Something fun.

Ok this may not seem like fun to you, but it has been really fun for me.
Since leaving my job things have become a little tighter around here and I had been slacking off on my couponing for a while. I decided that it was time to really get into it hardcore so that I could save money with groceries, etc.
One of my most favorite things to do in the world is to organize. You can often find me in an attic, a closet or a drawer organizing away. I know it is crazy but it is something that brings such joy to my heart. I love bins, binders, holders, separators and anything that would help to make an area look more organized. My sister can vouch for me that when I go into a store I have a hard time keeping away from the "bins" section, and if they are colorful, oh man its even worse! Clutter and disorganization frustrate me very much and it has been quite a challenge for me living in a tiny apartment with no storage space. I have rearranged my closets so many times in the three years that we have been here looking for the right place for everything. It hasnt been easy and some days its just something Ive had to let go and get over. I know that I will never be fully satisfied because its pretty much impossible to fit an entire house with a basement, attic and garage into a tiny apartment with 4 closets total.
Anyway, Ive been following these two wonderful ladies names Heather and Joanie that run the website called "The Crazy coupon ladies". They have been around for a while but have just came to the spotlight and have been seen on the Todays show and Oprah. basically they teach you how to match up sales to coupons making it so that you can get products for very small amounts of money or even free. It is a lot of hard work initially, but once you get yourself on a coupon cutting and sorting schedule it just flows.
I had been very overwhelmed with coupons because the small fold out coupon holder just wasnt doing it for me. I would go to the store and see things and think, Oh man I have a coupon for that at home! So finally I had some time to actually sit down and do my research and the coupon binder is what I found to be the source of all this saving!
I had so many piles of newspapers stacked up on my desk full of coupons, so I started cutting away. It took me about 4-5 hours to get the whole thing set up, but this was my final outcome, and I was soo happy with it in the end.
This is the front of my binder. The first page has coupon policies from the store that I mainly shop at. Sometimes you save such ridiculous amounts of money that cashiers will question you because they dont even know their own stores coupon policy. It is great to have the policy handy just in case. :) (I have since updated to a nice black binder)
This my table of contents that I printed out from the Krazy Coupon ladies website. I fixed it to meet my own shopping needs.
And this is what you will find when you flip open to a coupon tab.

Each section has a few baseball card holders and you cut your coupons and sort them into the section it belongs. I fold my coupons to have the expiration date showing so that when I go in each Sunday to add new coupons I can pull the expired ones. If you have double coupons you can just stack them behind each other.

In the back of my binder I have a section for Store coupons that have been distributed from the store itself and I have a section for coupons for restaurants and other stores.

I am subscribed to a few websites where these ladies will do all the work for you. They find the sales for the week and will match up the coupons. For example they will say Bread is on sale at shop rite this week for 1.99. There is a coupon for this bread in the 1/30 red plum coupon insert which in the end will make the bread free. Most grocery stores double their coupons unless otherwise stated on the coupon and so if I had 1.00 off of the 1.99 bread, the dollar coupon is doubled making it $2 off and the end result is I get the bread for free. :) These women also find printable coupons all will attach the coupon to the sale if it is available. Stores accept them because they are usually directly from the manufacturer.

Yesterday I decided I was going to attempt my first trip to shop rite with my new coupon binder. Shop rite is the store I shop at most so I decided I would start off with just there.
The ladies advise that as a beginner you just start off with one or two stores that you shop at most and then you can gradually add more stores to your shopping trips. It can get extremely overwhelming seeing all the free product you can get at all these different stores. Sometimes I just scroll right past some of the stores match ups because I dont want to overwhelm myself. I have chosen to start off with Shop rite and Walmart, the two stores I shop at most.

I went to shop rite yesterday, binder hugged to my chest, and my sweet my husband cheered me on. I got my cart, propped my big binder into the front seat and started shopping. The best part about this is your main goal is to only get what is on your coupon list, so you dont spend anymore money then budgeted for. I calculated what I should spend before I left for the store.

I got many weird looks and double takes when the saw my binder, I couldnt help but keep laughing when I was in the store.

I got all my stuff, pulled my coupons to the front slot of my binder where coupons that I will be giving to the cashier go and headed for the checkout. The Krazy Coupon ladies even teach you how to pick your cashier, lol. I looked for an empty line and looked for somebody who looked like they had knowledge in coupons and wouldnt have to turn on their light too many times for help. They say that you should pick your cashier and remember when they are there so that they will be prepared when they see you coming (or they may run and hide,lol). My cashier gave me a look when I gave her my stack of coupons, she took and extra 10 minutes to examine ALL of my coupons and be sure that I had everything that I had a coupon for. She tried to get me and say I didnt have something, but I did. :) She then happily started swiping and my bill was originally $59 and I ended up paying $25 for all of this:



I got:
1 large jar of Classico Pasta sauce
2 cans of redpack tomatoes
1 large jar of pickles
1 FREE bottle of organic strawberry lemonade
11 boxes of whole wheat or garden pasta (all different kinds)
2 greek yogurts
1 FREE box of butter
2 bags of shredded cheese
1 dozen eggs
4 boxes of waffles
1 Free toothpaste
4 free bags of Ricola cough drops
2 FREE packages of Kotex Pads.

I saved $32 alone in coupons, $17 in store savings totalling my savings to $53.08.

I was pretty excited for it being my first big couponing trip. By the end of my transaction my cashier was smiling and in disbelief, she had many questions and I was able to help her to start saving as well. :)

You dont have to get EVERYTHING that you have coupons for. a friend once told me to just cut the coupons that you would take if it was given to you for free. OR you can get all the free things and donate to those in need, shelters, your local food pantry, etc. It can be a huge blessing to others. Many of my couponing friends have huge shelving units and freezers in their basements. Although I am not quite there yet or able to house that much stuff I am considering it a blessing for what I can get.

How do you get your coupons you ask? Well, I am subscribed to only my Sunday paper with my local newspaper and thats what holds the coupons. many friends get many papers and therefore have many more coupons, but they also have lots of room for that. One friend got 10 bottles of laundry detergent for free last week. Which means she had ten of the same coupon.
Also, like I said before you can print your coupons.
Some sites that have the women do all that hard work for you are: The Krazy Coupon lady, Daily Deals for the Mamas, Bargain Briana, Living Rich with Coupons. There are many more but these are just a few who match up coupons to my local stores.
There is thefrugalmap.com that will lead you to your local couponing ladies that you can subscribe to via email or you can "like" them on facebook and they post the deals daily.

Well, if you made it through this entire post good for you! My hopes in posting this is to give encouragement to women that there are ways to save when you feel you are in a hard financial place, or even just to live frugally. It is definitely not convenient, but worth the hard work in the end.

AND my husband could not get over the savings, and was so excited he sat and listened to me ( even pausing his video game,lol) as I told him how everything worked. He couldnt stop talking about it and that made me proud of all the hard work I did, like I was doing my part in saving as much money as I could that he worked so hard for.

I am nowhere near close to that Proverbs 31 woman, but if I can work on at least one sentence I'll be happy!
"She provides food for her family" Proverbs 31:15

Of course I must give God ALL the glory! HE gives us the wisdom, HE gives us the energy, He opens up the doors, HE provides.