I'm planning ahead to 2011 for another area of my life that I not only enjoy, but will also benefit me financially. I posted MY SIMPLE COUPON ORGANIZATION METHOD in July.
A couple of days ago I was so excited to see a video by Jenny on Southern Savers.Com that described a NO CLIP (!) coupon organization method that is similar to mine, but much better. If you are interested in becoming serious about couponing in 2011, but want to be a normal person at the grocery store, PLEASE CLICK HERE AND WATCH.
Southern Savers has been one of my favorite deal blogs for a while, but now it has taken on a whole new meaning for me. There is so much great information on there. One thing that impresses me the most is that using the ideas found there I can use coupons without becoming obsessive about it. If I miss a deal, it won't be the end of the world, but if I am consistent I will save money in a stress free way.
Just today I needed to go to Food Lion for groceries, so I visited Southern Savers. In the search box I typed in "Food Lion". A post came up with the best sales prices with coupon match ups. I planned to buy a spiral sliced ham for our Christmas dinner. On the list was the spiral sliced ham and it told me where to find a coupon. The coupon was in the All You magazine that I subscribe to. I was able to find the coupon, along with several others, without having to spend huge amounts of time clipping and organizing coupons.
Above is my new purple accordion file and my old coupon organizer. Each week's coupon inserts will be filed in the accordion file after I have written the date on the front. It holds 13 weeks, so since most coupons expire after that length of time anyway, the oldest one is thrown away each week. Any unexpired ones that may be of use will be filed in the coupon organizer. The video recommends a check file for the coupons that you get from the store, or other places, but my old coupon organizer will work just fine for now.
Here are the things I like about the Southern Savers system:
1. No more Sunday afternoons doing a marathon CLIPPING, FILING AND PURGING OUT OF DATE COUPONS.
2. The posts on Southern Savers only include the items that are REALLY on sale. I don't have to wonder if its really a good price. Jenny stresses that the items go on sale regularly and we should only buy items when they are at their best prices.
3. I can put in any product in the data base search box to see if there is a coupon available. For instance if I need peanut butter, I can see if there is a coupon, even if its not on sale that week.
4. It a simple way of staying on top of the coupon monster.
5. I can go to the grocery store and behave like a normal person, which means I don't spend lots of time roaming up and down isles going through stacks of coupons to see if I can get a good deal.
7 comments:
I've slowed down with couponing in the past few months due to a very hectic schedule but am excited to get back into it and see the savings in 2011! Especially drugstore shopping.
Love reading your tips!
I learned that system when I subscribed to the Grocery Game.com. We just dated the coupon inserts and each week, the list would tell us where to go and find the coupon. It was a lot easier than clipping every single coupon. My only complaint with that site was that they didn't post the weekly list until the weekend after the sale started. By the time I got to the store, a lot of times the "deals" were gone. I am going to check out the site you mentioned.
in my town, I do best with the internet coupons but also use the Sunday ones some.
You just have to figure out works for the stores you have available.
Coupons are really my friend, as you say. Prices keep going up but our income stays the same - gotta watch our spending any way we can.
Hi Debbie,
Thanks for sharing this. I enjoyed watching the show. I picked up a few tips to help me shop for the food bank.Looks like we both are getting ready for 2011. :)
Have a Very Merry Christmas.
Elizabeth
Thanks for the link. We're on a very limited budget and using coupons is one way I'm able to save money. Any time I can find a better way to use coupons it is a big help to me.
I've got Southern Savers on my reader as well. It really does save time! I've been using up those $5.00 coupons for Family Dollar and Dollar General. Dollar General has a had a few in a row for Super Saturday savings. I've been printing them off the website.
I don't know, Deb, I think wandering around the grocery with a stack of coupons, looking for deals, qualifies you as a perfectly 'normal' person these days, LOL!
PS, did you get coupons in last Sunday's paper? I know we won't get them for the next two weekends, but what was up with the past weekend?
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