Coupon Sunday

Coupon Sunday II

It’s Sunday!!! Did you get your Sunday papers yet? Well go get them, cut out your coupons and meet me back here. We have much to go over to prepare you for your first coupon shopping experience.

Now that your coupons are all cut out, you’ll need a storage system for them. Don’t worry about getting a high tech fancy schmancy system like mine (a half box that a twelve pack of Propel flavored water came in and some cardboard cut to fit as dividers), anything will do for now but as your coupon inventory increases you will definitely want to fine tune it and you will have a lot of coupons in no time.

I sort my coupons by category, i.e., Breakfast, Meat, Dairy, Condiments, Shampoo’s lotions and Cleansers, etc., Do what works for you. You may change it a couple times before you come up what you like.  I keep an envelope for each store I shop at in the back of the box to keep my coupons organized for shopping day.  I also keep a copy of all the ads, a pen, scrap paper, a pair of scissors, a pair of glasses and my car keys (so when I check out I’ll have my key chain advantage card ready to be scanned.)   It all fits perfectly in the child seat. 

You will want to take a little time to get to know your stores coupon policies, it will save you embarrassment at the check-out. Nuff said.

Closely go through your ads. Target the ones that give you the most bang for your buck. For me; Giant Eagle is my favorite because they double coupons up to .99 cents , they have e-coupons and they offer fuel and food perks.  The .75 cent coupons are better than the dollar ones because they double up to $1.50.

Here is an example of one of my favorite coupon scenarios:  Your store has Miracle Whip on sale three for five dollars. You have three .50 coupons for Miracle Whip (this is why you purchase at least three newspapers) and you also have a coupon for .75 cents when  you buy three jars of Miracle Whip. The .50 cent and .75 cent coupons are doubled which takes the price down to .50 cents but wait…. you have an e-coupon for .50 cents off Miracle Whip so now all three jars are free.

 My first shopping trip I got a hundred dollars of groceries for seventy-five dollars and I was so happy. My last trip I got a hundred and twenty dollars of groceries for twenty-one dollars. My last Drug store shopping trip I got a hundred and thirty five dollars of products for sixteen dollars.

Come back next Coupon Sunday for more information on how I keep track of my savings and coupons on spreadsheets.