Thrifty Thursday

COUPONING
If couponing is new to you and you find all the information about coupning overwhelming but want to reap the rewards, then just start small. You have read this blog and others and know that people are spending much less than you are on the same groceries. You know that it is working for others. Don't give up and give yourself the excuse that you could never do it. You can!
Begin to coupon slowly.
If you shop online check getcouponcodes.com and see if there is a coupon for the retailer you are shopping with.
When you run into the store to pick something up grab a flyer. Flip through it while you nurse a baby or sit outside a toddler's room to train them to stay in bed at night. Notice the items your family uses. If the price is lower than you normally pay for that item plan to pick up a few extras.
Buy a Sunday paper. Let your kids enjoy the comics. Make sure you pull out the coupon flyers before they end up in the recycle bin. If you don't have time to even open them, just find a pen or marker and write the date on the cover of each coupon flyer and det it aside until you have time. Why do you want to save a previous month's coupons? Read this Couponing 101 post.
For more information on storing and filing coupon inserts read this.
Pick a coupon site that you like. There are many sites out there. My favorites are Hot Coupon World (HCW), Slick Deals (SD) and A Full Cup (AFC). These sites have separate forums for many grocery retailers nationwide. Find the forum for a grocery store near you and read what deals people are finding, read about coupon matchups in the current weeks sale flyer. Each week I try to post a link to a resource for the current weeks sales for the stores I regularly shop in. These resources are someone else's blog. I don't have the time or energy to type up ads and locate coupons for match ups. I am so very glad these ladies do! I benefit every week from their hard work.

I didn't start out couponing at grocery stores. I began at CVS. I couldn't believe I could buy my family's H&B items for next to nothing, or get paid to buy it! I learned how to use coupons and CVS's Extra Care Bucks program to buy only the items on promotion and earn store credit each time I made a purchase. Once I had this store credit, I used it to buy the following weeks deal (whether it was shampoo or toothpaste) to pay for that item. But the new purchase also credited me store credit. Here is an example. I need toothpaste. It is on promotion at CVS for $1.99. They are also offering the customer $1.99 back in store credit when you purchase it. Two weeks ago there was a $1 off coupon in the Sunday coupon insert. You clip the coupon (Q) go to CVS scan your CVS card ring the toothpaste give them your Q, pay 99c plus tax for your toothpaste and they hand you your receipt. At the bottom of your receipt is a cash register tape (CRT) Extra Care Buck (ECB) for $1.99. Now you keep this $1.99 ECB to buy next week's "free" deodorant, etc. For more information on CVSing go to HCW, SD, or AFC (linked above) and go to the CVS forum. Each site has a CVSing 101 (yes CVSing is a verb in the coupon lingo) 101 or CVSing for beginners.
Post a question or a comment if you need further direction or information.

Time Saving Tuesday - - Organizing Coupons on the Go

I live 20 min. away (at 60 mph) from all grocery (except 1), pharmacy, and big box stores. I must make good use of my time "in town." I prepare for my trips the night before. I read up on the deals available at stores located in the town where I will be shopping. I print any IPs and clip any insert Qs I will need. In my early days I used envelopes to store my coupons for shopping. Now, I have several coupon folders. I have three main folders that hold Qs for items our family uses regularly:

1) Groceries/food
2) Paper/plastic/cleaning supplies
3) Health/beauty/medicine/feminine/diapers

These folders have multiple pockets with label stickers so I can separate frozen from dairy from canned goods, etc.

I also keep folders for specific stores (some stores share one). Here is a peek into two of my store folders:

1) Food Lion - I keep my customer store card and Qs for current sales up front. I also store FLIPs, FL catalina Qs, rain checks, milk tickets (when they offer 1 free wyb 6 milk), and other promotional Qs (for example, the free ham giveaway).

2) CVS - I keep my CVS card, a copy of my husband's card, my extra care bucks, my receipts (this is sometimes necessary to keep track of the ECB offers I haven't completed for a particular week or month), the CRT Qs (coupons that print at the end of my receipt when I make a purchase at CVS) that go with my card number, DH's extra care bucks, receipts, and his CRT Qs. I also file CVS store Qs, Rx transfer Qs from any pharmacy (most CVS's will honor these), rain checks and mfr Q's for this weeks deals and mfr Qs for upcoming deals in this folder. -- This folder is packed quite tight.

In the back of my folders I have a space to store new coupons I find in the store: blinkies, tearpad Qs, winetags and/or MIRs.

Here is a photo of all my folders.

I keep my folders, sales flyers and print outs on specific store deals in what I call my coupon purse. I keep this in the car when I am out. I usually leave the purse in the car and take the Q folder for a particular store with me. If it is a grocery store, I will usually bring my gorcery folder in, too (or I end up returning to the car to get it). Here are two photos of my coupon purse.





Another tip: I often get store % off Qs in the mail from Kohl's, $ off or % off at JC Penny, Sears, Lowes, Home Depot, etc. When these come in the mail, I remove the Q right away and stick it in my purse in the same sleeve where I store that store's credit card. Sometimes I use it, some times I don't. It only takes a few minutes and sometimes it pays off in big savings!

It is my hope that this peek into "how I do this" helps you. Good luck creating your system!