I’ve decided that the word “extreme” doesn’t suit me. There’s nothing extreme about creating a small stock pile to get my family through leaner times, or using coupons to get free stuff which allows me to reallocate the money I saved to other areas of my budget. It’s not extreme to shop a few different stores each week. I am fortunate enough to live in an area where King Soopers is across the street from Safeway, which shares a parking lot with Walgreens. That’s 3 of my possible 5 stops in 1 block. The other 2 stops are usually Sprouts (love their produce) and Wal-Mart for whatever I couldn’t pick up at the other stores. They are about a block from each other and only a few miles from the first stops. I call that smart. From now on you can refer to me as a “smart couponer.” 😀
Confession: My binder was a bit of a pain to put together. I thought I could get away with using clear zipper pouches to house the coupons, and that buying baseball card pages to organize my coupons was a waste of time and money. Having to dig through 100+ coupons to find the right toothpaste coupons to get them all free (from my first shopping trip of the month) convinced me otherwise.
There are many ways to organize your coupons, but I advise you to use a system that makes sense to YOU. I recently joined a couponing group here in Denver and several of my new friends like the Krazy Coupon Lady’s system. I chose to improve on the system I was already using with my small accordion file. It’s mostly alphabetical with non-food items at the front of the binder because that is what I use the most. Here’s what you’ll need for my method of organizing: A sturdy 3-ring binder (mine is 3.5”), 2-3 packages of baseball card sheet sets, a few sheet protectors, tabbed dividers, paper trimmer, scissors and/or rotary cutter and self-healing mat, a black marker, and a little patience. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them.)
You can see from this picture that I get specific in my categories. I designated tabs for me, Benny, and the kids, but everything else is general use. Benny uses specific body wash and deodorant, but his section is also for general manly smelling stuff, while mine is for lady specific items like feminine hygiene products and girly body sprays & perfumes. I had so many makeup coupons that I made it a separate tab. In case you’re wondering, I have a baby tab because several of my closest friends have new babies at home. I’m all about saving them money too.
My categories are: Baby, Benny, Cleaning, Dental, Deodorant, Hair & Body, Household stuff (batteries, light bulbs, 3m hooks, etc.), Kid Stuff, Laundry, Lotion, Make-up, Niki Stuff, Paper Products, Razors/Legs, Sophie Stuff (our dog), Vitamins/Meds, Baking, Boxed Foods, Breads, Canned Foods, Cereal, Condiments/Dressings, Dairy/Eggs, Drinks, Food Storage, Frozen/Fridge, Meats, Soups, and Snacks.
I also sub-categorize behind each tab when needed. For example, my cleaning section has a page or 2 each for laundry soap (even though I make my own, I’ll take advantage of free soap any day), stain treatments, air fresheners, cleaning products (409, glass cleaner), dishwashing soap, and tools like sponges, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, etc.
I file the coupons so that I can easily read them when my binder is sitting in the child seat of a shopping cart. If a coupon is too big to fit the slot, then I fold it in a way that I can see the dollar amount and the expiration date can be seen by looking at the back of the page, or fold it the other way so I can see both the amount and the date. It depends on the coupon. Here’s how each page looks:
The front of the binder (before the baby tab) is reserved for special store coupons like King Soopers and Target. I don’t get many that are King Soopers specific, so I don’t fold those over. I also keep one of the clear zipper pouches to hold coupons that are about to expire and those I plan to use each week, like Michaels and Walgreens. The back of the binder holds a few sheet protectors with copies of the coupon policies for the stores I frequent in case I meet a checker who doesn’t understand their store’s policy. I’ve been told store managers can change coupon requirements and that some things are left up to individual stores as to how they enforce quantity limits, but the general coupon policies are available on the store’s website.
The biggest challenge for me has been learning coupon lingo and understanding what is and isn’t allowed. Especially what “one coupon per purchase” means. The Krazy Coupon Lady has an easy to follow, illustrated explanation here, but sadly her B1G1 Free scenario is being banned from a lot of stores. Couponing 101 has a handy glossary you can check out too.
Does all of this sound like a lot of work? It was for the first few weeks, but after a month of this, I’m fairly comfortable. There are websites that pair coupons and sales for the region you live in to help you get the most for your money. Here in Denver, I use Bargain Blessings and Denver Bargains. I also subscribe to Sunday Coupon Preview to see what coupons will be coming in the Sunday paper each week, which I buy at the Dollar Tree on my way home from church.
I’d like to say a few words about the actual clipping process. The Krazy lady mentioned above, and several others who have taken the time to make YouTube videos, staple their multiple copies of coupon pages together before cutting them so they can carefully align the coupons. I just line them up and use my bypass blade paper trimmer to cut through all 11 coupon pages at once – without stapling a thing. I line up my pages, slip them under the plastic guard, put a finger or two on top of the guard to hold the pages firmly in place, and then slice. It’s that easy. Occasionally I have pages that are arranged so my usual method would cut through a coupon instead of around one, so I lay the pages flat on my self-healing cutting mat and use my rotary cutter to cut through the pages until they’re small enough to fit in my paper trimmer. Quilting methods work for couponing. Who knew? This is so much faster than using scissors, and I used Michael’s and JoAnn Fabrics 50% off coupons to buy these tools. I’m just thrifty that way. 😉
This is definitely my new hobby. I already had the tools from other projects I’ve done, and the sheet protectors and marker I repurposed from my homeschooling stuff, so my new expenses were the baseball card sheets (Wal-Mart) and the binder, which I bought on clearance at Staples. All worthy investments. What I saved on my first shopping trip alone would have paid for all of these items.
