I'm going to do it!

It's 1:00 in the morning and I can't sleep. The brain is just racing and I figure the only way I'm going to get it to slow down is to just write some of what's on my mind!

I took a class tonight about coupon clipping. I was somewhat skeptical because the only experiences I've had with couponing is using them to save a few cents, or spending hours sorting through weekly store flyers, comparing the sale prices to the coupons you have to try and get the best deal. Its something I've seen others be very successful at, but wasn't quite sure if it was something I wanted to put that much time into.

The girl teaching the class, Brook, started out by showing us all this food that she had bought for $3. Ok, very impressive....I still don't want to have to go to a bunch of different stores every week, getting to one is difficult enough. She said she typically only shops at 1-2 stores and its never more than an hour total at the store. Ok, that's manageable....but let's see your organizational system for all those lovely coupons. She opens up the huge bin and I expected to see tons of different folders with labels of when coupons are going to expire etc, and was shocked to see 3 folders....one for each of the 3 national coupon inserts that are found in the Sunday Paper. Even more, she didn't have 100's of coupons loosely laying around, the inserts simply had the date written at the top of the first page and the entire insert went into the folder and stayed there until she was ready to go shopping.

My skepticism was decreasing, but I still didn't want to sort through flyers and keep track of sale trends, etc. Then she showed us the "magic" of GrocerySmarts.com which corresponds to pinchingyourpennies.com if you've heard of that. You enter a "passport" which is simply to give you the local deals. Its free of charge and you don't even have to register for it. To get started, you select what store you want to shop at and it instantly pulls up the list of sale items. On the far right of the table, it gives you the bottom line price of an item after you've applied the coupon. The ones highlighted in red, are the best bottom line deals and what you should use your coupons towards. The best part is it tells you what coupon to use, so going back to the "bin", you grab the insert with the date written on it and clip the coupon that you plan on using. It's all there for you! You can select the items that your going to purchase, print the list, clip only the coupons you're going to use that week, and make a quick run to the store.

Brook told us that she has lowered her food/hygiene/household cleaner etc. budget to less than $125 a month. It has taken some time to get to that point. You need to build up a reserve of coupons, and be patient, but its so worth the savings. She recommends having a subscription to the Sunday paper for each family member, that way you have more coupons to use when an item goes on sale. Always buy in bulk, & never use your coupons unless the item is on sale. I'm so excited to get started!! I need to get myself some subscriptions to the Sunday Paper, but in the meantime, if any of you have little coupons inserts laying around, you can always send them my way! :)

So, when we get back from Cincinnati, I have big plans on posting my fabulous coupon savings!