So, I am not BAD at couponing, I am just not GOOD at couponing, like I want to be. My friend Denise, is like the Coupon Queen. She even taught a Coupon Class for us at my church, and I still am not where I want to be. I want to be racking up the free stuff...not so I can be hoarder because the Bible speaks against that (Don't hoard your goods; spread them around. Be a blessing to others. This could be your last night. Ecclesiates 11:2--The Message) but rather so that I can be a blessing and share my "findings" with others who need them even more than I do! I feel like my mother and I have a knack for finding good deals/freebies, but I really would like to kick it up a notch and be able to share those findings.
So I am starting my couponing again, more seriously, this time hopefully. I have tried many "systems" for coupons and have yet to find "my system", but still I press on. LOL! I have tried the little coupon envelope size holders, and they just stressed me out, I tried a recipe box with dividers and that didn't fit in my purse or diaper bag well, so it just gave me something else to carry which I didn't need, so that just stressed me out, I tried a big binder (and boy did I work hard on organzing it and it was a beauty!!), but again, it didn't fit in my purse or diaper bag and needed to rest on the baby seat part of the grocery cart...kind of hard to do when you have a baby in that seat!! So, here is my latest "try".
I labeled sandwich size zipper baggies with all the "categories", then put my coupons into the appropriate bags.
Then I put the baggies inside this little zipper pouch that I got from www.artscow.com. Artscow offers TONS of freebies or shipping only items. If you are on Facebook, be sure to "friend" them and you get all the latest offers. If you are not on Facebook, then go to their website and sign up on their mailing list and you will get the offers emailed to you. This was a Large Personalized Makeup bag, but I thought it would work great for holding all my coupon bags. I got 3 of these on Artscow for $8.99/free shipping...that was all 3 for $8.99 by the way! That was a steal and they make such great Christmas presents too.
Then this cute little bag fits right down into my purse/diaper bag, not taking up lots of bulky space and is easy to pull out at the grocery store and just pull out the "category" I am looking for! I can also put the coupons I am using right down inside of the bag in front of the baggies so they don't get lost all over the grocery cart (come on...you know what I am talking about!)
Ok, I will leave you with that for now...and part 2 will be giving you some pointers regarding couponing and some sources to get your coupons. I know a lot of you have heard this over and over and over...but if you are anything like me, it still hasn't sunk in good enough to come out of the store with $100 worth of groceries for only 25 cents!!
~~Yours Truly~~
The ziplocs are a great idea! I might need to adopt that. I currently have all my categories labeled with a mini post-it and paper clipped together (and then in bigger categories, like household, food, baby, etc). But that gets a little frustrating at times. I've never liked a big binder either!
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