Anyone esle keeping a running total?

[HighwayDragon1]

Christmas is my only organised time of year, with colour coded lists, with a running actual total and the amount I've saved £28.89 spent, but my saving is £110.08!

Do you budget? Stick to a budget? Keep track of what you've spent (and saved)? How much on average do you spend?

Yep i have a spreadsheet

Total RRP 932.03

Total spent 378.73

Saving 553.3

Thats mine so far. Im half done for the whole family (3 children, 3 sils, mil, my parents, best mate, two partners, 2 nieces, 3 nephews, husband, teachers gifts, stockings, christmas eve hamper...)

Yes I know what I have spent so far but kicking myself for not recorfing the RRP and seeing how much I have saved.
I have a budget per person so i keep buying until I have hit the target

I do! £14.33 spent so far. RRP was £32.87. I love seeing how much I've saved! Not bought much yet, but I have a list so I'm only buying things now if they are on sale. If not, I'll buy them in December. Unless dd asks for a toy that's likely to sell out.

im pleased with mine. It includes 2 pre orders as well of lego dimensions and disney infinity 3.0

I keep a spreadsheet with budget, spent and savings column. I try my best to shave a few pounds off here and there. I see it as a bit of a challenge. I hate to think how much we spent before keeping track!

I made an excel spreadsheet one year of my budget for each person and amount spent with columns for totals etc.

I didn't make a column for RRP/amount saved because it's not really money saved is it, unless you were going to buy that particular thing at full price and got a discount... Mostly I buy sale stuff because it's on sale iyswim

Yes I am for the first time ever keeping a list with ALL spends written! I'm trying to cut back a bit so this year I'm going to see how much it all adds up to, and then next year I'll aim for less.

Showing myself to be a complete ignoramus... but I haven't used Excel properly for years, how do I do the sum of a column so it automatically updates when you add something new? I've done an autosum thing before but it only seemed to work if you have the total directly below the column so I keep having to add more rows. Ideally I'd have the total on a separate column so it's near the top and separate, but I don't know how! To think I used to be a whizz at spreadsheets

Can anyone tell me how please?

Yes, I have a spreadsheet saved on my Google Drive, so I can access it on my phone.
I have separate pages for presents, card list, food and drink, and festive events! I have a budget for each section, and person for presents, based on what I can save during the year.

Excel =sum(e3:e10) where e3-e10 is the list of cell numbers you want to add up. So make it e100 if you want to keep adding infinitely.

Hope that makes sense

Aha! Thanks very much. You're like the Father Christmas of knowledge. :)

I have a special app on my phone. It shows what I intend to buy and for how much and which shop from and shows my savings, total cost for each person and when everyone is bought for, wrapped etc. each person can have a picture allocated to them and so can each gift and you can share the list with people. You archive it each year so you can go back and check previous years and it's always on my phone when I'm shopping. I love it!

I keep a running total otherwise I end up seriously overspending. I also make note of any savings I've made, with anything spare then going on a rushed present for me so ds doesn't think I'm on santas naughty list!!!

I tend to write down the prices of things before I buy them too, then go scouting for the best price. Can save a fortune shopping around.

Ooh no, not so far, but I haven't bought anything really.
(I have some socks -£1- for DD stocking, in TopShop sale. And some gorgeous little card topper decorations - £1- from The Range that I aim to arrange artfully round the mirrors)

When I go to Costco, I'm going to buy some crackers and decide my table theme . I'm planning green/silver because I have a gorgeous silver candleabra and a green tablecover and napkins.
And I'm looking for sweets wrapped in green or silver to put in a huge glass in the centre.

I collect my Nectar Points (at £165 ) so that pays for the food shopping in Sainsburys.

We don't buy for family except the DC, we're not the type of family who buys for everyone.
I will start the Stocking Gifts soon when I see things I like, and put them in the wardrobe. Then I think "she's got ten times more than him" and get The Twitch

I don't ever set a budget, I have no idea how much money I spend (although have a rough guess) and I never keep track of what I buy!

I write a list in about October of who I need to buy for (usually about 35 people) and then write what I want to get them next to that.
I cross them off when they're done.

I do usually start dcs stockings from September as there are 3 of them, they have huge sacks and I fill them to the brim (although no tat) so it takes ages to acquire all the little bits and pieces.

That's about as complex as my plans get!

I use YNAB for budgeting so I have a christmas category in there where everything's recorded.

We don't have many people to buy for so I don't have to resort to spreadsheets or complex lists (even though I have spreadsheets for everything else in life!).

I've bought £191 in rrp for £122 using offers and cash back sites, a saving of £69, I have to admit it's less of a saving than I was expecting!

That's 10 grown ups, all of DD1's presents minus sugar mouse and orange and pretty much all of DD2's presents. I've got DH's presents, PiL's presents, my mum and some stocking fillers for DD2 (she'll be 9 months, so it will be baby snacks!) to go, oh and the elf on the shelf bits... But I'm counting myself as not bad given it's September!

Hang on, you've bought presents for 10 adults and both your children for £122?? Is that you finished apart from the things you mentioned? I'm stunned

I think I might keep a record of rrp and actually price. Si if you have a budget do you count the RRP or the actual price

10 grown ups, two kids, dh,in laws and your mums presents all for £122?!?!?!?!?!?

Doh! Silly me, misread, you've got the dh,pils and mum to go! still, £122 for 10 adults and two kids is still just wow!

Iwantoneofthose.com has a 3 for £20 offer that covers quite a wide variety of gifts, plus on topcashback there was something like 12% off and 2% cash back (it was running until this payday so i scrabbled to get it through on time), so I got 10 presents (9 on 3 for £20, one not in the offer) from there for £65 after the combined offers.

then Argos has 2 for £15 on some of the toys, so both girls got 2 toys, £30 total, then there was cash back through topcashback

Then Boots had a vtech camera watch £40 for £25 online (dd1), and they had a sale on childrens toiletries so I got a bunch of Jake and the Neverland Pirates DD1 loves anything bathy and isn't big enough to know pirates are for boys bits super cheep, coming to £35 and there was cash back from topcashback

The cash back waiting to come through on top cutback comes to £8. which brings me to £122

The girls will be 3 years and 9 months, and we have a big family, hence me having so many people to buy for, so the girls will be inundated with presents, and DD1's birthday is the month before so we can buy DD1 less xmas 'suff' than we perhaps otherwise would because other peoples gifts mean we'll still be unwrapping for days (meaning we can put the money we otherwise would have spent in her ISA) and the 9 month old won't realise that she has only got a couple of things and a stocking, from us and there's not much that she needs because we still have most of DD1's stuff saved so again more money in her ISA.