Savings Tracker

Mar

Yesterday’s Shopping Trip and this Month’s Spending Goals

Last month I shared my shopping trips and spending and savings progress with you. Was this helpful? Interesting? Let me know and I’ll do my best to keep it up.

Here is what I got yesterday:

Plus of course, my earlier frozen food items from Grocery Outlet:

All told, I paid $57.57 for everything pictured and saved 64%! Not bad, considering the amount of produce and healthy stuff I picked up.

My goal this month is to keep us at $350. After yesterday’s trip, we have $292 left in the budget.

I wanted to share three specific things I’ve been doing lately to keep us on track. These aren’t earth shattering – they are simple – but they are working.

Plan your meal list and grocery list at the same time. This will help focus your time in the store and prevent middle-of-the-week shopping trips. Which leads me to #2….
Shop one day a week. For the past three weeks, I’ve forced myself to do all my shopping on ONE day a week. This really helps you determine which deals matter most, and which you can let go. Yesterday I shopped four stores, which is definitely a bit much (thankfully three were all within a mile of each other), but generally I’ve been shopping two stores back-to-back.
Use cash. At the start of the week, take out the cash you’ll need. It will help nix impulse buys and overspending.

Do you have any shopping or savings goals for March? And don’t forget – you can join me by downloading the FREE Savings Tracker I’m using, too!

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Feb

Report on Resolutions: February Edition!

Last month I shared how I was working to achieve my 2012 resolutions. I thought I’d share an update with how I’m doing in hopes to encourage you to evaluate your own goals for the year!

As a reminder, my overarching theme to this year is simple: GET RID OF CHAOS. This means cleaning up the waste and clutter in my life – the things that are bogging me down to accomplishing my goals and living the life I truly want to live.

Fitness & Health

February was an excellent month for me in this regard. I ended January weighing 151 and today I weigh 143. I credit much of this weight loss to successfully completing my Going Vegan on a Budget challenge. Yes, that’s right; for a full month I followed a vegan diet and omitted meat and dairy from my diet. I will be sharing my month-end results in a separate post.

I thought I’d share some before/after pictures today. The before picture was taken nearly a year ago, when I weighed in the high 150′s. Below’s photo is taken this morning.

Me last year, weighing about 155

Me at 143 lbs

In case you’re wondering, I ended 2011 weighing 158 lbs, so that’s a total weight loss of 15 in 2012. I am actually the lowest I’ve weighed since the birth of my daughter in 2008. My goal is to get to the mid-130′s, where I was before the babies.

Financial & Couponing-Related

I recently shared how Terry and I have been going through the Financial Peace University at our church. We are now half way through the course and loving it! We moved to using the cash-envelope system for our variable expenses (such as groceries and eating out) and are following a strict budget to meet our financial goals. I’m amazed at the amount of money we’ve been able to find in our budget at the end of just one month.

Here’s the quick ‘n dirty stats on our grocery spending this month:

Shelf Cost: $490.93
Total Paid: $327.65
Budget:$350 (under by $23!)
Total Saved: $169.86
% Saved: 34.60%

While you might think that I’d be disappointed that my savings rate was a mere 34.60%, I consider this month a complete success because we stayed under our budget! Also remember that we ate a whole foods, vegan diet this month, too. Compare that to January – we saved 43%, but overspent by $14. Also think of it this way: 34.6% is almost $170! That’s a lot of money if you consider what you could do with it in the space of a month. That’s about three nice dinners out, a few new outfits at the store, or nice little chunk to set aside towards a special vacation. (And PS, remember you can track your savings with my free savings tracker, too!)

I have also been working diligently on my taxes. I have a couple more small deductions to enter in TurboTax, and then we’re pretty much good to go! Such a relief. By the way, I recommend TurboTax ALL.THE.TIME. because it’s what we’ve used for nearly a decade. We’ve had some complicated tax stuff pop up too, and it’s been able to handle everything easily. I love how you can come back and work on it over a period of time (in case you think of other deductions!), and you can see instantly what your tax refund will be (it actually goes up or down with every entry you make!). If you’re looking for ways to save on your taxes or make the leap to doing it yourself, give TurboTax a try.