Are you still intimidated by couponing? Come on over for a cup of Chai and I’ll help you get started.
I’d love to come over for a cup of Chai and some couponing advice. My trouble is that it’s hard to find coupons for the organic stuff we like to get. James does shop around for the best deals (often as cheap as non-organic) but can’t find coupons for most of that stuff.
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tawnyamarie -We eat primarily organic items too. I had a hard time find finding organic items for awhile. So I went through my pantry and made a list of all the different organic brands we use. Then I sat down at my computer and looked up each company’s website. From there I either signed up for their e-newsletter (which will often times send you coupons that you can print). OR I wrote them a quick note telling them how much I enjoyed their products and asked if they could send me some coupons either by email or snail mail. About 50% of those companies sent me coupons! Another 25% asked me to make sure I signed up for their e-newsletter to get those deals, and the final 25% said they don’t participate in a coupon program, but some of those told me the cheapest place to purchase their product or gave me some helpful recipes.
If you go to Sunflower Farmers Market or Vitamin Cottage, they give out Mambo Sprouts booklets (quarterly I think) and there are about 15 or so organic coupons in these books. I always pick up 10 or so. It think if you go to Mambo Sprouts’ website,and sign up, they will send you these coupons via email.
Also, I discovered that in King Soopers, right near the organic produce section, there is a magazine called Optimum Wellness. This is a free brochure that has about a dozen organic coupons. They come out with this every quarter. I usually pick up a couple on each grocery trip. There were many coupons that I would use on a consistent basis and a few others that would allow us to buy organic “treats” that we just wouldn’t have splurged for otherwise.
I hope this helps you to start your own organic coupon collection! I thought it was an impossible task at first too, but after about 2 months of searching and collecting, I have a very nice stash for items that we ACTUALLY EAT! Good luck!
Andrea
P.S. Niki, I also disagree with the Exteme tag. I like to be thought of as a Professional Shopper instead. But for now, I know I’m still a bit of a ways from being professional. I’ll get there soon! Great article!
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Excellent advice, Andrea! Thanks for sharing what you know. 🙂
FYI for my out of state friends: When we talk about King Soopers, it’s a Kroger store. In Kansas it’s called Dillon’s and in Indy it’s called Kroger. Same company. Though deals may vary some by region, I’ll bet the deals are pretty similar.
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Thanks for the advice Andrea. I live in KC, so we don’t have all those stores, but we have similar brochures at our Hy-Vee store’s Health Market section. And after looking at the Krazy Coupon Lady’s site, I was surprised at the deal’s she had lined out from Whole Foods. On her site I also stumbled upon the link to the Mambo Sprout’s website which has printable coupons. I love your tips about writing the companies. Great idea! Couponing does seem much easier if you choose to eat the convenience and packaged foods in the grocery stores, but now it’s seeming a little more do-able for organic stuff too.
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I would especially LOVE for YOU to come over! 🙂
In the meantime, Couponing 101 lists organic deals and links on their site:
http://www.couponing101.com/tag/organic-coupons
And have you heard of these ladies? http://www.kansascitymamas.com/
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Thanks. I had found one site that was KC specific, but that one looks great.
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Good for you.
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Thanks L! I truly appreciate the cheer leading. 🙂
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I would love to come over too. I am starting to get organized. We live 30 – 60 miles from the nearest stores, other than walmart, but we go there once a month anyway, so I’ll do that shopping then. Thanks for helping me get started. LOVE YOU!
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Love you too, Mom! Did you visit the sites I sent to you? That will help you know what coupons to clip.
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Niki…it’s funny you are starting this now, as I was just kinda thinking about it since I subscribe to several couponing blogs. I signed up mostly to enter giveaways and such. Well anyway, you have pushed me over the edge. Today I did some shopping at CVS and Walgreens for freebies (after the rebates). In fact, I found some coupons and had I found everything I was looking for, I would have been paid about $12 to take home about $60-75 worth of stuff. CVS was out of stock on almost everything, but I did get rainchecks. Walgreens I was not quite as impressed with.
So last night after I read your post, I went to Krazy coupon lady and was there for hours, as well as watching clips from the extreme coupon show. I don’t want to become a hoarder, but I do like some of their ideas.
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We don’t have CVS in Denver, but Walgreens seems to be the Starbucks of drugstores – one every few blocks. 😉 I almost always make a weekly Walgreen’s stop. They have great deals on health & beauty products when you stack coupons. I LOVE being able to use a Walgreen’s coupon with a manufacturer’s coupon on items that are already on sale to get the lowest price possible. Register rewards are also a nice perk. The only problem I’ve run into is getting to the store after the shelves have been cleared, so I feel your pain.
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Hey there Niki!
This is almost enough to get me interested in couponing – the organizing part, not the shopping or saving money part.
I’m wondering if there are any smart phone apps to organize coupons for pro couponers…
Drop me a line or sign in to chat once in a while – I need some motivation to post on the blog.
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You’re such a guy! 😛
I am just starting to look into apps, but if you hear of any, please let me know! Or better yet, why don’t you design me one? 😉
Sorry I haven’t been on French time lately. I’ll email you. Now that you have a brand new computer and internet at home, you have NO excuses for not posting on your blog. Get moving buddy!! (Was that good motivation or too guilt inducing?)
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Excellent post, one of the few articles I’ve read today that said something unique!One new subscriber here :)If you are searching to get a coupons then a Huggies coupons is really worth looking into.
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