A Spreadsheet for Saving Money to Buy Fun Stuff

I have always liked taking pictures. The problem with photography though, is that it’s a really expensive hobby. Camera bodies contain a lot of complicated electronics, and lenses normally cost hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. This article covers a handy tool I came up with in order to put together funds for these pricey optics: a savings spreadsheet.

Sure, I could borrow money from myself, but that’s not very frugal. All it takes is a little patience and my savings spreadsheet to collect a few bucks here and there, keep a tally, and let me know when it’s time to buy. The savings spreadsheet has two main components: the money being saved, and the items desired. It’s not exactly rocket science, so you can probably figure out where I’m going with this.

The “savings” section is an itemized list of each amount of cash that has been contributed to the fund. The “desired items” section is a list of items and their cost, along with how much more money is required to make each purchase.

The “desired items” section does not split your funds across all purchases. Each purchase assumes you will be contributing 100% of your funds to its price tag.

That’s it. Here is the spreadsheet:

Savings Spreadsheet

You are course free to download the savings spreadsheet and use it for your own purposes. It is a great way to not only get what you want, but save money by controlling impulse spending.