Knowing what we saved is just as important as knowing what we spent, it’s motivating. If we don’t see numbers as motivators just debt and who we owe it’s not that exciting. We want to see debt reduction, salary increase, and how much we saved. I don’t know about you but they seem to put a smile on my face.
Not everyone is coupon savvy or out to save a buck in their budget but for those of us who do I thought it would be a great idea to track our spending habits whilst using coupons.
It’s just one of those numbers that say, “if only I knew then what I know now”.. you all know you are saying it, unless you’ve done it since the dawn of day. It was probably part of your granny’s arts and crafts time while minding you and now something you teach your children.
Tracking Coupon Savings
When we started budgeting we began with something pretty basic where we downloaded a home budget spreadsheet free on the internet. We soon discovered that to satisfy our craving for knowing our savings we needed a coupon savings tracker of sorts.
There are coupon trackers and goal meters on the internet but we wanted something that was built right into our budget. We thought this would be easy on the eyes for us and less hassle with a separate tool.
Whether you get direct mail coupons, internet coupons which are coupons for printing (sometimes called e-coupons you get via email) you should use a spreadsheet for tracking expenses or any money-saving that you might do in a given month.
Canadian Coupon Sites to Order and Print Coupons online
If you are a coupon saving mom or dad, single or even for married people you can easily track expenses along with coupon usage with the Canadian Budget Binder monthly expense sheet template that we designed to manage our family finances.
If you are a student there is no reason you couldn’t use this as a college budget spreadsheet to track your expenses while in school. Attending University and College is a costly venture in life, one that can keep you in debt for a long time after graduation.
Take the time as a student to investigate the city you will live in and the best ways to save money. I’m not shocked in this day and age when I see students using coupons, and there are plenty of them. Hands in the air folks if you are reading this!
How will I know how much I’ve saved using coupons?
With our Canadian Budget Binder Spreadsheet we wanted to have a running total of coupons that we had redeemed through the month. Each month now we know exactly how much we have saved every step along the way. If you are someone who has set a monetary savings goal using coupons this might be handy for you.
My mate over at Frugal Sally asked her readers about saving money and how they do it. One reader posted this great tip!
Whenever I intentionally save money, I move it out of my checking acct. Ex: if I save $15 using coupons, I then transfer $15 into my savings account. By Talar13
We also recognized that we purchase quite a few gift cards or receive them as gifts. We have incorporated this into our excel spreadsheet as well. If you don’t use coupons that’s ok too, you can still use the Canadian Budget Binder Spreadsheet.
Reasons why we wanted to know our Coupon Savings?
- Did we reach our monthly, yearly target?
- To set a new goal for the following year
- To monitor trends in coupon use
- To monitor what stores we use the most coupons at
- To understand our spending habits
- Do you track your coupon use?
- What method do you use?
- Why do you track your coupons?
Related articles
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- Top Seven Budgeting Mistakes (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- How We Designed our Budget Step 5- 5S Organization (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- How we Designed our Budget Step 4 (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
- How We Designed Our Budget Step 7- Balancing Our Budget (canadianbudgetbinder.com)
Photos Courtesy of:123RF
