Get organized!

If your going to get stacks of coupons like I do then the best way to cut your coupons is to first separate them out and place them in identical stacks.  I use a office cutter to cut multiple coupons.  Its far more efficient then using scissors.

To keep my coupons organized once they are cut I use plastic baseball card holders and then I put them in a binder.  I separate my coupon categories with dividers.  But to further organize my coupons, I organize the coupons based on can goods, paper goods, coffee, hair products, etc.  It makes it easier too to put similar categories together. 

Amazon Prime Student account

Let me start out by saying that I am just a fan of the Amazon Prime account and I am in no way being compensated by Amazon.  This is purely my opinion.

This past Christmas I was lucky enough to be able to use my sister in laws Amazon Prime account.  She said it was a recent feature to be able to share her account with up to four other people.  She offered it to me because she knew how busy I was and that I had vented to her several times that I had absolutely no time to go Christmas shopping.  I had never done my Christmas shopping online but I soon realized that not only was it convenient but it saved my butt.  I should mention that she shared her prime account the first week of December.  Needless to say, I was quickly running out of time.  My favorite feature was the free 2-day shipping and the special Prime pricing.  The sharing of her account was only temporary as my sister in law intended on sharing her account with her mom.  So, just shortly after Christmas I lost the Prime account. 

I loved the benefits so much that I decided to look into subscribing to my own account.  To my surprise I found that Amazon also offers an Amazon Prime Student account as well as an Amazon Mom account.  I signed up for the student account because I got the benefits of the Prime account but for half the price!

Check out the student account
http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info

Check out the mom account
http://www.amazon.com/gp/mom/signup

And of course the Prime account
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DBYBNEE?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=footer_prime

Where to find coupons...

I started out couponing because, in an effort to save money, my husband and I made the decision to put ourselves on a fixed weekly budget.  In the beginning, I felt that the budget was workable but still tight.

As luck would have it I started a new part time job at a senior apartment building.  At the time the budget was new and I was still trying to figure out a way to make it work.  I'm not sure why I started to finally notice the paper recycle bins that were placed throughout the building but once I did I began to see the opportunity that was presented right in front of me.  I began to check the recycle bins every Sunday evening to retrieve any discarded coupons.  I would leave with stacks on coupons.  It took me some time to develop a system but once I worked out the kinks I began to save lots of money.

Here are some ideas on where to find coupons.  Keep in mind...I have tried all of these.
-Ask your friends, neighbors, family, co-workers, to save the coupons for you.  If they are going to toss them anyways then you might as well benefit from them.
-Look through recycle bins.  There are recycle bins all over the place, you just have to look.  Around here in Michigan there are large garbage type bins outside of schools and churches.  Go dumpster diving!!!  Since it's just paper its really not that bad.
-Ask the newspaper delivery person if he has any extra sets of coupons.
-Contact your local newspaper.  Sometimes they have extra inserts that they are more then willing to give away.

**Some people buy coupons.**

 

You can actually buy coupons online.  I've never done it but know people who have.

If you love Target...

If you love Target as much as I do then you will probably find this quite helpful.  I am a huge clearance shopper and I often go straight to the clearance before looking at anything else.  More times then none, I only shop the clearance and often refuse to buy anything for regular price.  Target marks down their departments on specific days.  Of course, there may be some variance to this schedule as things do come up but it is certainly helpful to know. 

Here is the schedule for each department:

Monday – Electronics, Accessories, Kids Clothing, Books, Baby and Stationery
Tuesday — Domestics, Women’s Clothing, Pets and Market (food items)
Wednesday — Men’s Clothing, Health and Beauty, Diapers, Lawn & Garden items and Furniture
Thursday — Housewares, Lingerie, Shoes, Toys, Sporting Goods, Decor & Luggage
Friday — Auto, Cosmetics, Hardware, & Jewelry

Happy shopping :)

Shampoo for $0.24

I recently saw a tweet from KrazyCouponLady claiming that it was possible to get shampoo at Target for $.24.  Or course, I had to try it out!  First of all, Target allows stacking of their coupons which means that they allow you to use a manufacturers coupon and combine it with one of their Target coupons. 

I went online to the Target website and printed the Garnier Fructis $.75 off coupon and combined it with a manufacturers $2.00 off coupon that I got from the Red Plum 1/12/2014 insert.  The shampoo was $2.99.

Let's do the math...$2.99 - $2.00 - $.75 = $.24!!!!!

Meijer no longer doubles manufacturer coupons

I went to Meijer yesterday to pick up a few items and to, of course, redeem some coupons.  I haven't shopped at Meijer for a very long time because I prefer Kroger.  However, I figured since I was writing this blog that I should give it a go and make a short stop at Meijer.  In this week's ad they had Fruit Roll-Ups and Fruit by the Foot on sale for 3/$5.  They also had Yoplait Go-Gurts for 2/$4.  I had a $.50 on two coupon for the Fruit Roll-Ups which would double to make each item $1.17 each and I had a $.35 coupon for the yogurt which would double and make the yogurt $1.30 each.  When I was at the self check-out I noticed that the coupons were not doubling.  I asked the employee that was working only to be informed that Meijer stopped doubling coupons back in August 2013.  As I said before, I haven't shopped at Meijer for a long time.  I asked her to cancel my order but she was kind enough to give me an in store $5 coupon which ended up being better then what I would have received if my coupons were doubled.  Needless to say, I will not be going to Meijer for any of my coupon needs in the future.