The LitBuy Sheets are a catalogue, not a planner, and that gap costs people money. A catalogue tells you what exists. A planner tells you what you already bought, what is still in transit, and what you nearly ordered twice. Converting the LitBuy Product Spreadsheet into something personal takes about twenty minutes and one empty tab. What follows are the columns, the status words and the weekly habit that make the difference.
Eight Columns Worth Keeping
More fields means less updating. These eight are enough to answer every question you will ask a month later.
- Item name. Short enough to scan, specific enough to search later.
- Category. Copy the sheet labels so sorting stays consistent.
- Size asked for. Not the size you normally wear, the one you actually requested.
- Size confirmed. Whatever the agent measured back, in centimetres.
- Price paid. In your own currency, fees included, not the sticker figure.
- Order date. The single most useful field in the file.
- Status. Five words only, listed below.
- Note. One line about why you wanted it, written before delivery arrives.
A Five Stage Status System
Keep the vocabulary tiny: SAVED, ASKED, PAID, SHIPPED, LANDED. SAVED means bookmarked but untouched. ASKED means a measurement request is open. PAID means money has moved. SHIPPED means tracking exists. LANDED means it is in your hands, at which point the note column gets a verdict, even if that verdict is disappointing. Anything sitting in ASKED for more than 48 hours is the one item you chase that day.
The value is not the words themselves. It is that every row has exactly one next action, so opening the tracker never leaves you deciding what to do next.
The Folder and Bookmark Routine
Three bookmarks, no more. The live sheet, your tracker tab, and the order history page. Put them in one folder on the bar and let nothing else in. Once a week, open all three in one sitting and move every row forward by one status or close it out. A tracker you open daily becomes a chore that gets abandoned by March; a tracker you open for ten minutes on Sunday survives for years.
Two small habits help. Name the tracker file with the year, so a fresh one starts clean in January without deleting history. And keep a single line at the bottom for whatever you talk yourself out of buying, because the pattern in that list is usually the most useful thing in the file.
FAQ
Should the tracker live in a spreadsheet or a notes app?
Whichever you already open weekly. Columns suit comparison, notes suit narrative. A tool you avoid is worse than a plain text file you check.
How do I track an order that arrives in two parcels?
Duplicate the row and give both copies the same order date with a suffix, so you keep one status per parcel without losing the link between them.
What do I do with a row that never arrives?
Move it to a CLOSED row with the date and the resolution. Keeping failed orders visible is how you learn which shops deserve a second chance.
Start with the finds shortlist as your source of candidates rather than browsing from scratch. If a row will not open, the link hub covers the workarounds, and the year in review explains which listing habits are actually worth tracking. Everything starts at the LitBuy home page, where the current LitBuy list and its categories live, including shoes and pants.