Getting my House in Order

Confession time. I really was lax on this one for February. I think I completely burnt out after my big house purge in January and I had trouble getting restarted. Word to the wise: if you do a house purge, just get ‘er done. The whole thing.

Well at least I tackled the medicine cabinet, right?

The only room I managed in decluttering was the master bathroom. I still have two other bathrooms, our office, and walk-in closet to complete. My goal is to finish this up for March.

Social & Spiritual

I really want to be better about making time for my friends and doing things just for the fun of it! I’ve been a part of a book club, Bibliotherapy, that my pal Keri started almost five years ago now. Keri actually created an AWESOME Pinterest board of all the books our club has read to date. So if you’re looking for ideas of books to read, check out her board.

This month’s read was Books 2 & 3 of The Hunger Games. I read about half of the last book the day before the book club last night, but yes, I did finish them. I must say I enjoyed Books 1 & 2 so much more than 3. Towards the end of 3, it just seems like everything about the world sucks. Which isn’t really the feeling I am going for when I want to curl up with a good book in my “spare time.” Those that have read the book – do you agree with me?

Our book this month is Chocolat. I’ve never read it. Feel free to join me.

I also set an ambitious goal to read through the Bible in chronological order. I’ve not started this yet (DOH, me), but I have decided that maybe for March I’ll do something more realistic. Read through the book of Proverbs. There are 31 days and 31 chapters. How perfect is that? I’m particularly interested in parsing out all the verses that relate to personal finance and am thinking of keeping a journal on what I discover. Again, feel free to join me.

Recap of February & Looking Ahead to March

It’s time to cross of my February goals and update it for March!

~~Find the chronological order of the Bible and set out a plan.~~ Read through Proverbs.
~~Order seeds for the garden and do some general clean up.~~ Seeds ordered! Plant greens & develop a calendar.
~~Read Books 2 & 3 of the Hunger Game series.~~ Done! Read Chocolat for March.
~~Successfully complete my vegan challenge for February.~~ Done! Yeah, me!
~~Lose another 5 pounds (for an end goal weight of 146 for end of Feb)~~ Done! Goal for March: anything under 140!
~~Continue our Dave Ramsey series.~~ Going great. Finish strong in March.
~~Finish the house declutter.~~ Did not do – keep in the list for March.
~~Finish our taxes. Nearly done.~~ Get the final deductions entered & run the final TurboTax edits.
Complete our annual credit report review.

This is all so cool to me because I am usually pretty lax with resolutions or goals like this. I feel like I’ve done a great job and am looking forward to March.

So I’ve love for you to chime in. What did you accomplish in February? Are you on track for keeping your resolutions? What are your goals for the month ahead?

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Dec

Best Advice for Couponing in 2012 (plus the new Sales Cycles Download!)

Whether you’ve been couponing for awhile or are making the leap in the New Year, today I wanted to share some tips for saving in 2012. These tips are based on trends I’ve noticed over the past three years and my predictions for how couponing may evolve in 2012 and beyond.

Adjust your stock up prices. Let’s just talk about that elephant in the room, shall we? You may well need to adjust your stock-up price on items like cereal and diapers. Some of the deals we’ve been accustomed to in the past have changed, or gone away entirely. It may be time to establish new stock-up prices.
Shop new stores. For 2012, my challenge to you would be to try out a few new stores. You might find that the best price on tofu is at the Asian market you’ve never set foot in. Or, you might learn that shopping Grocery Outlet is less of a headache for your beauty care supplies than Rite Aid. Try someplace new.
Forget the notion that everything must be purchased with a coupon. Thinking that you must have a coupon for everything is surely a narrow way to think. If you take the horse blinders off a moment, you might realize that buying your spices in bulk is a better bet even than buying the small bottles with sales and coupons. Don’t miss an opportunity to save.
DO continue to get your Sunday paper! I’ll soon be sharing the coupon preview with you for the week – hint, it’s a GOOD week to be a couponer. We saw many fantastic, high value coupons in the inserts in 2011 (remember the FREE Frank’s Hot Sauce? $8/2 Covergirl? $3/1 Snapware? $3/1 Zevia?), and I think we’ll continue to see plenty of coupons that make your subscription and time worthwhile.
Learn to DIY. In 2012, I would encourage you to save money by learning to do something for yourself. Maybe it’s joining me on my gardening adventures, or learning how to repair your car or home. There are so many blogs and YouTube videos these days that can walk you through everything from restoring furniture to canning your own food. Take advantage of these resources!

