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This may sound lame or corny but I was thinking of keeping track of how much money I save when I shop, go out to eat, etc. 90% of the time I use a coupon code, cash back, and I almost always shop sales. Never retail price.
Today I got an extra $5 gift card at ihop. It's not a lot but the little things do add up. Why spend more if you don't have to? I do splurge every now and then but for the most part I'm frugal. For this month I saved about $80 so far with discounts and coupon codes. I think it might be interesting to see how much I saved at the end of the year.
I track everything in Quicken.
I can tell you how much we saved with coupons/store specials... and with Discover's Cashback Bonus. But just in Categories, not on individual items.
I keep a spreadsheet only for electronics. I upgrade my electronics often (I'll get a new computer every 6 to 8 months) so I keep track what I spent and depreciation.
For everything else I use Quicken. It automates everything since I never use cash and tells me what I need to know.
I almost always use credit (rewards cards I pay off in full 95% of the time) which makes it easy to track. Aside from rent, I spend less than $100 a month with cash which I only track by keeping up with when I last went to the ATM, how much I have in my wallet, etc.
Another poster mentioned (I remember reading somewhere on CD) ... that they took their coupon and discount savings, put it in a piggy bank and once a month deposited the piggy bank cash in a bank savings account.
Ie, if their grocery receipt said "You've saved $9.82", when they got home, they put that amount in the pig.
This may sound lame or corny but I was thinking of keeping track of how much money I save when I shop, go out to eat, etc. 90% of the time I use a coupon code, cash back, and I almost always shop sales. Never retail price.
Today I got an extra $5 gift card at ihop. It's not a lot but the little things do add up. Why spend more if you don't have to? I do splurge every now and then but for the most part I'm frugal. For this month I saved about $80 so far with discounts and coupon codes. I think it might be interesting to see how much I saved at the end of the year.
Does anyone keep track of how much they save?
I don't do it, but I think it's a great idea. I'm frugal, but not very disciplined about keeping track of such things. I use coupons and discounts whenever I can, and I live within my means. It would be interesting to see how much I save each year because of various discounts. Best discount I've received so far was over $100 saved on a pair of eyeglasses at Target Optical, which gives a 30% discount to AARP members.
My bank has a cool "round up" feature. Whenever I use my debit card (which is for almost every purchase I make), the amount debited is rounded by my bank to the next dollar and the change goes into my savings account. It can be as little as 1 cent or as much as 99 cents. It really adds up during the course of a year. I keep track of it online to see how much I'm saving each month.
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I never used Quicken before but I always hear of people using mint.com.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PJ8
I don't do it, but I think it's a great idea. I'm frugal, but not very disciplined about keeping track of such things. I use coupons and discounts whenever I can, and I live within my means. It would be interesting to see how much I save each year because of various discounts. Best discount I've received so far was over $100 saved on a pair of eyeglasses at Target Optical, which gives a 30% discount to AARP members.
My bank has a cool "round up" feature. Whenever I use my debit card (which is for almost every purchase I make), the amount debited is rounded by my bank to the next dollar and the change goes into my savings account. It can be as little as 1 cent or as much as 99 cents. It really adds up during the course of a year. I keep track of it online to see how much I'm saving each month.
I like the round up feature. I wish my bank did that,
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gandalara
Another poster mentioned (I remember reading somewhere on CD) ... that they took their coupon and discount savings, put it in a piggy bank and once a month deposited the piggy bank cash in a bank savings account.
Ie, if their grocery receipt said "You've saved $9.82", when they got home, they put that amount in the pig.
I was thinking about doing this as well. It would be nice to see how much money I saved at the end of the year.
Not in that sense. I keep a budget, so I know my cash flow every month. But I don't track savings on individual items.
Same here. We have a spreadsheet set up to budget how our paychecks are divided to various items such as mortgage, utility bills, groceries, savings (long term and short term for thing like vacations), disposable income, etc. But we don't track individual purchases.
I don't have a spreadsheet but I do have weekly budget sheets that I use and look over to compare month to month.
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