This is How I Coupon

Aside from watching British television shows and taking baths (usually at the same time), couponing is one of my favorite things.  I'm not to the point where I can save more than 50% on a grocery trip, but I get a fuzzy feeling when I save dollars.  Cause I don't have a lot of dollars and I need to save them.  

There are a lot of couponing blogs/sites that are super awesome, and I've shamelessly stolen ideas from all of them to make my own system.  

Step 1: Make a menu

I catch a lot of crap for this, because I have a weekly dinner menu posted next to the kitchen.  This isn't anything fancy; I would absolutely die if I had to cook a full fancy meal every night.  My husband and I have weird schedules that don't even allow us to be together in the evening to have dinner anyway.  I look at both of our schedules for the week and figure out what nights we're both home, one is home, etc. and make a "What's for Dinner" list every Sunday (that's usually the day I go to the store). I look through the weekly circular at our local grocery store (Smith’s) and figure out if anything awesome is on sale like pork chops or hot dogs or frozen potatoes or whatever.  If, say, bacon and ham are both on sale, I’ll make split pea soup or charro beans that week.   Here's an example:

Sunday (both are home): 

• ·         Pressure cooker beef stew
• ·         Corn bread

Monday (Husband is home, I get home at 6:00 pm)

• ·         Hot dogs
• ·         Chips

Tuesday (I’m home, but hubby works at 5:00 pm.  I usually make something that makes good leftovers so he can take some for his lunch)

• ·         Chicken pasta bake
• ·         Frozen veggies

Wednesday (Both home)

• ·         Split pea soup
• ·         Homemade bread (I am obsessed with my breadmaker so I usually have some sort of homemade bread around)

Thursday (Both working)

• ·         Scrounge (usually frozen pizza, hamburger helper or something quick, even fast food rarely)

Friday:

• ·         Date Night!

Saturday (Hubby works, I close, I’ll put something in the crock pot for the evening like soup or beans)

• ·         Soft tacos
• ·         Spanish rice
• ·         Charro beans

The key to this system is that I’m flexible.  If we decide that we would rather go out to eat on Tuesday night or something, we just move the days around.  This is just so that I have a preliminary shopping list to make sure that I don’t get a bunch of stuff I don’t need.  I make sure to do it on my computer so that if I find a coupon for something awesome I can add it in or change dinner plans around. 

Step 2: Feed the Book

There are a zillion ways of keeping track of coupons, and I’ve probably tried all of them.  Problem is, I’m not organized enough that I can keep track of individual circulars and track down a coupon I need.  My solution is to put all my coupons in a binder with baseball card holders to keep them organized. 

To start, I make sure to pick up a paper every Sunday.  More serious couponers will get them delivered, like six or eight copies or something, to get a ton of coupons.  I don’t think it’s worth it, because my grocery store isn’t great about doubling coupons anyway. One is fine for me, and saves me some dollars.    

When I get home, I pull out all the circulars for the stores I like, as well as the coupon circulars.  I usually grab the Target and Walgreens circulars to see if anything is on sale, and then get the SmartSource circular and the P&G Brand Saver circular (which only comes once or twice a month).  The Red Plum circular usually comes in my mailbox in the middle of the week; I just hang on to it. 

Some people like to pull out all the coupons and save them for a rainy day.  I think this is stupid, because I honestly don’t see why I would need to save $.50 on a tube of denture toothpaste.  This was my first mistake of couponing; I would buy needless stuff simply because it was cheap. What I do now is only clip the coupons that I would need and chuck the rest.  If I’ve never used panko breadcrumbs, I don’t really need to save $.30 on them. 

The other awesome place to get coupons is couponmom.com.  I love this site for other reasons, but mostly because it’s got a link to printable coupons.  You just click the ones you like and print.  It’s a little expensive on ink if you do it a lot, but you can get a lot of good stuff that way. 

When I pick out the coupons I like, I sort them into categories:

* Food
* Cleaning
* Pet care (I have two kitties, and food/litter are expensive!)
* Personal/Meds
* Restaurant (There is at least one in every Red Plum circular each week.)

Next, I put the coupons for each product in an individual slot in the baseball card holders.  If I have multiple coupons for a single product, I’ll stick them together.  I try to keep it sort of organized, keeping the Pillsbury stuff, dairy, meat, frozen, etc. stuff together.   The larger categories are divided by regular dividers with labels on them. 

