After a few posts of saving over 90% on groceries, and different photos shown on Facebook of all my savings and free mail goodies, I have had a handful of ladies ask me what is my secret on saving so much. So I have decided to blog about my ‘process’ or how this thing called couponing came about.
(This is the time to exit this blog if not interested in saving money by couponing. lol)
Shall I start from the beginning?
Long story short, I quit my full time job (knowing I would be going full time with another company after our wedding). So I just in case something were to happen with the future job, I saved 3 months worth of needs to cover the “just in case” issues. Well… 3 months flew by and it’s now going on 5 months and I’m not full time at the company… just full time freelance (which does keep me busy, but it’s just not enough right now –trying to redo our home, save for kids… etc.). SO on that note I needed to be creative and figure out how to move our money further and save even more than we were. Say hello to the coupon. Coupon definition: a coupon is a ticket or document that can be exchanged for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product. This made me happy. Score!
So I started to use coupons and was saving maybe 20% of my bill. Then I found out about a lady from Huntley, Jill Cataldo. She offers coupon classes and teaches people how to save a drastic amount of money on their groceries. The classes that were in driving distance for me were not for a few months so I started to do some researching on my own. I looked through her
blog and searched for other saving
blogs…. And this is what I came to conclusion:
If you stack coupons when the items go on sale at the store you can get items for very cheap and sometimes free. Simple right? WRONG! It takes a lot of work to figure all the logistics, but I promise you…. once you do… you will never go back. When I started to ‘figure’ out the system it took me FOREVER, but now I spend about 15-30 minutes a week to figure out my deals and that’s that!
So here is a little explaining and what works for ME.
Types of coupons:
Manufacturer coupon: coupons from the company itself.
Example: Most coupons that you find in the newspaper, magazines or online are manufacturers coupons. See the little box at the upper left corner? Yep -
Store coupons: coupons from the direct store you are going to shop at.
Example: Meijer has a program called ‘Meijer Meal box” and you can print the coupons from their website and use only at Meijer.
CAT coupons: CAT=Catalina coupons are the coupons that print out at the register after you pay for your items. These are great!!
Ok show now where do I get my coupons?
I have the paper delivered to my house (of course I used a coupon on this! Use code X277 on the Chicago Trib for Sunday delivery for 26 weeks at .50 each!) and I print coupons from my home. Also some stores are starting to send coupons to your smart phone and there is no need to print coupons, you just show them the bar code from your phone! (That is crazy isn’t it? I’ve received the coupons on my phone but never needed to use them yet.)
*Tip: I use the Chicago Tribune to get the most valuable coupons. They have the most adverting therefore get higher discounts on the coupons. However, I don’t care to read the tribune… I literally take the coupons and recycle the rest. BUT I do get the Northwest Herald so I can stay up to date on my local area. The NWH I liked to read the articles but the coupons are not as abundant and are sometimes half the amount of what you get in the Trib.
Now where do I store my coupons?
4 places. Yikes! Don’t worry… it’s an organized system that I came up for myself and it works GREAT for me. I started to cut coupons and they were everywhere and it drove me nuts, so I finally figured out a system that works ok. To be honest… there is probably a better system out there and something that works more fabulous… but I’ve got the swing on my system down so I’m A-OK with doing it. (And I like to file and organize as it is so it's fun!)
1st place:
Mail Organizer
This is where I keep my coupons after I print them out, or if I get one in the mail. So I snip them and they go in the organizer to be transferred to my coupon sheets when I have time.
2nd place:
Coupon Sheets
I found these plastic sheets (like the ones that hold baseball cards) at Office Depot. I labeled them accordingly and they hold all my coupons.
Example: When I get the mailers on Sunday I clip out the coupons for the products that I know I for sure will need at some point and put the coupons in my sheets. Then the mailers get saved and stored in my accordion binder.
3rd place:
Accordion Binder
All my Sunday inserts get labeled with the date and store in the binder. Blogs like Jill’s and others tell you what deals are going on and they will reference to a certain insert. So it's a good thing not to toss the inserts and to just store them away for a good sale.
Example: Wheat Thins are on sale for $1.99. Use the $1 coupon from
11/7 RP and pay .99!
Breakdown: So I would go into my binder and look for the
RP=RED PLUM insert from
11/7 and search for the wheat thins coupon. Or in my case I know Steve and I like wheat thins so I already have this coupon cut and in my coupon sheets. But I keep the inserts just in case there is something I miss… or if I can get a good/free deal I can donate it to my food box that I take to the food pantry.
4th place:
Mini Binder
This is where I keep my coupons that I will need when I go to the store, and also my CAT coupons. I keep it in my purse so I can whip it out at the store when I shop. Using this makes it easier than carrying my coupon sheets around. (Don't mind the teeth marks, Tovi was trying to help with the coupons one day.)
And that’s that! Sounds like a ton of work, but now it’s just an organization system that saves me an AMAZING amount of money.
I’m going to end this post on that note, since it's really long. And I’ll write about my process in another post. I'll explain how it all works then, but ya kinda need to know the background... get your feet wet before you just JUMP in! :o)
xox m.
