The following is a guest post from The Coupon Project.

Photo by mhunter111

As a newbie couponer, it was exhilarating leaving a store knowing I’d just saved more than I spent.  But a couple months in, I knew it was time to buckle down and get serious about formulating a real plan to transform my entire grocery bill.

So at the start of this year, I decided to do something a little different.  I decided I was going to track my savings and spending more carefully.   That way I’d know in any given month how closely I’d hit my goals, what my savings ratio was like, and if I was making any improvement as the months moved on.  Using this information, I could also create goals for what I wanted my spending to look like for the months ahead.

In retrospect, my process for doing this has involved four steps.  Here they are:

STEP ONE – determine how much you are spending now. In order to set a goal, you need to know where your starting point is.  Try to get a 3-month average of what you typically spend on groceries.  You also need to establish what you are going to count in this category.  Household products?  OTC medications?  Baby necessities?  Gifts?  And if you don’t have actual numbers to deal with, estimate what you think you spend and then see how close you come to that figure the following month.

STEP TWO – set both short- and long-term goals. Keep it simple and straightforward.  As an example, my long-term goal is to spend no more than $200/month for my family’s groceries and household items.  Since I just started couponing and stockpiling in November, I knew that this goal might take awhile to achieve.  So I’m easing my way to that goal with short-term (or midway) goals.  For instance, this month my goal was to spend no more than $300.  I can’t say I achieved that, but I will go ahead and keep that $300 goal until I am successful in meeting it.  Once I’ve met that goal, I will lower the monthly budget amount to say, $275. 

You might also decide to set a goal around the percentage you save each month.  Right now, I’m running around a 65% savings rate.  Maybe I could try to work towards a 70% rate, as an example.  You want to have goals that push you – but you don’t want to be so unrealistic that you just set yourself up for failure, either.  There’s a balance and it may take a while to find it.  Be patient and don’t give up!

STEP THREE – create a method of tracking your spending and saving. I am a Microsoft Excel nut, so a few months back, I created a spreadsheet so I could just plop in the data from my receipts and leave the calculating to the spreadsheet.  Yes, it took some work upfront, but now it’s quick and easy for me to track my goals.  If you prefer a more manual method, that’s fine.  Just do whatever you can to make the process as intuitive and easy as possible for you.

STEP FOUR – reflect on your progress. If you meet your goal for the month (or whatever time frame you designate), figure out what you did that worked for you so you can replicate your success.  Didn’t meet a goal?  Take the time to determine what went awry.   Were your goals unrealistic?  Did something unexpected come up?  How could you do better next time?  Whatever you do, don’t just throw in the towel and say “to heck with it!  I give up!”  Remember that every dollar you save is one less dollar you now have to earn.  (Remember that old adage, “A penny saved is a penny earned?”)

Yes, saving 50% or more in a single shopping trip is exhilarating.  But knowing you are saving 50% or more on your entire grocery bill for the month is even more satisfying.  I hope I’ve given you some practical advice (and maybe a good dose of inspiration!) for creating your own goals and tracking your spending.

Deal Seeking Mom here: What methods do you use to track your savings? What kind of goals do you have in place?

Angela is the author of The Coupon Project, a blog chronicling her real life couponing adventures.   Her goal is to encourage and educate other newbie couponers how to enjoy amazing money-saving success through easy-to-follow posts.

The following is a guest post from Cha-Ching on a Shoestring.

Photo by ssdg4773

Our family loves vacation.  We spend months planning and preparing and looking forward to another crazy week with our extended family…all 19 of us.  The memories we make each year have become legendary.

That’s why when a variety of circumstances (my husband’s recent unemployment, my sister’s family’s recent move, and my very pregnant self) led us to attempt our very first “staycation” last summer, we were a little nervous.  How would staying home ever compare to our previous beach, amusement park, and camping trips?  Could we possibly find enough entertainment in our little town for a whole week?

In the end, we loved it.  It rates right up there with the most fun vacations we’ve ever had, and it definitely was the least expensive.  We even managed to add a few more memories to our list of vacation legends.

If you are feeling uncertain about taking another pricey vacation, you may want to consider a staycation for your family this summer.  Here are a few tips on how to make the most of your time with a little bit of creativity and even less money:

• Make a plan in advance. It may be too easy to slip into your regular routine without setting up some kind of schedule for the week. Since we had multiple families involved, each family was assigned a day in which they were in charge of the activities. To make things even more fun, each family used Evite.com to send an evite a few weeks in advance to invite the others to their day’s festivities.

• Use this as an excuse to try out something new. Who would have thought that one of our favorite activities would be an art museum? We asked around about what activities other people have enjoyed within driving distance of our home and ended up trying out a new zoo, an Imax theater, and rafting down a local river. If you live in a more rural area, consider taking a couple of day trips to the closest city. If you live near a large city, you may want to take advantage of all-in-one event passes like citypass.com.

• Do what you can to make your home feel like a destination spot. We were lucky enough to have a family friend offer their huge bouncy-house water slide for us to borrow for the week, which the kids LOVED (as well as the occasional uncle). Have a cook-out, don leis and grass skirts, and enjoy a Hawaiian Luau. Borrow bikes, video games, wading pools, tents-whatever it takes to make your home feel a little less like home.

• Don’t be afraid to REST! Often vacations can be exhausting because you feel the need to fit in enough activities to make your trip worth your while. Enjoy the fact that you don’t need to feel this pressure. Set up designated rest times when kids can watch a movie or play games and the adults can put up their feet.

• Remember that sometimes it’s the simple things that matter. Staying at home gave us time to enjoy walks to the park, playing card games, and a late night meteor shower-activities that sometimes get neglected in our hectic everyday lives. In the end, isn’t vacation really meant to be all about simply being together anyway?

Deal Seeking Mom here: Have you perfected the art of the staycation? Do you have any additional tips for fun and frugal summer activities?

Kaley blogs with her husband Wes at Cha-Ching on a Shoestring, chronicling their journey of learning to live large on a limited budget and helping others do the same.