Should I record discounts on grocery purchases?

skar0913

Hello
When I use to split feature to enter the grocery items I purchased. Should I be recording the discounts? Does it really matter when I start budgeting?

Thanks

YingDave

Entirely up to you. I do not worry about it in my setup. You are correct though if you want to budget for the full cost (the discount is temporary) then it has to be captured separately so Quicken can see the gross cost. Then again if you don't capture it and Quicken generates a budget based on history, you can just calculate a mark up % to generate your budget number that your overide the calculated number.

Slight tangent but what I do capture are purchases of enduring goods (ie. assets not services) that I get from loyalty redemption. With a QHI (Quicken Home Inventory) amount for the purchase and a corresponding negative amount to net it to zero. Really for warranty/asset tracking - but not groceries.

Frankx

Hi @skar0913,

So I would view your question as more of a personal one, as I suspect different people would have differing views on this.  I don't see there being a right or wrong answer.

I suggest that you consider:
a) how important is having the data on grocery item discounts easy to view? 
b) how difficult will it be to make these entries (i.e. are the amounts easily identified)? c) how significant will the total amount be over a given time period (e.g. for a year) and will that amount be something that I want to see in a report?
d) Is there an easier way to know that number rather than breaking it out from each purchase (e.g. does the merchant or credit card provider track these discounts)?
e) If you are importing (i.e. downloading) the purchase data directly into Quicken, it will likely require you to edit each purchase transaction - is the additional time worth it?

Just some things to think about.

Frankx

Jim_Harman

My supermarket receipts show savings for this visit and YTD. It is not clear what benefit there would be in tracking this info in Quicken.

YingDave

Entirely up to you. I do not worry about it in my setup. You are correct though if you want to budget for the full cost (the discount is temporary) then it has to be captured separately so Quicken can see the gross cost. Then again if you don't capture it and Quicken generates a budget based on history, you can just calculate a mark up % to generate your budget number that your overide the calculated number.

Slight tangent but what I do capture are purchases of enduring goods (ie. assets not services) that I get from loyalty redemption. With a QHI (Quicken Home Inventory) amount for the purchase and a corresponding negative amount to net it to zero. Really for warranty/asset tracking - but not groceries.

Frankx

Hi @skar0913,

So I would view your question as more of a personal one, as I suspect different people would have differing views on this.  I don't see there being a right or wrong answer.

I suggest that you consider:
a) how important is having the data on grocery item discounts easy to view? 
b) how difficult will it be to make these entries (i.e. are the amounts easily identified)? c) how significant will the total amount be over a given time period (e.g. for a year) and will that amount be something that I want to see in a report?
d) Is there an easier way to know that number rather than breaking it out from each purchase (e.g. does the merchant or credit card provider track these discounts)?
e) If you are importing (i.e. downloading) the purchase data directly into Quicken, it will likely require you to edit each purchase transaction - is the additional time worth it?

Just some things to think about.

Frankx

Jim_Harman

My supermarket receipts show savings for this visit and YTD. It is not clear what benefit there would be in tracking this info in Quicken.

NotACPA

My grocery receipts typically get split MANY ways when I'm inputting them into Q.

Groceries, Sales Tax, Reading (books and the like), Wine, Pharmacy, OTC Meds, etc.

When I get a discount of some sort (including coupons) it simply reduces the amount I spent on groceries. 

Discounts aren't a separate line item in the split, and if they were (at least in my usage) they'd have a Groceries category which simply reduces the amount spent on groceries ... the same as inputting the actual amount paid.

skar0913

Hi All,
Thank you for the insight, I decided not to record the discounts as it would be extra work and possible no benefit in the long run.

Thank You