How much can you save this year?

I was working on entering my receipts into my savings tracker today and wanted to see where I was at as compared to last year. I looked over last year's totals and am still impressed with how much I saved! I'm still not done entering my receipts from the past month so I don't know how I compare yet...

2010 Savings
$4417.81 saved in COUPONS
$3717.58 saved from shopping SALES
$488.80 earned in mail in REBATES
** $8624.19 SAVED IN 2010!! **

If you're just starting to get into couponing, know that it does take a bit of time, but last year was my first full calendar year of couponing and you can see how much the savings added up!

Tracking all your savings...

Last January I wanted to find a way to track my savings from coupons and sales... I found a GREAT savings tracker that Angela at The Coupon Project created. I had been using it all year, until the craziness of the past month caught up with me. I still have to locate all my receipts from the past 6 weeks or so and enter them. I would highly recommend downloading it and using it-- it's also a great place to track rebates. I always keep a copy of submitted rebates but I like to keep it on the spreadsheet also and keep track of which ones are still outstanding.

As of the last time I entered my receipts, I was at an average of 63.2% savings for the year-- my goal was 60%. Hopefully with the rest of my November and December receipts I didn't blow that-- there's a chance I did since I have not been real good about grocery shopping with coupons lately.

Is couponing really worth it?

So, after awhile of couponing you have to ask yourself, is this really worth it? Is it worth my time? Is it worth having to buy a couple printer cartridges each year, some printer paper and some extra Sunday papers?

The answer is YES!! As I was just putting my grocery shopping and Walgreens trip into my savings tracker, I looked at the total amount I have saved this year from coupons-- $3,971.34!! Now that's just using coupons- printed, newspaper inserts and store coupons. My average savings for the entire year is 63%!! The personal goal I had set back in January was to average 60% savings. There have been a couple months that I've been a bit under that, but also there have been months that I've beat that- and to be at 63% savings for the year to me is awesome.

If you haven't been following my blog since the beginning, I found a Savings Tracker that allows you to track your sales and coupon savings. There is also a rebate tab on the worksheet- I put all my submitted rebates on the list and fill in when I receive them to make sure I get all my rebates.

Have you been tracking your savings? How are you doing for the year? I'm doing great keeping my savings percentage high but I still am working to keep within a set budget... every month something always seems to come up and I always end up spending more than I want to.

Savings Tracker Updated

I was entering my purchases into the savings tracker today and the spreadsheet wasn't working correctly- I went back to The Coupon Project to see if I had entered something wrong, and it turns out the formulas were not correct on the link I posted previously.

So, if you go to this posting at The Coupon Project you can either find out how to enter the correct formulas or download an updated version.

If you haven't started using this tracker, I would highly recommend it- it's a great motivation to see how much you're saving!

Tracking Savings

I found a great spreadsheet at The Coupon Project that tracks the amount you save each month using coupons and shopping sales. It also tracks the percentage saved which is a great motivation. Click on Savings Tracker below to get the Excel spreadsheet.
Savings Tracker