.: How I Save

Here's how I coupon.

My system came from Southern Savers, so by no means did I discover this on my own.

I am busy.

With a self-employed husband, a p/t job, 2 teenagers, 1 daughter-in-law,a granddaughter and volunteer obligations I am busy- this works.

Although... I am never afraid to just go buy groceries at full price because we need food and I have no time to coupon, because trust me, it does take time.

First things first: The organization

Step one: Get a file folder/box, place it somewhere accessible

Step two: inside a hanging file folder I label folders with the names of the inserts from Sunday paper, these are my 5 folder labels:

- Red Plum

- Smart Source

- Publix Saver and other coupon books

- Extra Coupons- organized by aisle- after 6 years of the same 2 grocery stores I know this

- weekly ads for local grocery stores

Step three: Each Sunday- or Thursday for me- I get a Sunday paper and my local grocery store ads -- I then take out all the coupon inserts from the paper and lay them out

Next I label the inserts with the Sunday date they came out on

Then I file them in the proper folder, latest date toward the back

Step four: Store organization

How do I take all the coupons to the store with me?

I have a small binder that I got from a Financial Freedom class we took a few years back, I use this to hold my grocery money and the coupons I will use that week for shopping

Inside it looks like this- I keep my money in one little folder and my coupons in another
I like this system because the little folders/envelopes have nice flaps on them so I don't have to worry about the coupons falling out, plus it fits nicely in my purse, here's a picture with one of the flaps open:

I can also keep my other cash money spending in here-the system we learned at the financial class

Step 5: Time to Save

First thing I do is make my weekly grocery list, I like to do this by Monday morning so I can shop on Monday after work, but most often I run a day behind:

After You are Organized

How I make my list

this is crucial::: shopping with a list and sticking to it helps you stay on budget and save $$

#1:: I look at my local store flyers and see what's on sale,

compare that to my pantry

and then I decide which store I will shop at or if I'll "store hop" --

then looking at sale items I write out a weekly menu.

I try to take advantage of Winn-Dixie's BOGO meats to stock upon meat

Some weeks, when I need some motivation I post my weekly Menu on my kitchen blog and link that to Meal Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie

**SO WEEKLY MENU FIRST THEN GROCERY LIST

#2:: then I go to the Southern Savers website and make my list

I pull up the grocery store(s) I will shop at and begin to make my list and gather coupons. Her list will look something like this:

She lists the sale items and any coupons to go along with those items and where to find those coupons.

Sometimes it's a RP (Red Plum) or a SS (Super Saver)--- if so I go to my file folder, find the date of insert, find the coupon, cut it out and place it into my coupon folder in the small binder I spoke of above

If it's a printable one, I print it-- I have registered for a lot of coupons but have found that some of the places send me some decent meal ideas so it's worth the registering to me

#3:: After I have made my list and gathered all my coupons I go over my list and coupons double-checking the coupons in my envelope---

On my list after the item listed I have a code-- I write a "c" if I have a coupon, "BOGO" if the item is buy one get one free and I write "sc" if there is a store coupon available at the store.

LASTLY:

I shop

and I hopefully get a receipt that looks like this:

SOME SIDE NOTES:

I also use the Southern Savers buy list to know what's a good deal on meat for non BOGO weeks.

I DO NOT FLIP OUT when I can't print the coupon

when I have to register at a site for a coupon

when I am out of ink,

I just do the best I can.

Especially the weeks I can't coupon-- I don't beat myself up over it or feel like a less than grocery shopper, ok some days I feel that way but it's not worth it.

Since I love a good spreadsheet I was thrilled to see this savings spreadsheet available, check it out if you wanna track your savings.

So that's how I save on groceries.

I figure any money I save is like money I earn, I'll work 2 hours to save $60--- that's $30 an hour!!

How do you save your family money?