After about 6 weeks into my new couponing life and I realized that my zip lock baggie of coupons was just not cutting it. I quickly invested in a binder and 3 ring plastic baseball card holders. My mail box was filled everyday with envelopes of coupons, and I needed to organize them.
Today, I have a binder separated into sections for food,cleaning, personal care, and other. I also have a section devoted to my FPC (free product coupons). Food is my largest section and I keep, meat,bread and pasta, dairy, produce, and dry goods in their own areas. I spend a couple hours a week clipping and organizing all the coupons that arrive in my mailbox, and come in the local papers throughout the week (usually while watching a tv show). I keep the earliest to expire in the front of each pocket for every item. Once a month I do a check for expired coupons.
I have found so many place’s to get coupons that I can’t believe everyone doesn’t do this.
Some of my favorite companies that regularly send out coupons are:
Chapmans Ice Cream (5.00 worth of ice cream, which is FREE ice cream as it is on sale all the time)
http://chapmans.ca/contactusnew.asp (fill in your info and request a coupon, put your mailing addy in the comments section)
Purina Kitty Food (comes with FPC’s for free food and Maxx Litter)
http://www.purina.ca/mykitten
Marc Angelo Meats
http://www.facebook.com/marcangelofoods/app_216904031676283
There are so many companies that will send you coupons just for asking, and many of these companies have Facebook pages where high value and free product coupons are offered all the time.
I spend a little time each week checking out the Facebook pages of products I like to order their coupons.
When I am ready to go shop, I go through all the weekly fliers, match the sales up to my coupons and stock up on whatever is a great price that I have coupons for. I also Price Match as many of those sales at Walmart, saves going from store to store. Also, Walmart pays overages! (They paid me .73 cents today when I picked up over $100.00 worth of products)
Couponing has become a way of life for me. I have stocked my shelves and freezer with almost every food/cleaning/personal care item that we will ever use. I rarely “need” anything anymore, so my weekly shops are now devoted to keeping my stock up with buying only sale items which I have coupons for and of course any free items that I have coupons for.
I used to spend about $150.00 a week on food and household products, I now spend between $5.00 and $30.00 and I have a stockpile that I value at over $3000.00 (which I have paid pennies on the dollar for)
I urge everyone to get themselves a coupon binder and start organizing all those coupons!
