Coupon Chaos

I did a pretty stellar job on my first coupon clipping round... but now I have to figure out how I plan to organize my loot.

Many extreme couponers have a binder or box method to maintain their coupons. The binder keeps the coupons in book like format, complete with a table of contents, using the plastic thingies kids put their baseball cards in. This sounds like an easy way to view your coupons and allows for quick pulling at the register. Some go with 'a large box with a bazillion coupons in it method'.

Here is a rather extreme look at the binder method:

Now, this is a money saving excursion for me, so I don't want to put any money into making a book and buying baseball card holders until I get really serious and start saving some serious cash. So I am going to make a hybrid of these two ideas.

Being part OCD and part all over the place, I think a mix of the above will definitely work for me.

After 4 years in the business world, I am an Excel wizz! So this was an obvious and easy way to organize my coupons. The OCD side of me loves everything about spreadsheets; so I got to thinking about what kind of pertinent information needs to be in my spreadsheet. The biggies were Brand, Item, Coupon, Expiration Date, and Number of Coupons.

Here's what I came up with:

This spreadsheet allows me to sort by brand or product when I have new coupons to enter, and it also helps me to check manufacturing coupons against store coupons for double the savings! This is my first input so I am still lacking all of the details I will eventually need, but I feel like this is a good jumping off point. I use a macro in Excel to tell me when I have coupons that are about to expire, they are pictured in yellow above. I also have a comments section, in case there are certain terms that apply to a coupon, like only 4 of a like coupon, a certain sized can, or a buy one get one free type deal. (Everyone loves a good BOGO) Once I finish inputting the coupons, I sort them into like coupons and throw them in a big Ziploc bag.

And 'Viola'... a semi-organized coupon tracking hybrid.

Clippin' Time

My first newspaper sweep went very well, I got 4 newspapers total.

I noticed that my local newspaper has way less coupons than the big 'Los Angeles Times' paper. So I save all my quarters for the Times, and wait for my freebie local paper to hit the driveway. The Times has the Procter and Gamble circular and the Smart Source circular, both have tons of savings every week.


Here are my clippings from round 1:

Not too shabby if I do say so myself!!  :)

1st Newspaper Roundup

First newspaper roundup happening today... I have to admit, I'm kinda excited. We even received a local paper today, not sure if that is a mistake on the paper boys part, but it's a welcome surprise! I used this opportunity to look through what coupons the circulars have this week and which, if any, I would be clipping. This way I could figure out how many additional papers I wanted to buy. This circular had tons of good stuff like toilet paper, pasta sauce, body wash, laundry detergent, etc. ; so I knew this would be a good week to get my coupon stash going!

I've got my quarters ready for the other papers I plan to buy, now I just have to hit up some newspaper stands.

How many newspapers to buy you ask? Well... from my perusing of coupon 101 sites, a good rule of thumb is 1 newspaper per household member. There are obviously exceptions to this rule such as: you know the circular has coupons you want and you want them in plenty, you keep a stockpile of items (more to come on this), or you are like me and want to have more than 1 jar of pasta sauce on hand.

I am a family of 1, with two cats. So technically that is 3 persons, right....? Either way... I typically buy 3-4 papers, plus the local paper that gets delivered. I figure spending 6 bucks to save a boat load should be worth it. But I guess we'll find out...  :)

And so it begins....

My adventure starts with a tv show, a light bulb, and a pre-existing shopping habit.

I've been sick with the flu for what feels like an eternity, and I'm slowly running out of tv shows to watch while I work from home. Today, as I was trolling for things to pre-record for long stints on the couch, I came across the tv show 'Extreme Couponing.' I'm pretty well versed in reality shows and your weekly tv dramas, anywhere from Gossip Girl to Family Guy, but I had never seen this show. So I was instantly intrigued...

The show chronicles a couple women per episode who do some SERIOUS couponing. These women clip coupons, look for coupons online, order coupons, and scout out the best deals at the local grocery stores; then its time to shop!! Most of the ladies come out with 80-98% savings for every trip, and sometimes a trip will include 500+ items. One of the ladies had over $1200 worth of groceries and walked out of the store paying $6.... that is some seriousss savings. Now, I've never used a coupon in my life, but it seems to me I am really missing out on some good deals and free food. Not to mention all that extra money could go towards fun shopping, like clothes, shoes, purses, travel, more shoes, you know how it goes....

This is when the light bulb goes off... I could harness my shopping fervor (addiction if you will) towards massive savings at the grocery store. The ladies on the show all said they did a lot of work online... so that's exactly where I started. My first stop was a website for couponing 101, giving a little bit of tips and tricks for us buding couponers; the best tip was that all the coupons are in Sundays papers and items typically go on sale every 3 to 6 months, so collect coupons accordingly. Along with tips on how to organize (since coupons do expire) and you will have LOTS of them, how and what items to stockpile, additional sites for coupons, where to purchase/order coupons, you name it, they had info on it.

I decided I needed to start building my coupon repertoire, so I'll wait until Sunday to go collect papers and coupon circulars.

Until Sunday friends.....