Organizing Coupons

Okay...I am by no means an expert on the use or the organization of coupons.  However, a friend of mine who lives out of town, Denise, wanted me to post some pictures of my system so that she could get some ideas on organizing her own coupons.  I started out with a small, index-card size accordion file.  I had the it divided into several different sections (e.g., dairy, frozen, household, etc.).  Within the section, I put the coupons in order of expiration date with the coupons that expired the soonest in front.  This system worked well, and I think it would probably work best for people who are only going to keep a few coupons from each weeks paper for items that they know they are going to buy.  I, however, am a pack-rat, and I am afraid to through away coupons because I might decide I want to buy that product even if the chances are close to zero that I will actually use it.  Sometimes that random coupon for something you think you will never buy will get you overage that will reduce the price of an item you will use.  Case in point, I am seeing people making $5-$15 a week buying diabetic blood sugar testing machines.  I am not sure what the non-diabetics do with those machines, but if I ever buy one, I am sure I can find a place to donate it.

Anyway, I found myself getting frustrated with the accordion file system because I had SO many coupons.  Every time I needed a coupon, I had to rifle through dozens of coupons to find the one I was looking for.  This was especially difficult when I was at the store and I felt like I was in the way and I was trying to keep Owen entertained.  So, when my accordion file broke, I decided to go to the "notebook" system.  This was not my idea.  In fact, I usually see at least 2-3 other people using a notebook similar to mine a week while I am shopping.  This was the system that the ladies who taught the coupon class that I attended used.  You can check out their blog at www.time2save.blogspot.com.

What you need to start a coupon notebook...

1) A large 3 ring binder, preferably one that zips close so that you do not loose any runaway coupons (another bonus is that you have an easy place to stash any blinkie, peelie, or catalina coupons that you get while you are shopping).  This is what mine looks like.  I got it at Wal-Mart.2) Some sort of pages that you can use to organize your coupons.  I have photo album pages designed to hold wallet sized photos or baseball cards.  I got them at Hobby Lobby.  They are working pretty well for me.  I couldn't get a good picture of a page with nothing in the slots, so here is a picture of one of the pages with my CVS coupons in the slots.There are 9 slots on the front of each page and you can use the 9 slots again on the back, but you have to load the coupons from the front side, but face them back-wards.  I know that is confusing, but you will understand when you actually get the pages.  If you have any other ideas for sorting the coupons, let me know.  This one can be a little pricey if you have a lot of coupons.  One of my friends, Kristy, had a good idea.  She thought to just put paper in a notebook and the tape the coupons to the pieces of paper.  We decided that this would be particularly nice if you had a way to laminate the paper so that you could tape and untape  a lot before you needed new pages.

3) The desire to organize and put some effort into it.  I still have my coupons organized by category.  I got some stick-on tabs that tape right on to the photo album pages and act just like subject dividers.  My categories are: Health & Beauty, Medicine, Refrigerated, Dairy, Frozen, Meat, Boxed/Canned, Baking, Snacks, Baby, Household, and Paper.  I say that you divide your coupons in whatever way makes sense to you.  Within the categories, I also still have my coupons in order of expiration date.  Keeping the coupons in order of expiration date is probably going to be the most time consuming part of keeping up my coupon notebook.  I am OCD and won't be able to stand it if there are gaps or if there are things out of order.  I plan to pull out expired coupons 1-2 times a month.  Here is a picture of my tabs:4) Time!  I probably spent 4-5 hours getting my notebook put together the first time.  Obviously, with a baby, I broke that time up.  I would definitely say that the final product was worth the effort.  I can now flip through my pages and see every coupon without having to flip through stack after stack to find what I am looking for.  I have gone through once already to pull out expired coupons and close gaps from where I had used coupons.  This only took about an hour, and I can handle that.  Here is a picture of what the coupons look like in the notebook.

Now that we have beat that subject into the ground, I now I have something to inspire you to clip your coupons and get them organized.  In the past month (May), I bought $759.70 worth of groceries, household, and health & beauty items.  I paid $389.56 for all of it.  That is a savings of $370.14, or 48.72%!  And I only started using coupons in February.  The savings start fast.  In February, I saved 11.50% off of my total purchases.  In March, I saved 19.15%.  In April, I saved 43.25%.  In just 4 months, I have gone from pretty much paying face value for everything we bought to getting almost $2 worth of merchandise for every $1 I spend.  I think that is pretty awesome!

Long time, no blog...

Well, it has been a busy time in the Sneed household.  Andy has started playing softball, Owen now has 2 teeth, and Emily is struggling to maintain her sanity!  While such a chaotic lifestyle can be very fun, it definitely puts a damper on blogging.  So, I will try to catch you all up!

My quilt is coming along very nicely.  I have a LONG way to go, but I am really proud of what I have done so far.  If I get a chance, I will post some pictures of the blocks I have finished later.

