I saved $3.10 today grocery shopping all because I clipped a few coupons.
Doesn’t sound like a lot of money?
That $3.10 paid for my Sunday newspaper. And my town’s weekly newspaper. And the Saturday paper I picked up on the spur. (I got those coupons out of those papers.)
Lots of people are against coupons. I’ve always appreciated them, but rarely used them. What I should say is: rarely remembered to use them. I would always find them on the bottom of my purse, months expired, a wrinkled mess of paper that could have saved me money.
Then I had children. My first diaper coupon that really made a difference opened my eyes to the world of coupons. If I could save $2 on diapers, that’s $2 I could use elsewhere. So I tried to keep my eye out for coupons for other things: clothing, food for the pets and us. Finding a great coupon is a good feeling. Finding a good coupon AND a sale item is exhilarating.
Ok, maybe not exhilarating, but… you know what I mean.
Here’s my coupon plan:
I breeze through the ads for my local grocery stores and clip any coupon I know I will use. I then save the ads for meal planning later in the weekend.
I breeze through the Sunday paper and clip coupons I might use. I take the envelope out of my purse that contains all my coupons and leave them all on the counter after throwing away the expired coupons. When it’s time to plan meals I have the grocery store ads and my coupons in front of me. I take the family calendar, make a mental note of things going on in the next two weeks that demand quick meals (church night, game night, etc. anything that necessitates a quick meal) I make a note on my grocery store list which meals need to be fast. I then look through my favorite recipe books for great meals to make.
Here’s the key: when I write an ingredient on my list that has a coupon, I circle it, write ‘coupon’ beside it or otherwise make myself a note that I need to remember the coupon in my purse. Grocery stores are busy. That’s where my problem used to lie: I’d have grand plans to use the coupons but get to the store and get distracted.
After making my list, I double check the pantry for items I might already have but forgot about. I stick my notebook inside my green bag (I take 4 large reusuable bags to the store to cut down on my plastic bag use), stick my coupons in my purse and away I go.
That’s the system that works for me.
That’s the key: find a system that works, the stick with it. If I save $3.10 every week at the grocery store, I save my family almost $200 a year. Not bad.
January 21, 2008...10:41 pm
coupons
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