Coupons
So, in keeping with the theme of my last post, let’s chat about coupons.
I used to be a hit and miss kind of person with coupons. I had a little accordion file holder to put them in, rummaged through them once in a while, had plenty of expired coupons in there, and generally mis-managed the whole thing. So, I stopped using them. I mean, they weren’t really saving me money, right? And it was such a hassle – cutting, sorting, finding them (you know – stuff they teach you in kindergarten).
So for a long time I paid full price (or sale price, if I was lucky) for everything.
Then, about a year ago, I read online about The Grocery Game. For a fee, you could sign up for a list of items on sale at your local store. They would tell you if the item had a valid coupon and what the sale price was, and factored in the coupon discount, and advised if it was a great deal, a good deal, or nothing to be impressed with. So, I signed up, paid my fee, started to cut the coupons again and imagine my surprise when I looked at the bottom of my grocery store receipt – I would save (on average) 30% off my bill. That was awesome!
So I picked up my accordion file again. But, now my problem was I had TOO MANY coupons! I was clipping everything I could – buying a paper plus getting my dad’s coupons was piling up my stockpile. So I turned to the trusty Internet to help me out. I found The Couponizer. It was exactly what I wanted. It was a bound “book” with pockets for each category. It had space to put the coupons I planned to use for a shopping trip, plus a spot for the ones that were expiring that month. It also came with a mat to use to sort your coupons after you cut them out. All was within easy reach in the provided clear plastic zip bag to tote it around in.
But, after a while, I stopped paying for The Grocery Game (actually, my credit card had expired and I hadn’t noticed! When I went to cancel my account, it was trying to get me to enter my updated information!). I still used the coupons, but I generally just looked at the sales circular and bought as I needed/felt I was getting a good deal. But my coupons were still growing, and I outgrew The Couponizer.
I decided to try my hand at designing my own version. I found a 4×6 photo book with about 50 sleeves. I set up my categories – a bit more in depth than what I had before. I also planned to use 3 sleeves per category – one for coupons that expired this month, one for coupons that expired next month, and one for coupons that expired later than that. I used this system for about 4 to 6 months and I really liked it. Except for… well, it was kind of a pain to get the coupons out of the sleeve. They were top loading sheets, but it was still awkward sometimes trying to get them out. So I started to plot and plan a new system.
I researched on the internet (you expected that, right?) and heard about a lot of people using a binder system. Lots of them used the baseball/trading card sheets for their coupons. Some were very elaborate – one slot for each brand or all alphabetically arranged by brand. I really didn’t want a binder that big, and having already tried the top loading sheets, I knew I wouldn’t be happy with it for long. Plus, those baseball card things aren’t cheap. So I had to find something else. I liked the binder idea, but not the traditional size. A quick look at Staples.com showed a smaller binder size – a 5.5 x 8.5 sheet. Looked good to me – but then I had to find something to put the coupons in! I didn’t see any sheet protectors – and I thought they would be too deep to work efficiently anyway. So I came up with my own idea – take a regular sized piece of paper, fold in half and then create a pocket out of paper to hold the coupons. It was the pocket that proved problematic. I didn’t want anything too big so I wouldn’t be able to find the coupons or too small that they would tend to fall out.
I don’t know about you, but I have a tendency to buy things I don’t need… at least right now. I have stuff I bought years ago, just waiting for me to find the right job for them. And I found the right job for something I bought 4 and 1/2 years ago when we first moved into our log home. I was at an art supply store and saw this clear film in 3’x5′ sheets. I was thinking of using them to make some inexpensive frames for some pictures, but never got around to it.
So, I cut a strip of this clear material about 3.5 inches wide and 11 inches long. I taped it (with packing tape, not regular scotch tape) to the cardstock and voila! I have a not too deep, not too little, see through pocket for both sides of my binder page.
I organized my categories and printed them out on the cardstock (I hate my handwriting!). I decided to only use a “expires this month” and “expires later” pocket for each category. I liked being able to flip the book open to see both of those at once – it seemed it would make finding coupons easier while shopping while still making me sort through them on a monthly basis.
I’m pretty happy with my project – all told it took about 4 hours to complete. The binder looks a bit overstuffed – I wish they had a larger width than the 2″ – but I like it and it seems to be fairly easy to deal with in a shopping cart.