Couponing is going really well.  It is definitely time consuming, but it is really paying off.  In April, I saved 43% off my total purchases.  So far for May, I have saved 46%!  If anyone in the Chattanooga area is interested, there is going to be another Intro to Couponing class next week.  Let me know if you are interested and I will get you the details.

Andy is enjoying playing softball this year; at least when the games aren't rained out.  This rain is really something.  It seems like there is a chance of rain everyday this Spring!  It is doing wonders for the yard, but we can't enjoy it because we can't keep it mowed!

Andy also got a new Truck a couple of weeks ago.  Well, I say new in the since that it is new to us.  GiGi is now driving our black Altima, and Andy was able to get a Crew Cab Frontier for the price that we sold the Altima for.  Andy really loves his truck, and I am so happy he has it.  He is downright giddy when he drives it.

That brings me to Owen.  My baby is growing up so fast.  On the 18th, he will be 8 months old.  It is crazy to think that it is already time to start thinking about first birthdays!  Here is one of my favorite pictures of him taken recently.  We were at the ballpark watching Daddy play softball.  

Couponing - Continued

I had a request for a little more information regarding how I saved so much money using coupons.  Specifically, Adam wanted to know about the workshop I attended.  I live in Cleveland, TN, and a couple of "extreme coupners" hosted a workshop at a local church for anyone in the community to attend.  The response was so overwhelming that they have done several other workshops and they have even developed follow-up workshops to teach participants how to take couponing "to the next level" and master the savings systems at drug stores like CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid.  I am looking for coupon workshops in the Murfreesboro Area, and I haven't found any yet.  If I run across one, I will post the details.

Since I can't provide a couponing workshop (I am a couponing beginner compared to these women!), I will just post some of the information I learned from the workshop and my own experiences.  I will also post the links to some "getting started" guides at the end of the post.

How to REALLY save money with coupons:

1. Only buy products that are on sale.  This is easier said than done, especially at first.  This rule requires that you have a fully stocked fridge, freezer, and pantry.  So, to accomplish this, you must make stockpiles of items that you use frequently.  The first step is to find out what a good price is on the items that you use frequently.  When you see that it is at a good price, you buy enough of that product to last you until the next time it is on sale (usually about 6 weeks).  Because of stockpiling, sometimes your first few shopping trips will see like you are spending more money, but it will end up saving you money in the long run.  I would suggest using separate transactions and possibly even different stores for your purchases that you must buy that are not on sale until your stockpile is set up.


2. Know the coupon policies at different stores.  For example, does the store you are going to require that you buy two products when they are on sale for B1G1 free?  Or, can you buy one item at half price?  Will your store allow you to "stack" a store coupon with a manufacturer's coupon?  Does your store double or even triple coupons?  Southern Savers is awesome in a million different ways, but the writer really helps me out by stating the coupon policies for each store when she lists the deals for the week.  For example, Bi-Lo doubles coupons that are $0.60 and under.  So, if I have two coupons for a product, one is $0.75 off and the other is $0.55 off, at Bi-Lo, I should use the $0.55 coupon, because it will double to $1.10 off.


3. Get a Kroger Plus Card, Bi-Lo Bonus Card, Food Lion MVP Card, CVS ExtraCare Card or any other discount card you can.  If you have a Kroger in your area, there are actually websites you can go to that will load coupons to your Plus Card that will automatically be applied to your purchases when they scan your card at check-out.  To make this even cooler, the coupons loaded to your card are manufacturer's coupons, and you can actually use a paper  manufacturer's coupon for the same item.  I don't really understand the technology, but the cash register will apply both manufacturer's coupons if one is electronic and one is paper.  A full description of this process can be found here:  http://www.southernsavers.com/2009/03/new-cellfire-coupons/.


4. Take inventory of what you have, and find a way to use it.  If you are like me, there are probably groceries in the back of the freezer or pantry that would make up a perfectly good meal, but they are just lonely and forgotten.  Figure out a way to use those groceries to lighten your grocery load for the week.  Similarly, search the sales each weeks and develop your grocery list from those items.  At the coupon class, they suggested making a list of several meals you have regularly at your house and compile a list of all of the ingredients you need to make that meal.  If you have that list handy, you can search through the sale papers for the items you need to complete that meal.


5. Don't be fooled by lower prices at Wal-Mart.  Jenny from Souther Savers explains it better than I could, so go check out her comments: http://www.southernsavers.com/2009/03/kraft-dressing-wal-mart/.  However, Wal-Mart will match the advertised sale price of any competitor (not B1G1 free).


