Couponing Lesson 1 - Organization

Several people have mentioned that they want to learn how to get such good deals at the grocery store. Just be prepared, because you will have to change the way you shop and the way you plan meals. It's time consuming, but it's fun too! If it weren't fun, I probably wouldn't still be doing it.

Now keep in mind, you can't save the kind of money I do on a grocery run like most people do it--run in on the way home in the afternoon and grab whatever sounds good to fix for dinner. Or hit the grocery store on Saturday and buy up everything you will need for the week or maybe for just a few days. Shopping this way is convenient, but it won't save you any money. Oh, you may have a coupon or two that you came across for something you always buy, and you might actually remember to use it when you get to the register. That's not the kind of couponing we're going to be talking about here.

The reason you will save money shopping this way is that you will buy what is cheap WHEN it is cheap and stock up, then plan your meals around that. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that you will be eating Grape Nuts and Chex Mix three meals a day because you got 12 boxes on sale. You will, of course, still have to buy things that perish quickly--milk, bread, produce--on a regular basis. You will stock up on what you will use until the item goes on sale again, or whatever you can buy with the number coupons that you have. It will take a little time to get used to planning meals around what you have on hand, but you will get used to it. And the longer you stock up, the more things you will have on hand to pick from, and the lower your food bill will get.

Sound like a lot of work and no fun? Well, it is a lot of work sometimes--clipping and filing coupons and doing research on sales--but it is a lot of fun! And something happens to you when you get that first really good deal. The Mrs. So-Frugal-I-Make-My-Own-Yogurt part of you takes over, and you look for other ways to save money in other areas of your life. Like making your own yogurt. No, I haven't tried that yet, but I would like to give it a shot! I do make bread occasionally, but I have yet to find a good substitute for a store-bought loaf of bread.

So now you are getting a glimpse of the thought process that goes into all this. Now we are going to get down to business and do some serious couponing. Are you ready?

Step 1 - Organization

You will need a place to file all your coupons - a 4x6 card file box works best, and the bigger the better. There have been occasional times where my coupons filled my box and I had to move on to something bigger, but that's when I was printing out tons of coupons from the internet. I don't do that any more--more on that later.

You will need dividers for the coupons, labeled so that you will know exactly where to look for a certain coupon when you need it. I am a little OCD, and I actually took a class in college called Filing and Record Management, so my system may be a little much for you. But that's OK--you do whatever works for YOU. Here are my cards, for example: Food section--baking mixes, baking supplies, bread, candy, canned foods, cereal,cheese, chips, condiments, dairy, dinner mixes, drinks, frozen meals, frozen veggies, frozen desserts, frozen other, juice, meat canned, meat cold cuts, meat frozen, meat other, produce, sauces, snack bars, snack cups, snacks other, soup. Non-food section: air freshener candles, air freshener plug in, air freshener spray, bulbs/batteries, cleaner bathroom, cleaner windows, cleaners other, contacts, cosmetics, deodorant, dish liquid, dishwasher detergent, feminine, hair shampoo/conditioner, hair color, hair styling, laundry detergent, laundry fabric soft., lotion, medicine pain, medicine cold, medicine stomach, medicine vitamins, medicine other, paper plates/napkins, paper towels, paper other, pets, plastic bags/trash, razors, shave cream, skin care, soap bars, soap liquid, toilet tissue, toothbrushes, toothpaste, miscellaneous.

I printed these on 4x6 cards, and I file the coupons behind each divider. You probably won't have the same divisions I do, because you may buy things that are different. Obviously, if you don't have a pet, you won't have a pet section, and if no one in your household wears contacts, you won't have a section for that either. You will file a coupon wherever you will know to look for it. For instance, if you have a coupon for hand sanitizer, and you didn't decide to make a separate divider for that, you could file it under soap liquid or under skin care or lotion or wherever. It doesn't matter, as long as YOU know where to look for it. Unless hubby or someone else is shopping with your coupons, your filing system doesn't need to make sense to anyone but you. You may not want to create all the dividers right away until you see which coupons you tend to accumulate.

I have read of some people who use a binder with tabbed dividers and baseball card holder pages to store coupons. If you think that would work for you, go for it! I personally think it would be too bulky to me, so I haven't tried it.

I also have a file box on my desk where I keep the sale flyers for the grocery and drug stores, and I have a notepad that I keep with my coupon box where I write down deals that I want to snatch up at each store.

So there you have it! It's not nearly as complicated as organizing your closet or pantry (that we'll do later). But having an organized coupon file is vital!

Next subject: Where to Find Coupons