If you’re interested in hearing more of my thoughts, please watch my webcast from last Monday on 2011: A Year in Review.

I have spent some time going through my 2011 posts and updating my Store Sales Cycle download (see below). I found many things consistent from 2010, but did make some additions where appropriate. Most notably, I’ve expanded the download to include a meatier promotion section. Of course many of these are regional for me (Seattle/Tacoma/Pacific Northwest), but if you live in other parts of the country, you might have noticed similar promotions at your regional stores. I’ve included a section under each month for you to add in your own notes.

Store Sales Cycles: Download for FREE!

(If you ever want to reference it again, you can snag it up under Downloads in my Navigation Bar.)

Why do I care about store sales cycles so much? Because they are the cake that coupons frost.

And of course, don’t forget the other FREE tool I’ve made available for you to use in 2012…the new Savings Tracker!

What are your couponing and/or saving goals for 2012?

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Dec

2012 Savings Tracker: Released!

You’ve been asking for it…and now it’s here! Please head to the Savings Tracker page to grab your preferred FREE version of the 2012 Savings Tracker!

What is the Savings Tracker?

Before I was a blogger, I worked as an administrative assistant, supporting executive staff at a community bank. I was frequently required to create and maintain rather complicated spreadsheets. As a result, I got pretty good at – and discovered a love for – Excel.

In my role as a coupon blogger, I wanted to create a tool that folks could easily use to track their spending and savings. It seems that couponing is often about the day-to-day transactions and it’s important to step back and see the big picture. The Savings Tracker allows you to do just that:

Set your monthly grocery budget and stick to it
Determine how much coupons are really saving you
Determine how much store sales are really saving you
Get your monthly and yearly spending results at-a-glance

Whether you’re new to couponing or an old pro, this would be a good chance to get ready for the new year! The 2012 version has been virtually unchanged from 2011. I had made a number of changes from 2010 to 2011, and found that the 2011 version has worked pretty well for most of you. I made some minor tweeks and updates for 2012. If you’ve been using the tracker for 2011, you’ll find the 2012 version won’t require any re-learning.

Disclaimers & Caveats

As always, this spreadsheet is for personal use only. If you are a blogger or someone who wishes to share this, please do – I would love that! All I ask is that you link to this post. Please don’t make the download available on your site. If you have any question about this, please contact me at angela @ thecouponproject dot com.

Finally, please understand that I simply do not have the resources to make one-off alterations. I sometimes get emails from folks wishing me to build a particular formula or make a tweek to suit their situation, and unfortunately, I’m not able to offer such support. That being said, please know that you are 100% welcome to make any and all alterations you wish on your own personal saved copy! Everyone’s brain works a bit different, so I’ve intentionally left the pages unprotected.

If you need more help, please DO check out the resources I’ve put together on the Savings Tracker page including a manual and a recorded webcast. I’ve worked hard to ensure your success with this!

A final THANK YOU to everyone who has used this and/or shared it with a friend and helped put my site “on the map” so to speak. Warmly appreciated.

Happy saving in 2012!

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Jun

Savings & Spending: end of June

Today is the last day of June, so I thought I’d share how I did this month (click to see larger image):

Last week, I was well under budget, so you know what I did?

Yeah, sort of insane. I get that. But I also really, really love just shopping at Whole Foods. We ended up buying some totally fancy olive oil and balsamic vinegar, good quality Greek yogurt (we adore Noosa), a jar of roasted red peppers, and other specialty type items. Could we have done without this trip? Probably. But it’s also fun knowing that you can sometime sneak a totally fun, splurge trip in like this without killing your budget if you’ve saved on other items all month long. I also found it a good environment to shop in while on a diet!

