Super Coupons

If you are one of the 3 people reading my alaska saga I have a few more days to post still, but our main computer with the photos is at the doctors. So, I am posting this in the meantime.

I am NOT a coupon fan, I know I should be with all my bargain hunting/yard sale escapades. My sis-in-law WENDIE...yes you Wen got my mind perked when they visited us in California awhile ago. I'm all about saving money, but coupons...really? I was way impressed with how dedicated they were and the savings they had. When they can turn a 25 cent coupon into free I was hooked. Since I was moving I vowed to change my shopping habits once we moved here. I figured, since I didn't have a job this would be my fiscal contribution to the family.

Wendie told me to sign up for couponsense.com. There was a $10.00 monthly fee, but it would be well worth my while, she says. Yeah, right...how hard can it be? I put off signing up for a few weeks thinking from what she told me and from a bunch of other sights I could figure it out...I am so cheap.

I see this reporter on TV talking about coupons and this "coupon mom". I'm like "crap" I was going to do that once I got here. So I buy a few newspapers and start clipping, I print a CRAP load of coupons online and start clipping. I sign up for the website, but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to use it. I call Wendie...I clip some more, then I go shopping. My first trip to Safeway I save over $70.00. SWEET, I think by the time this month is done I will have saved enough to cover a year of subscriptions for a coupon magazine, the website and newspapers. Ok, ok...I'm getting the idea, I like coupons. I was spending a lot of time organizing, but I wasn't doing anything else so no big deal.

Cut to yesterday, when I finally get online and take the hour tutorial. Freak! The chick was awesome and I find out I'm doing it all wrong. There was no need for all the ahead of time clipping I did and organizing and all the wasted time. OY! The site was waaaayyyy cooler than I initially thought and it did more than I was expecting it to.

The problem I have now is there are only 3 stores in Fairbanks...3. Walmart, Safeway and Fred Meyer. Walmart doesn't have an ad that shows what's on sale...Safeway's ad comes in the mail (which I don't get cause I'm living in a hotel) and the Fred Meyer ad comes in the mail, but the coupon website doesn't do Fred Meyer so that doesn't help either. When I did go shopping I used the database they have, but it's for a different region. So it sort of worked, but I did leave not buying some things I had planned on simply because they weren't on sale. Even then I still managed to save $70.00 so I didn't care.

Here's the point to couponing...that I didn't know.

1. Always use a coupon
2. Only use your coupon when the items are on sale, using store coupons plus manufacturers coupon to maximise the deal
3. Buy more than one and stock up, until the item comes up on sale again
(for instance, you buy 6 boxes of cereal when they are on sale for $1.50 instead of 1 box at $3.00 or $4.00 or when an item goes on sale for $1.00 and you have a $1.00 coupon things become free...now THAT is something I can get into)

After my tutorial, I mentioned my location issues and she said that if I can get enough subscribers to validate a data entry person for my area they would add my specific stores to their database. So not only will my stores be entered soon...I will be that data entry person. SWEET!

Seriously, this program has changed how I see shopping and budgeting. I think you can have a tutorial before signing up to see if it's something you want to do. I highly highly reccomend it! Or just call me, I would love to talk to you anyway.