I have been couponing (is that a word?) for about a month now. I spend an hour and a half cutting out the coupons from my 5 papers Sunday night. I have a 2" zipper binder full of coupons in baseball card holders that I carry around with me to the store. I plan my shopping list for about an hour and I go to 3 to 5 stores. Crazy right?
But I am saving quit a bit. My friend Heather introduced me to the idea a few months back and it seemed pretty smart to me. She went to a class and I just watched the tutorial videos on on-line at
SavvyShopperDeals.com. Basically, just match a coupon to a sale. If you are interested go to the site and watch the professional.
I felt pretty discouraged at first because I was spending a ton of time on it but didn't feel like I was saving that much. But then I checked out our budget and our storage room downstairs, turns out I am saving. I have almost doubled our food storage in a month and spent the same amount on groceries as before.
But I have to warn you, it takes a ton of time! I've been looking at different options to help the family out financially for a while and there is no smart way for me to go to work. I wouldn't make enough in my profession to cover daycare. So I look at this as my part time job. I'm hoping to get our grocery bill down to $50 a week. It also cuts the cost of personal hygiene, cleaners and medicine.
If you are thinking about doing it here a few tips from someone who doesn't know very much about it:
- go ahead and buy the 3" binder, you will use all of it! And get straps, trust me, you will want them. I ended up sewing some on mine and that was a pain in the butt!
- Chad got 100 baseball card holders on amazon.com for $10 plus $5 shipping, I've also heard they are at hobby stores, Roberts and Target (Target being the cheapest)
- take a friend after a while and talk to her about the savings, it made me feel really good and I realized how awesome it is
- find a single friend to go with. She can watch the kids and use your coupons herself. I will be going with my cousin Julie on Tuesday and Friday, pretty excited about that
- the best way to learn is to just start
Thank you Heather for helping me out and the advice!
4 Comments
wow, Maggie. This seems very interesting. We could always do a little more to save on household stuff. I MAY take a look, but that is a TON of time! Good for you though! By the way, I can't believe that you have a 4 year old now. It seems so crazy that Bre wont be far behind...::sigh::
You know I've seen lots of ladies do this on the news and stuff... But I've always thought that if I got the generic brand it wouldn't save me anything more than coupons.... What is your take on this? Because I'd like to also start some more savings around here!
I think it saves more than generic. At least with some things. We are getting the good cereal cheaper than malt o meal. I don't pay over $1.25 a box. You can't be brand loyal though. Just depends what is on sale.
WOW Maggie! I thought I had it bad cause people make fun of me for my coupon box and all day shopping extravaganza! It really does help though! I think I am going to look into your suggestions since reading this post made me a little excited and very motivated!