OMG this is so cool!

Love It! Thanks So Much!

I just tried to use this today, Under the "coupon section" There are some protected cells that won't let me add what I have to apply towards my savings. Other than that, it is a BIG help!

What cell exactly caused a problem?? I just went through the sheet and all the cells that are protected contain formula's and if changed will mess up the sheet.

Let me know the scenerio and I can double check the working of the sheet too.

You should only have to enter data in the yellow highlighted cells. Is it one of the highlighted cells?

It wasn't highlighted, someone else explained it to me in a pm. Thanks! One other question though....The ECB's we are using, do they get added together and put in line 36? If not where do we put them?

All the ECB that you will use when paying can go on line 36.

After reading your question and talking to WishfulThinking, I think we may have to change the spreadsheet around a tiny bit. The spreadsheet was initially created to show how much money you could save. Now, it has turned pretty much into a shopping list.

For the benefit of those using it as a shopping list, I think I will remove the concept of "Profit" and set it up so that we can apply 100% of the used ECB towards the total cost. Excluding tax, it should give people an idea of how many ECB to use on each trip to get as close to $0.00 as possible without going over.

I also will adjust how the CVS and Manufactured Coupon amounts work. I noticed that I often have 2 coupons of different value for the same product, and I would like to be able to manually add the two coupons up and apply them. For example:

Say I buy soap, and I have a coupon for $1 off and $.35 off. I want to be able to say I have 2 coupons worth $1.35.

Thanks for the question,

Big Jim

Big Jim, that is one AWESOME spreadsheet, thank you so much! You have made it so I can the most of my ECB even with a busy 16 month old! YOU ROCK!!!

I have updated mine to also include to the right a "final cost" and "final cost per item" as I want to know if a deal is really worth it for me. (takes total cost-coupons-ECB earned)

I also have an additional spreadsheet that I track everything I have bought...that way I can look throughout the year to see what kind of deals I can get on certain products and it's great to see that since 3/1, I have gotten $287 worth of products for only $17 OOP. I'm excited to see my year end totals.

ETA: it would also be nice to see the coupons subtracted before the ECB's, so you can add each one to know how much you need in ECB's.

Hi Melanemac,

I like the idea of the extra fields to the right. I will have to put them in and see how they look.

I am not sure I understand the part about wanting to see the coupons subtracted before the ECBs. The only place coupons and ECBs are subtracted from the total is at the bottom, and coupons are subtracted first. Can you point me towards what I am missing?

Thanks,

Big Jim

Hey BigJim-
I took a look and I have an older version of yours...so in mine the ECB's were before the coupon totals. I see in the new version, that isn't the case. I do however like to add each of my ECB's on a separate line so that as my "shopping list" I know which ones to use. I also have a tax field, because I do like to at least have an estimate of what my tax will be. I just have a field with the tax percent and it calculates based on that. Does that make sense?

I have another question, I am sorry for being a "pest". : how do you enter an item that is BOGO?

To enter B1G1F, you would have to do some personal math.

For example, if you are buying $1 tubes of toothpaste that are B1G1F, you would put the Product Count as 2 and the Unit Cost as $.50.

Hope that helps.

Hi Melanemac,

The concepts are good. Tax is a messy issue. We would have to provide a field for the user to enter their state/local sales tax. The real tricky part is that so many things in a drug store are not taxed (at least last time I checked). I could set it up so that each individual item entered in the spreadsheet has an option of being taxed, but I am not sure if most people want to micro-manage their purchases to that degree. The current setup guarantees that any ECB applied will be used in-whole as there will always be some tax to add on to whatever final total is calculated.

As for adding the ECBs on separate lines, that is also an understandable idea. Currently, we are forced to do the math ourselves to see which combination of ECBs to use during a given transaction.

There is a good chance I can try to incorporate the separate lines for ECBs in an upcoming version. Checking off which line items should be taxed would increase the width of the already wide spreadsheet. As most people would probably not think to print in "landscape", I am trying to avoid this unless it would be of extreme value to everyone using the spreadsheet. I would like to hear from others if "tax" is something they really would like to see here.

In the meantime, that is why the spreadsheet is available on AFC, so that anyone can make the personal changes they would like to see and use. I guess we all are a little different.

Thanks for the great and reasonable ideas,

Big Jim

That is how I did it, just didn't know if it was right or not. Thanks.

Thanks Jim~

Help! I am preparing my 5/25/08 purchases using the coupon calculator and have attached my spread sheet, hoping all you seasoned CVSers can help me out!

On the calculator, I split the cost of items that were "2/$3" to show that multiple actual items were being purchased, so that the number of coupons presented at checkout would match up( ok be less than)the number of items being purchased.

Granted, I didn't earn back a whole lot of ECBs, but I had some that needed to be used. Also, as ECBs count at coupons, there are 3 ($10, $10, $5) that would be added to the total number of coupons, still keeping me less than the number of items purchased...

Qty Each Item Cost ecb
1 $0.66 French's Mustard $0.66 $-
1 $3.99 revlon nail polish $3.99 $3.00
6 $2.50 HD icecream pints $15.00
4 $3.00 hellmans mayo $12.00 $3.00
1 $1.99 divine cookies $1.99
1 $10.00 CVS gift card $10.00
6 $0.85 sierra mist $5.10

20 ttl items Total $48.74

Qty Each Coupons
1 $0.50 French's Mustard $0.50
1 $2.00 Revlon any color product $2.00
3 $2.00 HD icecream pints $6.00
1 $0.50 hellmans mayo $0.50
1 $1.00 divine cookies $1.00
3 $1.69 sierra mist B1G1 $5.07
1 $5.00 $5 off $15 coupon $5.00

11 ttl cpns CVS $/$$ or CRT
Gain or Total Coupons $(20.07)
Lose Total after Cpns $28.67
ECBS Pay with ECBs $25.00
$22.67 GRAND TOTAL OOP $3.67 $6.00

So, I have several questions:
1. Does this look correct? If not, what suggestions would you make?
2. In giving coupons, Do I give the B1G1 Sierra Mists directly after the clerk rings it up? Or do I give the ECBs, and then manf coupons at the very end, as I've read in other posts? (I'm leaning toward giving them at the end.)
3. Yes, I am trying to swing a GC into the whole transaction too. Did I do this part correctly? If not, suggestions?
4. I have more ECBs to use up within the next few days... should I add 1 more $5 GC into the whole transaction as My "coupon" amounts are higher than the cost of the $5 GC? (I'm not counting the $5/$15 coupon into this equation, as its a CVS coupon, not a manf coupon...But I could be wrong....should I be counting it?)

I've only been doing this about 3 weeks, so I'm hoping that my hours on AFC reading posts are paying off. Please let me know if I've made any grevious errors to the calculator... thank you for your suggestions!

PS OMG! I just read thru the actual items/quantities purchased! I'll apologize in advance if it looks like I sit around all day eating HD icecream, drinking Sierra Mist, doing my nails and eating Divine cookies with mustard...LOL! Because I don't!

for the newbies