Its been 10 days since i have committed to this Couponing thing...
Since I haven't had ink, I have taken the time to scour over all the flyers of up coming sales, matched reward items with sale items, located coinciding coupons and made lists to shop by. I tried to pick out things that I really needed for my family, or items that we use all the time, and then chose a few things that seem like luxuries, such as name brand mouthwash and shampoo. "I am really feeling great about this." This helped me to get familiar with the layouts of the flyers and also made me realize that what I thought was a somewhat organized coupon binder, was truly an organized MESS! I made the decision that sale or not I NEED A REAL COUPON BINDER! I figured on my next trip out to shop I would grab a good, sturdy, multi-use binder along with some clear trading card pocket pages and some dividers.
Since my last blog, I prepped a trip out to Rite Aid. It was local, I had the flyer and was lucky enough to have printed out some store perk reward coupons before I ran out of ink. I got together what I thought was a pretty good list of items that would save me the most money and earn me the most rewards. "I have this DOWN." I was so pumped, I looked up the store hours and found they opened doors at 8 am. "I am gonna be there when they unlock those babies!" But, last night, I had gotten myself so excited about today's trip out into the "Frugal Fray" that I didn't get to sleep till after 3 am! Apparently, I was excited thru my sleep as well because I was up at 7 am, bright eyed and bushy tailed. I made coffee and watched the clock tick and at about quarter till, i got myself together and headed out. I loaded up a cart with goodies. Matching and scrutinizing the whole time. Some stuff they didn't have, other things I decided against when I saw the prices. Needlesss to say I made it to the register with my loot. I thought I would max out my savings with 2 transactions and piled the register high with my findings. I presented my member card and the lady started ringing. She was kind and patient and celebrated me for using the coupons. As I waited impatiently for the first transaction to be over with, I went thru the 2nd pile to make sure I had everything. I paid for the first trans. and again watched the sweet woman scan the trillion things thru, gave her my coupons and used the rewards I just earned from the first transaction. "WOW! I scored big time!" I went to the car and realized that I didnt do as well as I thought I would. I had bought too many of certain items and maxed out my rewards for that item. Lesson learned. Don't buy everything in one day... Regardless of my folly, I still did great and got $157.00 in products for $52.59!!! "That's not too bad! I saved over 60%!"
From there, I went to good ole WallyWorld and bought my binder supplies to reorganize with. I spent $18.00 there because none of it was on sale, but I really wanted it, it was all exactly what I needed and figured since I had saved at Rite Aid, I deserved this splurge. All this in about an hour! "Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig!"
When I got home, I showed my best friend and roommate, Sam, what I got and proceeded to fiddle with the binder. I separated and categorized, moved and shuffled till I had it how I thought it would best suit me and my shopping habits. I put the flyers and envelopes in the expandable pouch, labeled and added paperclips to the dividers. Then I added my coupons to the pouches. I spent more time doing this than I did shopping, but it turned out perfect!
My best girl, Patience (the friend who came to clip with me on Monday) and I are planning a multi-store trip to Walgreen's, Staples, Shaw's and CVS tomorrow. We get to drive, chat and listen to music for the hour drive. I have all the lists and coupons ready to roll out. Everything I could possibly need is tucked wonderfully in my new binder and I honestly can't wait till tomorrow!
