Amazing Coupon Savings!
What a great shopping day for me!
I've never been much of a coupon person. Oh, I clip 'em....I store 'em....but I never ever use 'em! I never had a good 'system' to organize them, and they just ended up in an irritating pile at the bottom of my purse or on my desk, or somewhere else just as un-useful.
Lately, I've had a renewed passion for coupons though. I just refuse to believe that with all the coupons floating around out there, that I can't figure out a way to use them.
Today, I saved $12.25 in coupons!!! For me, that's a lot. In fact, let me do the math...my subtotal was $38.85...so that's a 31.5% savings! (And all on things that I use all the time, not on things that I might try because I had a coupon to use.) Here's how I did it:
- First, I have 4 Sunday papers (yes 4) delivered to my house every Sunday. I pull out the manufacturer's coupons and the store inserts.
- Next, I clip all the coupons for things that I use. **Only for things I know I'll use** Otherwise, I just end up storing coupons that take up space and complicate my system.
- Then I store the coupons in my binder. My binder is sorted by various categories like "baking and condiments", "meat and dairy", "cleaning and storage", etc.
- The pages of my binder are baseball card holders...perfect for storing coupons! (Thank you to Amy at Memoirs of a Mommy for this idea)
- Once I've sorted through all the coupons and stored them, then I look through the store ads. I look for things that are on special, and I make a note of them and how much they'd cost with my coupons. This step is made much easier by only looking for things that I use.
- Then I make a shopping list, and hit the store. If a deal is really great, I'll use all 4 of my coupons and stock up.
Here's my coupon binder:
It's so much fun to get to the end of the shopping trip and hand over all my coupons! It's even more fun when the cashier scans all my coupons, gives my my new total, looks and me and says, "Wow! How'd you do that?!"
I'm hooked! (Like I needed shopping to be even MORE fun!)
Awesome! Looks like you're doing Great!
My only suggestion would be to consider saving the coupons you don't need as well. For a couple of reasons...
1. If you have stores like CVS and Walgreens you can sometimes MAKE money by buying things you don't need. There is lot's of info on how to do this on Money Saving Mom's Site. Just look on the sidebar at the CVS and Walgreens tutorials. You can then just give the items you don't need away, and use the money you made to buy things you do need.
2. You can sometimes trade coupons you don't need for ones you do. Ask friends who clip coupons if they'd like to trade, or look for Coupon Clubs in your area. Or, maybe start one of your own at your church or something. This is a great resource, and unfortunately one I don't have available to me.
Anyway, you're doing great, and you'll just keep saving more. I consider my coupon binder to be a binder full of money, and I love it!
~ Amy @ Memoirs of a Mommy