Add Item Details and Cost Information

In this video, you will add the items you will purchase and the discounts for those items to your spreadsheet.

When you are making a purchase that involves finding a discount, it is a good idea to do some research before you spend any money.

You will often find that an item you want to buy is on sale at one place but not others.

You might find a higher percentage discount online or at a store.

Some places might even offer you a student discount! To begin, add at least 5 items to your spreadsheet that you plan on purchasing for your event or other purpose.

Since you are using the spreadsheet to plan your purchases, you can add any items you think you may need.

If you are not sure of what items you might need, make your best guess.

Then, search online for any discounts or coupons for the items and services you need.

Many stores and manufacturers have discounts available online and don’t require anything from you.

While there are many types of discounts you might find, for this lesson, we are using discounts that are listed as percentages.

When you find a business with a discount, add the name of the vendor to the vendor column.

Then, in the cost column, add the regular cost of each item as listed online by the vendor, before any discounts or added costs, such as taxes.

And add the percentage listed for each discount to your spreadsheet.

Repeat these steps in your spreadsheet for the rest of the items.

If you cannot find a discount for a certain item, it’s okay to estimate or make up a cost and discount.

You can make up vendor names as well if you need to.

You can always make changes to these details, especially if, later, you find a better deal! Next, format your cost column as currency to show that the numbers represent money.

This will help when you make calculations later because any whole numbers will already be converted to decimals.

Format the numbers in your discount column as percentages.

This will also help with your calculations.