Couponing 101

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.
--Carl Gustav Jung

my coupon binder

growing up, my mother always cut coupons. nothing serious, but she would cut all the coupons out of the Sunday paper and adamantly used them when grocery shopping. ever since I have lived on my own, I have cut coupons. even if it is $0.50, you are still saving something.

as many other Americans, I have been hooked to the show Extreme Couponing. the only thing I don’t like about it, is I wish it was more in depth about the process people do/use prior to shopping. after about, hmm, 1 episode – I think I knew I had to be an extreme couponer. this past Sunday was my first experience. my boyfriend bought 2 newspapers and I also got coupons from his parents next door. I cut out all of the coupons I wanted/thought I would have use for and then organized them into random like piles.

I had seen the Krazy Coupon Lady’s binder organizer previously and knew I wanted to do something similar. I didn’t have the energy to make my own, so I just printed out her categories. I got a 1.5 inch binder which I now know I will need at least a 3 inch. I used baseball card holders, which my boyfriend has thousands of in the basement because he was a baseball obsessed child, but you can pick them up at wal-mart or look online. I then simply put the coupons in each holder (keeping multiples together). it is that simple.

one helpful thing I did was once I made my shopping list (on lined paper already hole-punched) I put them in the front of my binder so I could always reference it.

I then started doing my research and browsing circulars. my first time ‘trying’ to coupon, I went to Walgreens. I got one free deodorant, one free hefty Ziploc bags, one free Atkins shake box (which I have never tried, but figured I would), 2 free toothpaste and 4 other deodorants for $0.50 each; among other things. my total savings was 50.3%. I thought I would have done better, but not too bad for my first try!

the only problem is, now I am ADDICTED. obsessed. I love it. I want to carry my coupon binder with me everywhere and show everyone. it is so pretty and organized. I urge you to try it. look how well I did on my first try! go coupon!