Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Admission

I know I coveted it. I begged for it. I blogged for it.

And I finally got it.

But I don't entirely like it. The Couponizer.

I love the money I save using coupons. It takes work, but as a stay-at-home-mom, I consider it part of my job to make the most of the one income we have. So, coupons. It's not for everyone, but I've grown to love the process. But not the disorganization that happened because I dove into the deep end. Total immersion into the coupon culture.

I've search all over YouTube, frugal blogs, coupon blogs, etc. for a coupon sorting system that would work for me. The Couponizer seemed to be the be all, end all, and I was eager to try it.

But here's why it sucks for me. I hate to cut coupons. The Couponizer needs you to cut all the coupons you file in it.

I use The Grocery Game to stockpile food deals and I like how it allows me to cut only the coupons I use. But I also need a way to quickly and easily sort through and keep track of all the other coupons I use at CVS and Walgreens.

I've decided to start my own system. When the Smart Source(SS), Red Plum(RP), and Procter & Gamble(PG) come in the Sunday paper, I'm entering all the coupons into an Access database. I'll be able to search it by publication date, source packet(SS,RP,PG), product type, expiration date, product name, quantity of coupons, etc. The time spent entering these once a week will be an hour at most.

Then all the coupon packets will get put into an accordion file(uncut) by source packet and then by packet date. When I need I coupon, I can search the database, pull the correct source packet, cut the coupon, return the source packet to the file, and go shop. No cutting a million little squares, no scissor blisters.

Never fear about The Couponizer being wasted though. All those random coupons that I get in the mail with samples, the blinkys from the grocery store aisles, and the ones I pull from magazines will get sorted in it. These loose coupons will also be entered into the database, but their "source" will list TC(The Couponizer).

It's taken some work, but I think I'm one my way to a system that's finally going to work for me. Yay!

3 comments:

Mandy said...

yep, I am one of those "its not for everyone"

I look through coupons but none of them seem to be stuff we buy or if it is I need to buy a bunch of them to save 30 cents.... but to be fair I havent ever actually tried to start using all of the resouces out there.

I do, however, use the Macy's coupons;)

HotMommy said...

I wouldn't use a coupon for 30 cents either (all right, I probably would).

When I use coupons, it's a method that involves buying items priced in a certain range, at certain stores, specific days, etc. so that I can, for example, pay 21 cents for a 4 pack of Cottonelle toilet paper and then stockpile 20 10 packs.

I'm the first to admit the it's a lot of work and a payback of only 30 cents wouldn't make it worth it to me.

I wish I'd had my Macy's coupon with me tonight. Macy's had a great sale on tops. INC Concepts and the like marked down to $6.99 to 9.99 from $30 to $40. It's satisfying to have shirts that aren't from Target or an outlet for the first time in a couple of years. Not counting the 2 shirts my mother and my MIL bought me because they we horrified that all my clothes are from Target.

Mandy said...

my clothes are mostly Target and Old Navy .... those are the places I go PLUS Target has cute clothes!!!!