6. Get multiple copies of coupons if possible.  Most of the coupons I use come from the Sunday Paper (a schedule of the coupon inserts can be found here: http://www.southernsavers.com/2008/12/2009-coupon-inserts-schedule/).  Some coupons I print from the internet.  Internet coupons should not be copied on a copy machine, but sometimes they will let you print multiple copies.  As far as paper coupons, you get as many as you buy.  Why is this important?  It has to do with stockpiling.  Lets say that Hunt's Ketchup is B1G1 free at Kroger.  You have a $1 off coupon.  If you buy two bottles of ketchup and use one $1 off coupon, you have two bottles of ketchup for the price of one minus a dollar.  That is a good deal; however, if you have two coupons, you can use two coupons because you have two bottles of ketchup.  So you are taking a $1 off the bottle you are paying for, and, theoretically, you are taking a $1 off the free bottle.  Now you have two bottles of ketchup for the price of one minus two dollars.  If you buy two small bottles of ketchup, you might have gotten two bottles free, or very close to it.


7. Don't buy something you will not use just because you have a coupon UNLESS that item will be free and someone you know can use it OR it will give you an overage that will apply to a different item of your purchase.  See number 9 for ideas on sharing the coupon wealth.


8. Be honest with your coupons.  Don't try to use coupons which are expired, copied, or otherwise invalid.  The manufacturers will not reimburse the store for these coupons and it makes for stricter coupon rules at the stores.  We want the stores to be glad we are using coupons (the store gets reimbursed for the face value of the coupon and makes $0.08 on every valid manufacturer's coupon used).  Also, if there is a coupon dispenser or tear pad at the grocery store, don't take all of the coupons.  You can't use them all, but everyone can use one or two.


9. Be generous with your coupons.  If you have coupons that you are not going to personally use, try to use them to help others.  You might not eat Spam, but it is a staple at most church pantries.  If you get a good deal on it, you could donate it to the church pantry to be used as an outreach ministry to the needy in your community.  If there is a coupon that you are not going to use, hand it to someone looking at that product.  There is a "coupon fairy" here in Cleveland that will tape her unused coupons to products at the store for the lucky person who picks up that item to use when they check out.


10. Start small.  If you don't you will very soon be overwhelmed and give up.  Maybe get a parter to coupon shop with you.  Read the blogs and ask questions if you have them.  Set a specific goal, like this week, I want to save 10% of my total shopping expenses.  Start out "working" just one or two stores.

Great Couponing Resources:

http://www.southernsavers.com/getting-started-guides/guide-to-supermarket-savings/

http://www.southernsavers.com/getting-started-guides/coupon-faq/

http://www.babycheapskate.com/

http://www.moneysavingmom.com/

www.funandfrugal.com

www.couponbug.com

http://coupons.smartsource.com

http://redplum.com

www.hotcouponworld.com

www.coupons.com

www.couponmom.com

Coupon Lingo is listed on every page of the Southern Savers website.  If you see something that you don't understand, comment on that website, or let me know and I will explain or find out.

Couponing

Ok, since I am no longer working outside the home, I have decided that my "job" should be to find ways to save us money.  In February, I went to a Couponing Workshop.  I was OVERWHELMED with information regarding how to use coupons.  It all seemed so complicated, and with a 6 month old, I am looking for as little complication as possible.  I have been clipping my coupons and trying to use them over the past couple of months, but it seemed like this week, something clicked with me, and I got totally in the coupon zone.  I have been reading this blog called Southern Savers (www.southernsavers.com).  The lady that writes this blog goes through all of the weekly adds for the grocery stores and pharmacies in her area, lists everything that is on sale, and also tells you what coupons are out there for those products.  She even gives scenarios using the weekly specials to show you how to use "overages" to get other products free or close to it.

I am not going to lie...I spent a lot of time this week reading that blog, printing online coupons, and trying to figure out what to buy from what stores.  Then, yesterday, I spent at least 3 hours in two grocery stores.  I think I could have gotten finished sooner, but with it being a holiday for a lot of businesses and the Friday before a major holiday, the stores were crowded.  Also, I had to ask store clerks to go in the back and find different items for me because other couponers had beaten me to the punch.  Thankfully, Andy was off work and kept Owen for me

Here is a little back-ground on my grocery shopping habits of late.  I usually spend between $90 and $120 a week at the grocery store.  That includes household items like laundry detergent and personal items like razors and make-up. Lately, I have been putting off going to the grocery store as much as possible, so before yesterday, I hadn't done a true shopping trip in several weeks.  On Thursday, when all I could find at the house to eat for lunch was a bag of microwave popcorn, I knew it was time to bite the bullet and go shopping.  I knew it would be a big trip since we were out of almost everything.

All of that to say, yesterday I spent a total of $121.45 out of pocket for my groceries.  My receipts show a savings of $91.50.  So that is a total of $212.95 worth of groceries that I bought for $121.45.  That comes to a total savings of 43% ($91.50/$212.95).  My question is was it worth it?  I think so, but I would like to know your opinions.  Would you invest that kind of time and energy into using coupons?