To Clip or Not to Clip?

There are many reasons not to coupon:

Who has time?

Store brands are cheaper anyway.

They never have good coupons for the things I buy.

I’m not going to run all over town to save a couple dollars when I can buy everything I need in one store.

I’ve used each of those excuses and more myself. Just as for exercise, finding an excuse not to is easy. So instead of focusing on why not, I’ll give you one simple reason why to do it…. a penny saved is a penny earned! It doesn’t matter whether you work or not, how many children you have, or whether you’re on financial assistance or not. A bit of coupon planning simply saves money.

My foray into a more serious season of couponing actually started with my 16 year old daughter. She had the privilege of learning a bit from Tanya Sensensy, aka Coupon Queeny, while visiting her best friend. In just a few hours she gleaned more information than I have discovered in my years of ho-hum clipping.

The first thing made the least sense… I had to spend money to successfully save money. But my daughter insisted it makes a difference to buy a zippered notebook, page separators, and plastic baseball card pages.

Next was the Sunday paper, and she said we must buy two. We clipped, sorted, and organized the coupons and then perused the current ads to determine the best bargains. The first time I purposely set out for some serious coupon shopping, I hit all 5 stores on my list, even if it was only one item. I wondered if it made sense but I actually did save a lot of money.  The next week I was able to save money and buy items to shelf because I couldn’t pass up getting good toothpaste and shampoo for 25 cents! The next week I spread out the shopping instead of doing it all in one day by stopping by a store on my list on my home from work or on a different errand.

I haven’t had the fortune (yet) to save like some at 90%… but I am sometimes saving half of what I spent before after just a few months of practice. It required some time to get the notebook organized and it does require time each week to clip new coupons and go through the ads. Since the zippered notebook is organized and everything can be stored neatly and zipped up inside, it can be grabbed and worked on whether fixing dinner, watching TV, or on a lunch break.

Here’s a list of helps to get organized:

Use an on hand or buy a zippered notebook, plastic baseball card pages, and page separators. Newspapers are where you’ll find most of your coupons, the Sunday paper has packets of coupons and department store ads and the Wednesday paper has the grocery store ads.

A few pointers:

How you separate your sections and coupons depends on what works for you and is subject to change as you go. I started simply with my page separators categorized: cold/freezer; dry goods; wet goods; meds; body detergents; home detergents; feminine; paper, etc; and pets. I put the coupons in the plastic page pockets by name brand; I could have a shampoo and body wash coupon in the same pocket in the body detergent section as long as it’s the same name brand. When I spot an ad for Dove shampoo on sale, I’ll make sure to look through all the coupons in that pocket to find a match.  I can see the Dove pocket quickly and it's separated from the other brands. If you want to separate your coupons more, just buy more plastic page pockets.

If you're like me, you don't like the idea of having a big stash of items. But if you do run across a great sale where you can buy an extra bottle or tube of something for very little money while staying well within your budget, consider the possibility that you may run out before a product goes on sale again OR you may be able to bless someone else with your stash! A stash shelf that is saving your family money or blessing another family is worth the space.

If you’re a brand name diehard, you may have to get over it to save substantially with coupons. Another thing to get over is the possibility of annoying others. You could go during a less busy part of the day if possible. One good thing is most stores have updated registers and the cashier has little to do but pass the coupon over the scanner. If it’s a coupon where a price has to be written in, you can help by giving a heads up when the item passes, otherwise, if you get a cashier that seems to be bothered by coupons, they’re the one who needs to get over it.

A coupon can actually be doubled if the store is participating and the coupon has a double bar code on it so don’t hesitate to call stores around your area to see if and when. Even if they don’t participate in this way, try using more than one coupon with a particular sale. For instance, I have a coupon that takes $1 off of orange juice if I buy a certain cereal brand. One store is having a B1G1 (buy one get one) sale of that same brand and I happen to have a coupon for each cereal box and the orange juice. Plus, I may even have a store coupon on one or both of the cereals or another manufacturer's coupon for $1 off if you buy 2. Every store I’ve shopped at so far has not given a bit of problem in taking advantage of the whole deal. That’s one way the coupon professionals buy more product for less cash.  You may get a cashier who will question a second (and third) coupon even though invalid coupons get rejected by the register.  Just nicely ask the cashier to simply try it, they usually do once they realize they can leave it to the register to accept or reject coupons.

Be careful in your spending habits with coupons. Trying something is one thing, but if you know no one in your family will eat it or use it, then the coupon or sale is of no value. Pass it up and give the coupon to someone else or leave it at the store with the item for someone else.  You can take your whole binder into stores with you if you don't mind carrying it around.  I prefer to carry in my list and only the coupons planned for that particular store.  I do have my binder in the car available if I run across the unexpected sale.

Food coupons can be used along with food stamps and stretch both the collective and personal dollar. (WIC items are different.) Everyone's budget can be stressed less with a bit of careful coupon planning.

For further information check out:

Coupon Queenie at her website and blog.

There are many and varied coupon sites on-line and many sources to finding coupons to print... be resourceful but always be careful passing out your information.