Dear Reader,
The following article was written by my friend of over 20 years. Treasure is the type of person who once she decides to pursue something, she works at it until she excels. At times in her life she has been an exceptional dancer, biker, bartender, photographer, framer and papercrafter. When she decided to learn about coupons and stockpiling, she quickly reduced her family's grocery bill from $1200-$1500 per month to under $300 per month! She has developed an effective system and you should see her stockpile! She has been able to bless her family, friends and local charities with her effort. Treasure teaches classes in New England, and on her website www.CouponShoppingWithTreasure.com. It is no surprise to me The Learning Chanel has chosen her to appear on their new series “Extreme Couponing" which premieres April 9th. We are not yet sure which episode she will appear in, but stay tuned! Treasure has agreed to share a series of articles on how she makes this magic happen. Following is first in the series.
The First in a Series Of Steps To Get You Started With Coupons
When I first started using coupons, I had no idea how to do it properly. The best thing to do is find out at what level you want to coupon. Once you have that down, you can begin your saving and stockpiling to its fullest potential. I consider myself an extreme cutter/stockpiler. So when I post deals and talk about saving percentages keep in mind that I have 20 inserts per week that I am working with. Twenty is my number. It’s the number of inserts that works for me and the kind of stockpiling/giving/teaching that I do.
Find Your Number, But Don't Be Afraid To Change It.
Your number will be unique to you, your family and your needs. The general rule of thumb is that one insert per family member will start you off just right. Your stockpile will grow, and you will begin to see some savings. I started right out with 10-20 per week. I like to jump into things full force. You will have to pick the number that:
· Works for you and your needs
· You can afford
· Suits your level of couponing desire
· Doesn't make you feel like couponing is a job or a task
Once you decide on what number works for you, work with it for a while. If you think your savings and stockpile are not growing as fast as you would like them to grow, increase your number. Or conversely, if you started with a higher number and you feel like you are not saving money because you are continually running to the store to grab some deals and your pantry is overflowing...now may be the time to decrease your number.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you have decided your number is 2. Two Sunday coupon inserts is what you will want to have each week. One of the stores you shop at has Ziploc bags on sale this week for $1.25 each. That in itself is a great price, but you have a $1.00 off coupon from the manufacturer, which will make the Ziploc bags just .25 cents each! WOW--now that is a great price. You have your 2 insert coupons and you go to the store and buy 2 boxes for a total of .50 cents. Less than you would have paid for one box with no coupon..so you have already saved and started your stockpile. You have 2 boxes of Ziploc bags, when normally you would only have one.
Using the same example above, let’s just change your number to 10. Ten Sunday coupon inserts is what you will want to have. For the same sale, you would have purchased 10 boxes of Ziploc bags for .25 cents each--for a total of $2.50...the same price you would have paid for one box if they were not on sale and you did not use any coupons. Now you have 10 boxes in your stockpile and won’t have to buy more for at least 3 months (depending on how fast you use them). Since you bought them at a rock bottom price, you saved on future purchases as well. And that my friend, is how your stockpile will grow! Look for future posts in this series on getting you started with coupons.
