Coupon Organization

I get lots of questions about how I organize my coupons, so I thought I'd just show you and give you my thoughts.


I use the "binder" method, which I think is totally awesome. I tried a few other ways, and this is just the easiest for me to find things and keep myself organized better at the store. There is an awesome post written about it over here at Utah Deal Diva. You really should take the time to read it. I agree with pretty much everything she says, and since she says it so well, why should I repeat it? LOL!

This is my binder. It zips, which is a MUST. Previously I used a regular one, and if for some reason it falls over, everything slides out. A NIGHTMARE! Trust me!

In the front pocket there, I keep my reuseable produce bags. I know! Cool, huh! But don't worry, I'm not that on the ball. I forget they're there like 95% of the time. Oh well...



So there are a couple of things I do a little differently than the Utah Deal Diva (I'm just loving that name!). First, let me say the binder is big and bulky to carry into a store, not to mention all the funny looks I get, so I have a cute tote bag I carry mine in, that makes it much easier to deal with, and I don't look so funny carrying a huge binder of coupons!

This is the inside of my binder. There are like file type pockets for me to stick my inserts in, which I love. I always have them with me. And with it is a flat zippered pocket. I usually use that for coupons I need to file, or when it's empty, I stick my receipts in it until I can get home. If I put them in my purse, they fall into some weird deep dark hole. Go figure!

I also have a zippered pencil pouch which comes first. I keep a pair of small scissors in there, b/c really, I've so needed them while shopping before! My pouch has 2 pockets. The front mesh one is where I place my coupons I expect I might use while out shopping. When I put the item into the cart, I move the coupon from the front pouch pocket to the main one, so when I get to the checkout they're all there and they're all RIGHT!!!

Also, instead of tabbed dividers, I use the sticky post it tabs, which have been awesome. They have held up and I can move them around as I need to. Awesome. I do have 3 plastic dividers with a folder pocket on it that I use. One sits in the front of the binder, one sits between the non food and food sections, and one sits behind all the coupons to give me another section I call "Other." It makes it very easy to flip around and find what I need. Under other, I hold other store/restaurant coupons, rainchecks, store coupons policies, mail in rebate form, printed lists of my e-coupons, etc.

As for the baseball card holders, I haven't really had much of a problem with folding my coupons. Printables I just fold in half like this, so on the back side of it, at the top is the expiration date. It's very easy to just slide it up an inch, check the back and push it back down. And when I first started using the baseball card holders, it was a pain to remember to trim down my coupons to fit. Now that I've used it for awhile, I know which size coupon needs to be cut which way, and it's really not a big deal at all!

Anyway, there you have it. My coupon binder in a nutshell. Sadly, this only answers a small handful of the questions I get, but don't worry, I do plan on getting around to the rest...eventually...;)

So, I'm curious. What do you use, what do you like, what are your thoughts?

Weekly Shopping Trip

I have gotten out of the habit of posting on here, which I didn't think was such a big deal. I get good deals all the time, and really, like the internet NEEDS another couponing blog?

BUT...I posted this picture on facebook the other day and I've been getting loads of feedback. Most of it is along the lines of HELP!

So I guess I'm going to step up my efforts here.

Here's the famous picture. I did all this last week. Kroger, Target, and Walgreens. My grand total was $68.65 after coupons and discounts, but before it was $265.85! GO ME!!

Oh, I made a quick stop at Walmart here too. I forgot that. The 4 packs of chinet paper plates and the 2 slices of edwards pie and the 10 packs of pullups wipes were all from there. Wanna know what I paid for those?

The pie slices were 12 cents apiece, the paper plates were 32 cents each and the pullup wipes were 14 cents!!!

At Target, my total before discounts and coupons was about $56, but I only paid $2.72 out of pocket. That was a rush!

Couponing is a goofy nerdy habit, I know, but you know what they say about nerds, right? Ha! They are actually super smart and the rest of us are all jealous of them!