Step 4: CouponMom.com

I LOVE this site.  First, for the printable coupons, which are super cool.  Second, it’s a database of all the sales at the store of your choice (you choose by the state and then pick what store you like) and what coupons are available for those items.  It then has a total discount, so you can see how much you’re saving. 

I don’t really use this precisely as they instruct you to, but it’s a good guideline.  I go down the list and click the things that I need, and it will tell me if it’s A) on sale at Smith’s, B) If there’s a coupon, or C)Both of them.  The best thing is when you can use a coupon when something’s already on sale.  It’s a super cool guideline. 

Step 5: Make the List

When I spend this much time working on coupons, I want to make sure I’m getting the most for my money and my time.  When I make my list, I use all the above steps to make sure I get the best deal on the things I need, and only actually getting the things I need. 

The list has 5 columns:

• ·         Actual cost
• ·         Item
• ·         Deal
• ·         Coupon
• ·         Stipulation

Here's an example:

2/5/2012
Actual Cost	Item	Deal	Coupon	Stipulation
	Mountain dairy milk	2/$5
	Pinto beans	$.40/each
	Crescent rolls	3/$5 (Buy 10 deal)	$0.40	Buy 2
	Kroger yogurt	10/$4	$.10/$.10	Buy 5
	Kroger soda	$2.25		Buy 2

I leave the actual cost blank to put in the price that I find at the store (more on that later).  The second column is the actual list, based off of the good things on sale, the stuff I need for my weekly menu, and other random odds and ends that we need.  If there’s a particular sale or I have a coupon for a particular brand, I write the brand name, but if it’s just a normal thing I need then I’ll leave it off. 

The next column is the sale price.  I really hate paying full price for anything, so I like to have this completely full.  I write the sale price or if there’s a special promotion (like save $10 on 10 participating items or something). 

The coupon column is about, big surprise, the coupons.  I go through my coupon binder and find the coupons that I can use.  If I have more than one, I put all of them on the line.

The final column is the stipulation.  This can be of the sale, of the coupon, or however many I need to buy.  If I have two coupons for crescent rolls, one $1.00 off four and one for $.75 off of two, I put that I need four of them.  Always stipulate the largest amount so that you don’t get screwed at the register. 

I always throw a few extra empty lines at the bottom for last minute or impulse items.  I try to stay away from the impulse stuff, but if I realize we need cat food I can throw it on there to keep track of what’s in my cart.  

Which brings me to the final part:

Step 5: SHOPPING!

I have a couple specialized items for my shopping trips. 

• ·         Reusable bags (they carry more stuff, I don’t care that they’re better for the earth)
• ·         Coupon book (it’s just a rigid little folder I have with two pockets and a pen slot to keep me organized
• ·         Shopping list
• ·         Necessary coupons
• ·         Pen

I always try to eat before I go to the store, because I’m really impulsive and will buy a crate of gummy bears just because I’m hungry.  I always shop at the same store, simply because I know where everything is and it makes me wander through unnecessary aisles much less.  I also prefer to go with my husband, because he can push the cart and I can pick out the things I need. 

When I pick stuff out, I go off my list almost entirely.  Since I have all the deals and coupons, I can compare the price that I’ll save versus, say, a generic version or something.  Just because I have a coupon doesn’t make it cheaper.  I am pretty flexible as to different brands,  so I can save much more money buy just going generic.  After every item, I write the price down in the empty column to keep track of what I’ve gotten and how much we’re paying (I write down the sticker price and just leave the  coupons for the end). 

When I’ve gotten everything I need, I’ll go to a relatively quiet place in the store and quickly add up the prices (makes it much easier than trying to juggle a phone or calculator while you’re shopping).  Since I don’t count in the coupons, I make sure I’m under budget before I reach the register, just in case some of my coupons don’t work. 

At the register, I make sure to group my stuff so that it’s easier to unload when I get home, but that’s just me being OCD.  I don’t freak out if my coupons don’t work either; by making sure I was under budget before I even went to the register I can make sure that I’m not going to get screwed over.  The money saved is just icing on the cake. 

And that’s it!  It’s a bit of a complicated process when I put it down on paper, but honestly it only takes me about an hour to get everything done and then go shopping.  I think saving $20-$30 per shopping trip for an hour of work is pretty good. 

I hope this has been somewhat informative if you’re interested in starting to coupon, since it took me a while to find a good system and can be frustrating at times.  Keep with it though, cause it’s totally worth it.