At first when I started couponing, I purchased a paper in town and just clipped coupons and organized them in a small coupon organizer. That is what my mom did when I was growing up, and I always loved helping her clip and organize coupons. Once I knew I was committed to couponing and my organizer was overflowing and too hard for me to quickly find what I wanted, I switched to the binder organization method. We also got a subscription to have the Sunday paper delivered to our house (which was really nice because the papers I usually picked up at the gas station didn't always have all the coupon inserts included, which really annoyed me.) I had seen binders on different blogs as well as people carrying them in the store, but was slightly overwhelmed with the idea. Thankfully, my friend Jess was able to help answer a few of my questions and motivate me to give it a try. (Thanks, Jess!!) Now I cant imagine going back!
Here is what my binder looks like. It certainly takes time and commitment to keep it organized (alphabetical order, getting rid of expired coupons, etc) but the pay off has been sooo worth it for me. Besides, I enjoy it! It makes me feel good that I can help our family save money and it gives me a hobby while staying home with my kids.
Yes, my divider pages in the page protectors have lovely roosters on them. My neighbor brought over a broken recipe organizer book for me a while back that she got when she was working at Hallmark. I didn't have a use for it at the time, but when I got my purple binder I didn't have dividers. When trying to think of something to use until I picked some up, I remembered these pages and ended up being really happy with how they have worked out. They were free and I didn't have to make an additional trip to pick dividers up! I figured at some point I would add those stick on tabs or something, but I haven't really found the need since I know my binder so well. I picked up the baseball card holder sheets at Walmart (up by the baseball card section at the front of the store by a checkout lane) and have gently pulled apart several pockets to hold larger coupons (like the section holding my baby wipes coupons) as needed.
I do follow some deal blogs (hip2save, moneysavingmom, and a few others) but mainly I have gotten to the point that I don't take the time to follow them as closely anymore. It seems that once you learn the method of watching the ads for sales, and having your coupons organized to know what you have (or to be able to easily look), you can do the matching up on your own (which for me is sometimes faster that reading several posts from several people about deals).
So pretty much what it comes down to for me is:
- going through and clipping the coupons from the Sunday paper of items that I would normally purchase for our family, or would more than likely purchase if I came across a really good deal. As I clip the coupons (if the kiddos are asleep) I lay them out in piles by category so they are easy to organize and file into my binder. (If I am cutting coupons while kids are awake my coupons usually end up in a big stack that I have to organize later. I have the kids sit at the table with me and cut pictures out of ads or other random papers and they love it! And if the kids wake up while I am soooo close to being finished organizing, I try to distract them while putting my organized piles into the page protectors dividing each of my categories until I can finish organizing later, of course stopping to snap a picture of all the chaos.)
- looking through and comparing the ads in Sunday's paper for stores that I regularly shop at (Meijer, Hardings, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Family Fare- not usually all of those at the same time, but sometimes I will hit up to 4 of them on one trip since they are all close to each other).
- circling items that either I know we need, or that look to be a good deal and we will need soon (stocking up is essential in making the deals work sometimes!) I used to just write the items on my list, but then I would find myself going back and crossing items off when I found them cheaper at a different store. I learned that this just works better for me.
- I also keep my coupon binder close by so I can confirm whether or not I have a current coupon for the items I have circled in the ads. I check my store specific coupons to see if I can double up at a specific store (yes, you can use a store coupon with a manufacturers coupon!) Then I look at online coupon sites (coupon.com, redplum.com, or do a search for a specific item) to see if there are any other coupons I could use with my list.
- Once I know for sure which items I want to buy at each store, I write them on my list by store, and gather the coupons into my small green coupon organizer (which is divided by store). I also keep my store membership/perk cards and rainchecks in my green organizer.
Then I find a time when Phil is home to either keep 2 or 3 kids, and I head out to shop! I make sure to bring my little purple notebook that has my shopping lists and my green organizer that has all my coupons ready to go for each store. It usually takes me about 4 hours to do a big shopping trip (including driving and hitting 4 stores) and then we are stocked for a good long time on most items.
Usually I keep my coupon binder in my car, so if I am out and see a deal I really want to take advantage of, I can get the coupon and make the purchase. I keep my couponing items in a really cute bag, so occasionally I will bring the whole bag into Meijer (instead of my purse) so if I come across something I can pull it out easily. And I've gotten to the point that I don't even care if people look at me like I used to look at people with the big binders! Stores around my area don't typically have double coupon days, but I heard last week that the Family Fare in Hastings was having a 4 week double coupon promotion going on. I took the time to look through the ad and my coupons to see if it was worth the extra trip out that way and I ended up getting $108.71 worth of food for $39.48. Included in that was $20.53 in completely free items (yogurt, chili, chocolate chips, watermelon, peanut butter), and 8 boxes of cereal and 2 boxes of fruit snacks for $7.57 total. Think it was worth my time??? I would certainly say yes!! And that was just one store!
You might ask why I needed that much cereal (really, I got 10 boxes) and no, we don't need that much right now. But the last time I bought cereal (at the beginning of August, when it ended up costing me -$0.04 for 10 boxes, yes you read that right) kept us stocked up on cereal until this shopping trip (and we still have a couple unopened boxes actually. I shared a couple boxes, and we eat it for breakfast almost every morning, and sometimes for an after nap snack, too (the kids want it, so I figure why not?!) so I would much rather get it at this price than $4 a box.
As you get used to finding deals, you start to realize there are stock up prices on items, and regular prices that I refuse to pay for items (unless absolutely necessary). I used to just buy diapers when we needed them, but now that I know it is possible to get them for $0.13/diaper, I can't justify spending more than twice that at a regular price! I also have gotten to the point that I try not to spend more than $1 on toiletry type items (shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, toothpaste, tooth brushes, make up, feminine products, shaving items, etc). If you watch for the sales and coupons, this is totally possible!! You can often get many of these items completely free if you pair a coupon with a good sale or a store rebate. It's also great when you find a buy-one-get-one-free coupon to pair up with a store BOGO sale. Then both items end up free!! It is so much fun!
I started keeping track of my savings in my little purple notebook at the end of February when I started this process to see if it was really worth my time. Since then I came up with a grand total of almost $1800 that I have documented. There were SEVERAL lists that I forgot to write down my savings on (boo!). And that didn't necessarily include rebates I sent out for after the fact!! Phil works hard to make money for our family, and being able to stretch that money and save nearly $2000 on items that I would usually be buying for our family anyway, sounds pretty good to me!!
So for those of you wondering how a coupon for $0.50 off a single item ends up really making a difference- it's not just that one coupon. It all adds up over time! You may have to change your thinking habits and open up to trying different brands of certain items, but most of the time, the pay off is well worth it! (I will say, I have purchased certain no-name brand items that I will not waste my money on again in the future. I want quality items at great prices, not junk for cheap. I will also say THIS IS ADDICTING!!! I am to the point that I have a really hard time just going out to pick something up if we need it, when I know I could get it at a much better price another time. It's even worse if I have to stop to pick something up and I know I have a coupon at home I could have used!
) Give it a fair chance and see how it changes your life!! And feel free to ask me any questions, I will do my best to answer whatever I can! Hope this helps and inspires you! P.S. For those of you that need diapers, here is a link for a great deal on diapers at Rite Aid this week! Check it out!! And since this is new to several of you, I am going to copy and paste a thread from my facebook, as a comment, with some more answers of doing this scenario.
