I was having issues with the answers in this post, so I figured out a more concise answer. I was having an issue because using django-fsm, the other answers here would try to save the model multiple times (once for every formset) rather than once at the end.
def save_model(self, request, obj, form, change):
if not obj.pk: # call super method if object has no primary key
super(YourAdmin, self).save_model(request, obj, form, change)
else:
pass # don't actually save the parent instance
def save_related(self, request, form, formsets, change):
form.save_m2m()
for formset in formsets:
self.save_formset(request, form, formset, change=change)
super(YourAdmin, self).save_model(request, form.instance, form, change)
This essential just flips the order of save_model and save_related as called in Django ModelAdmin source