My Organizer...

Okay, Todd and I have worked hard on this couponing stuff and I decided that I'd borrow an idea or two from my homeschooling moms too. I might have to figure out a separate organizer for the homeschooling school year - to keep the forms, the planner/diary and samples of their work handy. But, that's a different project to work on this summer.

So.... the first thing you get when you start couponing is coupons! Looking at this, you would think 'Lego Box'

Well, you'd be wrong! I rescued it from the garage and it now holds all the flyers that I've gone through and cut coupons out of that I hope to use sometime. These are things that we normally eat or use and maybe a couple of new things to try. It also keeps my scissors where I 'should' be able to find them - I know you moms out there know how easily scissors can disappear.

Friends and Todd's co-workers have been great about sharing their unused coupons with me. They just need to stop using all the coupons I want! LOL But, seriously - they've been great! and I will have to make them some cookies or brownies from what I get free or cheap thanks to them :)

So, here is my organizer. I can't call it my coupon binder because it's more than that.

I got it for $10 from Walmart. I bought some baseball card holders there but they're really too small so the boys will have some holders for all their Pokemon or whatever cards.  The front flap will hold an iPod and has a place for the ear buds or something to come out from - sorry, I'm not taking this thing jogging with me! (Well, the extra weight might help.... I might have to rethink that - after I get an iPod or whatever plays music - I know, I'm so techno savvy. ;-) )

The front flap opens up to where I can store pens/pencils, keys, a business card or two... and maybe more if I need it.

Inside, it has a file folder system on the left, I could put some flyers in there but I don't want to carry them all! So, right now that's open to options. The right side has a 3-ring binder where I have a notebook for duh... notes, a calendar and other things.

The calendar goes through Dec 2012 so I can plan for the future a bit :)

Next is the great part that Todd helped me with. I have the store coupon policies, current deals I'm interested in getting and then... THE COUPONS!! I have them sorted into store coupons, food coupons and non-food coupons and all the coupons are alphabetical. I think that will work best for my brain. Not all coupons have made it into the binder yet. I need more holder thingys.

So... now I need to go get organized and get to the store, hopefully saving more money than I have before! And, if I run into someone or something that needs to book some time in our day, I'll have my calendar with me! This will be after I get dressed and hopefully gather some broccoli from the garden!! YAY!

This couponing stuff...

I have clipped coupons on and off over the years but I'm seriously getting more involved with it. When I do the couponing, I can save 35-40% off my bill and I'm stocking up on the pantry goods!

I do not have a place to have a big stash like on that show Extreme Couponing. I'm not sure where I'm going to start hiding things! We already took over the kids refrigerator for the dog stuff. ;-)

We've decided that Idahoian mashed potatoes are yummy :) We haven't tried the sweet potato fries from Ore Ida yet though but we will!

I'm still working on my coupon binder but... It will have my calendar so I can keep myself organized all in one place :) the store coupon policies, current promos I'm interested in and of course, coupons! Todd has been a great help in getting that organized - we're still working on it so I'll post pictures at some later date. We're sorting them first by food and non-food items and then alphabetically. I think that will help me the best way. And I need to get some currency holders as I think this looks like the easiest size to hold the different size coupons.

I get info from a LOT of different places on the internet who have great deals and do coupon matching for me (getting store sales to match coupons.) but I'm thinking I might want to start my own matching. Mostly because the sites that I use have more deals than I can find so I'm thinking they're not local.

Look at some of the freebies I've gotten recently - and yes, I'm including my Avon samples that we haven't tried yet - I can hook you up with a great Avon lady, if you'd like! (She'll give me a catalog just so I can see all the cute guys. :D )

Anyhow, I plan on continuing this and no, I don't expect to be on the Extreme Couponing show anytime soon. I'm not dumpster diving for coupons! LOL

Couponing, here I come!

Did ya miss me? LOL I'm doing a lot of nothing lately. Well, I guess we're doing stuff here just not much to blog about. We're still working on the house and visiting with friends when we can but I haven't made it to FL for my mid-winter thaw yet.

Anyhow, iVillage just opened up a new board called Coupon Clippers and I'm getting a lot of good tips on there about how to save some money. I haven't been too successful yet but I have an idea on how to save money. Mostly, it seems to be a matter of finding things already on sale and then using coupons too! CouponMom.com seems to be one of the better websites out there that put the two together for you. You can click on the drug store or major chain store of your choice and find the best deals. Or you can click on a grocery store in your state and find the best deals there too. You can click on ALL of them! (I think my brain would be fried if I tried that! LOL) You can sort by any of the columns they show there - the one they recommend is sorting by the last column to find the free or 75% off deals - the highest deals available to you. Sometimes, you can find deals where you'll make money and even if you don't normally buy the product, maybe you have a friend who does or a charity you could pass it along too - they get the food and you get the cash!

I have to try to think outside the box more. I went to CVS today to take part of the deal on coke 12pks. You buy 5 - 12 packs for $15 ($3 each) and then... you get their cash back deal of $5 to use next time you shop making it $2 a 12-pack  - great deal but we drink diet coke and diet sprite in this house - I was going to get some of both. Well, I guess CVS doesn't sell diet sprite (meanies!) and I should have bought 5 diet cokes but walked out with nothing instead. I need to figure out what other deals are out there so I don't mind going back tomorrow or the next day to make the deal.

If any of you have figured this out already, feel free to share tips!