Q & A

Coupon Clipper: How do you calculate how much you are saving? For instance, Meijer has three rows up at the top that list your savings, are you counting the grand total that the receipt says? Because in that seems to be savings from the sales they had that week. Want to try to start tracking mine as well but wanting to use a method that is accurate.

Me: I think its OK for each person to track their spending (*only if you want to!!!) based on what their goals may be.

Personally, I like to keep my out of pocket (sometimes this is referred to simply as OOP in the blog-o-sphere) spending as low as possible for ALL of my grocery and drug store purchases.

I record the money that I have SPENT as actually cash that is paid.

I record the money that I have SAVED from a purchase, including:
*Coupon values (including doubles)
*Store reward money that has been spent (ECB's, RR's and Catalinas)
*Gift card spending
*Additional store 'sale savings' according to my receipt totals
*Additional store coupons, like Meijer's recent $5/$25 purchase

It is important to only count your savings once!

For example, I could have purchased a box of Electrosol this week at Walgreens for $3.49. After spending my $2.50 coupon my OOP would have been $.99- but I would have received a $1 Register Reward.

I could consider my single box of Electrosol as FREE

OR

I could consider my Electrosol to be a steal of a deal at $.99/box and I'd be the proud owner of a $1 RR to save me a little bit of money off of my next purchase.

I track my spending by when I SPEND my reward, which makes tracking easier since rewards are spent just like coupons and that's how my receipts reflect the savings.

Did this make sense?