I have recently been introduced to the world of "Extreme Coupon-ing." I've always known that using coupons could help you save money. I even remember my mom's little gray vinyl coupon pouch that we used to use when I was very young. But these ladies take coupon-ing to a whole new level.
Mavin of Savin' posted that she MADE $13 after purchasing $360 worth of groceries. So she actually got $360 worth of groceries (free) and got paid $13 for it. And apparently, it's not uncommon for extreme coupon-ers to to purchase everyday items and groceries for pennies, and quite often - free.
I know that there is a big stigma that coupons are only used by the poor. I guess I'll be poor in many people's eyes. But, honestly, it is the stores and manufacturers who are basically saying, "we have over-priced these products, so here, we'll give you $1 off to bring the price down closer to where it should be." If you treat coupons the same way you would treat the dollar equivalent (i.e. a $0.50 coupon like two quarters) it won't seem so weird. Coupons really are no different than sales, except only those with coupons will enjoy the sale while everyone else pays full price.
And why should I care what others think if I am going to save money for my family? All the money that could be freed up could be used to purchase a second vehicle (oh, please, please, please), buy a house (that would be awesome), save for the kids college educations (time is running out, only 6 years before Negina moves up), build up my home, food and emergency storage (yeah, yeah, as Relief Society President, I should have at least 5 years worth of everything my family does, will, or might use in the event of normal, weird or scary circumstances . . . but I don't), and, my favorite (idea taken from CouponMom.com's Cut Out Hunger Program), donate all the extra items to food pantries and crisis centers. . . the possibilities are endless!
Needless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, Steve and I have been quite entertained by the acrobatics our dear Money has learned in order to pay for all of our expenses, after Tithing and Offerings of course, and there have been many times where we held our breath as Money demonstrated a new technique, without nets, to incorporate some new expense we happened to unearth on the road of life, like the car payment we couldn't avoid.
Don't get me wrong. We are not needlessly in debt. Right now, all we have to pay off are our education loans, a car loan and about 1/10 the credit card debt the average American has that we wracked up when we were still young, stupid and thought money grew on trees, bushes and vines.
Our expenses are all unavoidable - rent, heat, propane, electricity, food, toilet paper - you know, necessities. We don't make a lot, but we do make do.
Anyways, back to Coupon World.
When I was called as the Relief Society President three months ago (wow . . . it's been that long already?! Did you know that one of the duties of a Relief Society president is to teach, especially those who receive assistance from branch or ward, the members how to live frugally? I didn't, until I became one.) One of the first things I did was organize a coupon swap in our branch. Basically, keep the coupons you use and pass on the ones you don't. I have organized a coupon binder that lives at the chapel so that anyone can peruse it at their convenience.
Since then, I have been learning that to really save, or sometimes even make, money you need to learn to match your coupons with your store's or stores' sales. Then, you need to stock up and after a few months, you will be able to only purchase items when they are on sale and "shop your freezer, pantry or linen closet" when you need something that is not.
The hardest part of all this, I think, is setting up a price book to keep track of the sales cycles of each product in each store that you shop at. A simple downloadable template is found here. It will take about 3 months of tracking prices to get a feel for when things are on sale so you can stock up until the next sale cycle. The easiest way to do this is to grab your store's weekly ad and list what is on it. Also, if you have kept your receipts, you could enter the information from any itemized receipts, provided you can decipher what the abbreviations and codes mean. The wisest thing would be to only track items you use or want to use, since tracking dog food when you have a parakeet will not help you any.
I am in the first week of tracking prices and it is daunting. I never knew how many different items we use. Some coupon sites suggest to track the 20 most expensive items first. When you have figured out their sale cycles then track the next 20 most expensive items, and so on.
Well, here I go a coupon-ing!
Mavin of Savin' posted that she MADE $13 after purchasing $360 worth of groceries. So she actually got $360 worth of groceries (free) and got paid $13 for it. And apparently, it's not uncommon for extreme coupon-ers to to purchase everyday items and groceries for pennies, and quite often - free.
I want in on that!
Why on earth should I pay full price for something that I could get for pennies or FREE even?
I know that there is a big stigma that coupons are only used by the poor. I guess I'll be poor in many people's eyes. But, honestly, it is the stores and manufacturers who are basically saying, "we have over-priced these products, so here, we'll give you $1 off to bring the price down closer to where it should be." If you treat coupons the same way you would treat the dollar equivalent (i.e. a $0.50 coupon like two quarters) it won't seem so weird. Coupons really are no different than sales, except only those with coupons will enjoy the sale while everyone else pays full price.
And why should I care what others think if I am going to save money for my family? All the money that could be freed up could be used to purchase a second vehicle (oh, please, please, please), buy a house (that would be awesome), save for the kids college educations (time is running out, only 6 years before Negina moves up), build up my home, food and emergency storage (yeah, yeah, as Relief Society President, I should have at least 5 years worth of everything my family does, will, or might use in the event of normal, weird or scary circumstances . . . but I don't), and, my favorite (idea taken from CouponMom.com's Cut Out Hunger Program), donate all the extra items to food pantries and crisis centers. . . the possibilities are endless!
Needless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, Steve and I have been quite entertained by the acrobatics our dear Money has learned in order to pay for all of our expenses, after Tithing and Offerings of course, and there have been many times where we held our breath as Money demonstrated a new technique, without nets, to incorporate some new expense we happened to unearth on the road of life, like the car payment we couldn't avoid.
Don't get me wrong. We are not needlessly in debt. Right now, all we have to pay off are our education loans, a car loan and about 1/10 the credit card debt the average American has that we wracked up when we were still young, stupid and thought money grew on trees, bushes and vines.
Our expenses are all unavoidable - rent, heat, propane, electricity, food, toilet paper - you know, necessities. We don't make a lot, but we do make do.
Anyways, back to Coupon World.
When I was called as the Relief Society President three months ago (wow . . . it's been that long already?! Did you know that one of the duties of a Relief Society president is to teach, especially those who receive assistance from branch or ward, the members how to live frugally? I didn't, until I became one.) One of the first things I did was organize a coupon swap in our branch. Basically, keep the coupons you use and pass on the ones you don't. I have organized a coupon binder that lives at the chapel so that anyone can peruse it at their convenience.
Since then, I have been learning that to really save, or sometimes even make, money you need to learn to match your coupons with your store's or stores' sales. Then, you need to stock up and after a few months, you will be able to only purchase items when they are on sale and "shop your freezer, pantry or linen closet" when you need something that is not.
The hardest part of all this, I think, is setting up a price book to keep track of the sales cycles of each product in each store that you shop at. A simple downloadable template is found here. It will take about 3 months of tracking prices to get a feel for when things are on sale so you can stock up until the next sale cycle. The easiest way to do this is to grab your store's weekly ad and list what is on it. Also, if you have kept your receipts, you could enter the information from any itemized receipts, provided you can decipher what the abbreviations and codes mean. The wisest thing would be to only track items you use or want to use, since tracking dog food when you have a parakeet will not help you any.
I am in the first week of tracking prices and it is daunting. I never knew how many different items we use. Some coupon sites suggest to track the 20 most expensive items first. When you have figured out their sale cycles then track the next 20 most expensive items, and so on.
Well, here I go a coupon-ing!
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