So I guess I'm going to start posting a few hints and tips for people. I don't know if it'll really help anyone out there, but with all the comments I've gotten, it seems like I should. I've been really super blessed to figure all of this out, and it seems wrong to not share! So stay tuned...;)

If you're really interested, keep reading and I've listed what's actually all in the picture. If not, have a great day!

4 huggies baby wipes
10 huggies pullup flushable wipes
2 kroger brand wipes
4 bags skittles
2 Dove Deoderants
1 king size reeses
1 20 oz coke
2 fruit rollups
2 Dry idea deoderants
3 scooby doo fruit snacks
1 bounty paper towel
3 kotex pads
1 vitamin gummies for the kids
1 baking cups
1 4 pk of angel soft
1 mailing envelope
2 Chef Michaels dog food
4 pks chinet paper plates
1 glade carpet refresher
4 boxes poptarts
2 boxes kraft mac n cheese deluxe
2 slices edwards pie
1 pk 2 sharpie highlighters
2 packs huggies pullups
4 boxes mac n cheese
2 yogos
1 box capri sun
4 cinnamon toast crunch
1 glade plug ins
1 colgate dora toothpaste
3 hamburger helper
1 macaroni grill dinner kit
1 bottle pert plus
2 yoplait trix yogurts
2 cans pillsbury grand biscuits
1 soft soap bodywash
1 glade sense and spray air freshener kit
3 warm delight desserts5 cups cheerios
4 velveeta shells and cheese
2 pks bic pens
2 pks bic mechanical pencils
2 brushes
1 pack water balloons!
1 inflatable toddler pool!

Tons of crap. I had fun!

Discover Card is Awesome!

Steven and I have a Discover Card that we love. We actually use it more than any other card for one big reason: rewards. The rate is pretty good too--it's about in line with our other cards we have, but we like the Discover the best.

I've not ever really taken the time to explore their website, except for their rewards page! You can shop through Discover and earn pretty great rewards, and the other day I cashed out $40 in rewards for a $45 CVS gift card. I absolutely can't wait to get that one. It'll be fun to see how long I can make it last--considering tonight I spent 68 cents and got over $25 worth of stuff! So fun. But I'm totally sidetracked.

A particular feature of the Discover website was pointed out to me last week, and I'd say I found the concept interesting, but I didn't. I really thought, "Whatever. Who cares about that!" And then I spent about 30 minutes playing with it online, and I actually love it.

It's called the Spend Analyzer. It takes your spending and tracks it for you--so you can see how much money you're spending in each category. We have this feature in our Quicken, which we use for our checking/savings accounts. My hubs, the over analyzing engineer, LOVES graphs and charts! He totally lives by them. Me? Not so much usually. I'd prefer a spreadsheet. Our problem comes when we're using a credit card. We tend to not track our spending so carefully with that, except to say that we try to pay what we spend on it. But to put the spending into categories and track it with our regular budget doesn't really happen.

The Spend Analyzer gives you a pie chart, which you can see for different time periods such as the last month or year to date or the last twelve months, and automatically categorizes your spending for you! So like home improvement, warehouse clubs, restaurants, grocery stores, gas, travel, etc. I actually like this! We've been working on our credit card usage over the past year and it's fascinating to me to see how it's improved for us. And even more amazing that I'm seeing it in the charts--Steven will be so proud!

I should note that under the charts, it lists every transaction it's counting, and by that, it places the category the specific transaction is put in. Good clarification, because obviously it can't quite get everything right. It put my paypal transactions from ebay under service, when really I bought actual items that aren't service. Other than that, I don't see any other mistakes! It's actually very accurate.

In taking the time to check this out, I stumbled upon other parts of the discover website, which I absolutely love. They have a tool that will actually help you work out a plan to get out of debt, and one to help you plan for a large purchase, so that you know ahead of time what it will take to pay it off. And there's tons and tons of advice articles--too many for me to even go into.

Which totally breaks my opinion that all credit card companies are just bad. This one actually puts amazing information easily in reach and I really appreciate that.

Which makes me even more of a loyal customer.


*Links to check out for this:

Blogher Review Roundup

Discover Spend Analyzer Demo

**This is a paid review from BlogHer and Discover.**

FUN FUN FUN!!!!

