I'm still couponing! Not 'extreme'-ly of course, but I rarely make a purchase these days without using a coupon.
When I first started last year, I got all excited and bought a huge binder with baseball card divider holder things, I had a complicated Excel spreadsheet, the whole 9 yards. I had the binder that the major extreme couponers use. Why I felt I needed that is beyond me. My system broke down almost immediately (shocking). It took forever to update it, and most of the time my binder (and spreadsheet) were full of expired coupons and ones that were just loose and ripped because I just didn't have the time to keep up with that complicated system.
So then I went old school. I took a small notebook and wrote down all of my coupons (by category) and expiration dates. I then ditched my huge binder and found a small pouch (I had originally purchased it a long time ago to hold my iPad Mini, before I got a proper cover for it). I am pleased to say that the small pouch is still working. But the notebook is history. It was just too time consuming to flip through pages, compare it to the Target ad (I am still pretty much exclusively couponing at Target), cross off expired offers, etc.
So I did some research and downloaded an app for my phone called 'Coupon Keeper':
It. Is. AMAZING!!!
Here's how it works: you still clip coupons just like normal. Once they are clipped, you scan the barcode of the coupon with your smartphone. The app will then keep track of all of your coupons for you, alert you when some are about to expire, allow you to sort them by type (grocery, pets, etc.), by store (it recognizes my beloved Target coupons), etc. Once they expire, they drop off your list.
You can also search by product. For example, this week Target had Tide on sale paired with a gift card (buy any 3 certain Tide or Downey products, get a $10 Target gift card). So I typed 'Tide' and then 'Downey' into the search box and found coupons that I could use with this offer:
I then pulled them from my pouch and put them in my wallet to take to the store with me. Easy peesy! Once I pulled them out, I marked them as 'used' in the app, so they will fall off my list of 'active' coupons. The app will still track them though and let me know how much I'm saving:
I'm pretty sure this is the system that will stick. The pouch is small enough to fit in my purse, but most of the time I just keep it in my car tucked under the drivers seat. That way I always have my coupons with me and my purse isn't weighed down. I'm loving the app so far too.
By the way...if you are a regular Target shopper, it really does pay off to coupon there.
During my trip on Tuesday, my total bill came to $116 (groceries mostly, some pet food, etc.). After handing over my coupons AND scanning the barcode from the Target Cartwheel app (e-coupons), It brought my total down to $100. The Target Cartwheel app is amazing. Most of the offers on it are pretty low (5% off or 10% off), but every now and then an amazing deal will pop up. This time it was Special K cereal. 50% off!!!! And guess what? I had a coupon too. I got these two boxes of Special K for less than $1.50 each:
Thankfully, my husband is not picky about cereal and he has a bowl of it every morning for breakfast.
During this transaction for $100, I received two Target gift cards to use for my next purchase. One of them was for $10, which I got for buying three Tide and/or Downey products. The next one was for $5, which was for buying 3 packages of Slim Fast, which I happen to drink every day for breakfast:
When you receive Target gift card offers during a transaction, you can't use them towards that same transaction. So I couldn't have handed them over and brought my bill from $100 down to $85. However, you can do two transactions and use them on the next one.
So, for my next transaction, I just had one item:
I paid $5 for it, after my gift cards and Target Red Card (5% off).
See? It's like free money, people!! Especially if the items you must buy are items you would use anyways (like laundry detergent and breakfast shakes).
Couponing at just one store is NOT difficult or time consuming. I spend maybe one hour a week, and I save usually anywhere from $10 - $40 each time I go. Definitely worth it in my opinion!
(ps, we haven't watched 'Frozen' yet. Sadly, it is still sitting on our kitchen counter. Maybe this weekend?)