Even with this trip, I saved nearly half this month. Not bad!

I also managed to lose a total of 13 pounds during the month of June, doing the 17 Day Diet. Most of that weight fell rapidly off in the first week – week and a half. Now, it’s all about digging in and persisting. I am also upping the intensity of my workouts. I’m feeling pretty fantastic and my clothes aren’t so tight!

Here are some of the meals I enjoyed last week. All recipes are my own. I’m not using any sort of cookbook.

Irish Oatmeal with Goji Berries

Sesame Steak with Onions, Peppers, and Mushrooms

Baked Chicken with Garlic Scape Pesto (get the recipe)

Chicken Sausage and Golden Chard Salad with Wild Organic Salad Mix and Golden Berries

Corn and Lemongrass Soup (from Imagine Foods, Whole Foods), Fresh Peas from the Garden, Organic Green Tea

I hope that this was useful to see that it is possible to eat whole, healthy foods on a budget! Here are some basic recaps of how I was able to achieve this savings:

My garden. I estimate I harvested a good $25 worth of organic produce from my garden. I’m out now out there everyday pulling up arugula, lettuce, strawberries, and peas. More will be ready in a couple weeks.
I shopped a variety of stores. I wasn’t loyal to just one store. You’ll noticed I hit up an Asian market, the Farmer’s market, Albertsons, and drugstores this month.
I leveraged promotions. The $20 Gift Card promotion was huge in helping my family save on items like salmon and children’s vitamins!
I made meals that overlapped ingredients. The one jar of roasted red peppers I bought at Whole Foods was used in about 4 different dishes, for instance. Select ingredients that have versatility.

How did you do for June?

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Jun

Spending & Saving Update: 2/3 of the way there…

I hope it’s been useful for me to show you what I’ve been spending and saving this month on my family’s grocery and household items. It’s been a useful exercise for me, quite frankly, to see if this can be done while on a healthful diet. Here is how my month is shaping up:

This section tells me that I bought $488 worth of food and household items for a total of $223, a savings rate of 54%. I had set the budget to $350 for this month, so this leaves me $126 for the rest of June. Which is completely do-able. I anticipate I will come under that.

Here are my transactions for the week:

Most of this was spent on produce. Tacoma Boys may have had some savings that I didn’t reflect, too. I bought large containers of blueberries for $2.50 and organic grapes for $2.99/lb.

As a reminder, my husband and I are on the 17 Day Diet, which mostly involves eating lean protein, lots of vegetables, servings of probiotics (kefir, greek yogurt), some fruit, lots of water, and green tea. Here are a few of the meals I ate this week.

Sesame Broiled Chicken, Broiled Asparagus, and fresh Radish

Curry Chicken (cooked in coconut oil), Asparagus, Salad with Grapes

Turkey Bacon Wrapped Baked Chicken with Mushrooms

If you want to see how much your spending and saving, you can download a FREE copy of the Savings Tracker I’m using.

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Savings and spending update: mid-month

June 15, 2011

In my update from last week, I had spent $126 and saved 10%. Ready to see how I’m doing month-to-date? That’s right! I spent a total of $52.12 this week, and my month-to-date savings rate is now over 56%! This was largely achieved by the Albertsons Gift Card promotion I shared with you. I also [...]

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Saving & Spending Update: Week One

June 9, 2011

I promised to share what I spend and what I save this month with you. And this is turning out to be a very different month! But in an effort to follow through with what I promised, here goes nothing. Yup, you read that right. A meager savings rate of 10% and $3 worth of [...]

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Welcome to February: what’s on sale, and getting ready for it

February 1, 2011

It’s a new month, so I thought I’d take some time to give you a heads-up on what I expect we’ll see on sale. Items I predict will go on sale (based on two years of couponing): frozen pizza, chips and salsa, Mexican food ingredients, ground beef, ribs, sausage, canned soup and chili, pasta and [...]

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