I just LOVE checking my mail these days.

Why? Because I've been getting lots of samples and coupons in the mail! And usually with a sample comes a coupon. I have to stress the usually though, because, really...you'd think VIVA would have better sense than to send me one paper towel with no coupon! Or GLAD and a garbage bag.

Whatever, most of them come with coupons and it's fun. Todays haul was fantastic!

I got two samples in: a box of Total Cranberry Crunch cereal and a Quaker True Delights granola bar--Dark Chocolate Raspberry Almonds. Yum! I'm about to tear into that one. And both had my beloved coupons in them.

Even more fun than that was that my American Express Gas Card finally came! This was a black friday deal, but I didn't get it in the mail until January. CVS had buy 3 $25 american express gift cards, get $10 ECBs--which covered the activation fees. But American Express had a rebate also for a $15 gas card. So that part was making money! B/c I could use the gift cards wherever--so I used em for gas and groceries--using money I would have spent anyway! Super fun.

But even more fun than that--my colgate bag of goodies came! Colgate, back in January, had a deal where you bought like $15 in products and mailed in your upcs and receipt and they'll send you out a travel bag of products and coupons! It's way cute too! And it came with a travel size Speed Stick and Lady Speed Stick deos, colgate total toothpaste and toothbrush and a travel of softsoap body wash. And like 9 bucks in coupons. YAY!!! And all I did was mail in the receipts from my free toothpaste! hehe

Hehe, I'm just happy to get the travel bag! Anything for free, right?

Ok, well, EVEN BETTER THAN THAT--I'm telling ya, I had a fantastic mailbox day today!--was my first check from ebates came!!!!!!!

What the heck is ebates? OH. WELL. YOU ARE MISSING OUT!!

Ebates is a website you sign up at--it's free to register, and in fact they will automatically put $5 in your account when you sign up. If you're going to do any shopping online, you just go to their website first and click to the store you want. Each store has a certain percentage of your purchase back. It's the exact same deal as shopping through discovercard.com--except discover card, while the stores they offer give you a larger % of cash back, only has a small handful of stores compared to ebates.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but I thought I'd try it out, and WOW! I'm amazed at their selection of stores--even Walmart and Sams Club which discover doesn't have. But also American Eagle, JcPenny, EBAY...and bunches I've never heard of! Once a quarter they cut and mail you a check, and today I got my first one! I made $17.84!!!! GO ME!! Do you have any idea how long that would last me at CVS!! But then really, I just submitted some of my discover card reward points for a CVS card. I spent $40 and got a $45 card from them, which should be arriving in my mail box any day now. Yay! That'll last me the whole rest of the year! Well, ok, maybe that's an exaggeration, but then, maybe not! It'll be fun to see how long it lasts though.

So anyway, you should all check out ebates, and of course, you should sign up through me. B/c if they're going to give you the five bucks anyway, you might as well have them send some of that love my way--and it won't take away from you! Yay!

Go here to do so. I've been using them when I've picked up extra coupons on ebay also--I'm buying the stuff anyway, I might as well get the extra cash too, right?! EVERY LITTLE BIT HELPS!!

Swagbucks

I've discovered Swagbucks. I keep hearing about this site, but I didn't realize what it was until recently. It's pretty cool!

I signed up and downloaded their tool bar (totally optional, but I love it). It just gives you another place to type in your searches when you google something. The results come from google and ask.com, I believe, and you will randomly get a "swagbuck" when you search for something. So it's not taking any extra time for me, no extra steps. Super important over here!

When you accumulate enough, you can cash them in for gift cards. The two they have that I'm most interested in are Amazon and Target, but they have like disney.com, barnes and nobles, itunes, Lowes and JcPenny. It's pretty cool.

Anyway, take a sec, click the banner (so I can refer you--hehe) and sign up. If ya don't like it, don't use it! But I've done a lot of reading on this site. It's widely used, very popular, and you really do earn free gift cards here and there! It certainly won't make ya rich, but every teeny bit helps, right?

This week's shopping!

