! I just downloaded it and shared it with my readers! If you’d like, you can share my free excel download as well – this is for a budget spreadsheet and getting out of debt tracker! http://www.homemakingexpert.com/2011/01/i-have-seen-several-posts-lately-about.html
Love your blog!
Thank you SO much for this great tool! I used it last year and accomplished 60% savings overall and have set my goal at 70% this year!
I loved using this spreadsheet in January and finished the month off within my budget. Thank you so much – I personally just do so much better when I can see numbers and track what I’m doing – it’s motivational!
Ok I am alittle late in starting this but I have a question:
When you do more then one transaction at one store do you enter them separatly or add them all to together to make just one total?
Also how do I make a budget for the stores like CVS and Walgreens? I kinda know what I want my budget to be for Publix but not sure about those others. Thank you so much, Shayla
the idea is you had ONE budget. I’m not sure how you’d budget for each store? I suppose you could save a separate tracker for each store, but that seems like an awful lot of work & confusing. Also, the tracker was designed to use one line PER transaction.
I hope that answers your questions? good luck!
I love this! Thank you sooooooo much for sharing! This is exactly what I needed. You’re awesome!
You’re welcome! Thanks!
Thank you so much for this awesome tool! I have used coupons for years and used to get tons of deals at Walgreens when I worked there but I just recently started couponing on a more serious note this month. I got all of my receipts this far entered in last night and I am at a 52.27% savings rate already, I figure that’s not to bad considering I am just starting and still have to buy some stuff with no coupons since I just don’t have them all yet lol but either way I have saved $301.68 this month so I am happy
and I already have a nice stockpile in both bathrooms and the kitchen pantry is looking nice and healthy too….my husband should smell good for quite a few months now lol
is it possible to add a formula to deduct the amount of money i spend on purchasing coupons and coupon inserts.
{ 22 trackbacks }