Coupon Class

I sucked it up and went to coupon class with Desirae. She was featured on TLC's Extreme Couponing. Some fun to know facts about her episode they filmed for 24 hours, 7 hours was in the store, 3 of that was spent in checkout. She will admit that she does not shop like that when she goes. She shops like most of us. I find that hard to believe but I went into the class with an open mind. I purposely sat out of line of sight and listened. So many people were overwhelmed with the information. She basically read from a handout.
A few of the keys items I took away were:

1. Organization. Whether it is a binder, accordion file or whatever works for you.
2. Lists. She says to make 2 lists. One of items you need with your coupons and one for freebies.
3. Know your coupon polices. When in doubt print it out.
4. Money saved is money saved regardless if you have a coupon or not.
5. Know how many coupons you are going to use when you check out. This way you can check your receipt and make sure you have that many taken off your receipt.

Desirae keeps 3 binders. One for food, one for non-food (paper and cleaning), and one for Target coupons. The binders she has for food and non food are the Mead 5 Star zipper binders. I've seen those as cheap as $10 at Wal-mart, her binder for Target is just a thin 1/2" to 1" binder. She uses baseball card holders for most of the coupons, she had a few in there that were longer so I'm not sure if they were photo holders or what. She has her binders divided by food type, not aisles. She commented that if you shop several stores then the aisle methods isn't always helpful since aisles vary by store.

Something I found interesting is the order in which she hands the cashier her coupons. I hadn't really thought about it. She hands the cashier her mfg q's first, then store coupons, and if it applies Register Rewards, CVS extracare bucks.

Make sure you read your coupons. Per purchase and per transaction do not mean the same thing. With P&G coupons you can't use more than 4 of the same coupon in the same transaction.

As a group we need to find recycling centers in Salisbury, China Grove and in between. Many coupons just tossed out and could be our profit. Also, check with your neighbors, if they aren't going to use their coupons see if you can have them. Please do not take the papers you see sitting in someones driveway without their permission, by law it is stealing.

The important thing is not to get bogged down if you don't save 90%, save what you can. Start small and work your way up. Remember most sale cycles are 6 weeks. Get what you need at a good price to last you 6 weeks.