My shopping so far this week has been great! Kroger had a major mega sale, and it ran for two weeks. The first week, I did well, and got lots of things for free: franks hot sauce, french's mustard, green giant steamers. Since they were running it for another week, I popped over to ebay and purchased some "coupon clipping services" meaning that you can't pay for the actual coupons, but you can pay for the person's time! So I got some green giant coupons, glade air freshener coupons, and kleenex coupons. Jacob's class is out of Kleenex, so I sent half of what I got to them. I paid about 29 cents a box for them! I also ended up with double the coupons for the glade, which was an accident, but I only paid like 11 cents for one of the auctions and the other was like 2.oo. The total I spent on the coupons came out to less than I spend in a week on newspapers for coupons.

So I went to a few Krogers yesterday, for a couple of reasons. The first is that they only let you do three "mega" deals in one transaction. I could have done several transactions, but I had other reasons for store hopping. I didn't want to clear the shelves at one store, since I hate it when that happens to me. But also I knew one store wouldn't have the quantities I wanted anyway. Yes I could have gotten rainchecks, but that's a pain when I don't have to. And it felt good to be out and about since I had a bad morning.

I didn't take a picture since I didn't have time to before I had to get the frozen stuff put up. It was a literal run in the house, dump out the freezer bag into the freezer, pull Ashley's hair into a bun and run right back out to dance class. I didn't even get the other kids out of the van!

Here's the low down, though:
I spent a total of $57.60 out of pocket! I saved $237.11!! That was four Kroger trips, one Walmart trip and one CVS trip! I got

• two gallons of milk
• bread
• grapes
• bananas
• a big bag of m&m for the school
• two trix yogurt six packs
• 2-L of Diet Dr. P
• an All You magazine
• two twenty packs of nestle water
• two enchilada sauces
• 20 bags green giant steamers
• 2 bottles of ALL detergent
• 4 tubes toothpaste
• three 3-pk bodiheat
• 11 kleenex boxes
• 2 bags chex mix
• 2 boxes fiber one bars
• 2 franks hot sauce
• 1 french mustard
• 1 frozen pizza
• 3 totina pizza rolls
• 68 cans glade air freshener
• 1 sunsilk hair spray
• 1 pencil pouch and 1 pk. sheet protectors for my coupon binder
• 2 packs cottonelle toilet paper
• 2 bottles meat marinade

A long, busy, productive and satisfying day for sure!

(In my defense, I sent some of the air freshener to the kids teachers, I'm putting some up for future teachers, I'll give some away, I still have 9 coupons for more but the deal is over, and I gave 10 coupons away also! And I have boys, and we all know how stinky they can be, so I'm quite positive I'll use every drop! I love this stuff!)

I'm Going Green! (Or Pink and Zebra Striped)

I'm so very excited this morning! I've been on a search for some CUTE reuseable grocery bags that won't cost me a fortune, and that's HARD! I don't want the basic store logo ones, but I don't want to pay $5 a bag either, which is fairly low for many that are online. I found some LSU ones about two months ago, but I wasn't sure how much I'd like them or use them. I bought three, and now I wish I'd bought 10!

I finally found some that aren't bad and were a great deal. They're the same size and style as my LSU ones, which I wanted. I love the style, since they're kind of boxy, stand up straight when you put them down and don't fall over. My stuff doesn't fall out of them when I load them in the van like it does with the plastic ones.

And they're pink. I don't really care that much about the color, but the other option was green with an earth logo, and well, that's a bit too green for me. But the identical bag in pink isn't bad, doesn't have a grocery store logo, and was a great deal!

It took major searching to find this site, though. And in my searching, I found TONS of other great bags. A few of them run giveaways you can enter, and I'm sure I entered every one of them, and promptly forgot.

But here's where it pays to take the time. Oh yeah! Because I got an email that I won one! And not just any one, an expensive cute one! And if you go to the website, well, you'll see my name there as the winner for last month! Yay! I really can't wait to get this one! Unfortunately I can't quite afford to go buy 10 more of these, but this will for sure be fun to carry at the mall! Wayyyy more fun than the bright pink earth ones!