Monday, December 5, 2011

FREE Grocery Shopping Spreadsheet

To date, my post that receives the most traffic volume (consistently, even after it's initial post) is my personal story about how I organize for each shopping trip. People really are looking for a way to organize their shopping lists, and one of the easiest ways for me is to use a spreadsheet. 

Yes, it does take a few minutes to type up my spreadsheet, but it's still WAY faster than handwriting it. Believe me, I've tried. Plus, it quickly sorts and gives me all sorts of awesome data! A handwritten list can not show me how much I am spending at each store or how much I paid last year for milk and where I bought it. Yes, I do keep all my past spreadsheets (I really should keep them all in the same workbook but a different tab for each month... yeah for new ideas!).

In addition, a spreadsheet can be helpful as you are trying to plan for bulk purchases. How much do I need to save from my budget each week to save up for that coconut oil? OK, I think I'm getting way too giddy over this. I really hope someone else is seeing the potential, here.

In my original post, I only included screenshots and tips for how I create my formulas. For other geeks like me, I assume that might be enough information. However, if they are a geek like me, they probably would already have a spreadsheet. The goal of my blog and that post was to empower anyone to use a spreadsheet, as an organizational tool. However, it doesn't really help anyone that needs a bit of help starting the spreadsheet.

So, for my readers today, I am offering a FREE spreadsheet that you can copy and use for your own personal shopping list.

After you click the link, it will take you to GoogleDocs. You can download the file to your favorite spreadsheet program and save from there. To do this, go the top menu of this GoogleDocs file (not on your Web browser) and click "File," then "Download As." It will give you some options, select "Excel" or "OpenOffice," depending on the software that you have. See the screenshot below for an example.


Please note, that I did insert a few comments how I use a field or a formula. Be sure to read over my original post for tips on sorting your columns (always highlight the entire table first).

How do you like to keep up with your shopping budget?

P.S. I did create a pivot table (see the tab "Pivot Table 1") for tracking the purchases at each store. However, it does not appear to carry over the functionality to Open Office, when you download the file. Bummer! Will have to work on that.

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