Amy Bozza
Am I a Coupon Princess or a Coupon Queen? Hmmm.this is a good question that varies depending on the events that are occurring in my life. I think that for the most part, I am a Coupon Queen who occasionally demotes herself to Princess status when I get distracted by other things in my life, such as moving, having a baby, going back to work, etc. However, I am ALWAYS a member of the Coupon Royal Family!
I think that one of the Coupon Queen tricks that has saved me the most money over the years is devoting some space in my house to a stockpile. Because I know that I have a bit of stockpile space available at home to put items, I am never afraid to buy more than I need right now. I take advantage of sales and combine them with coupons frequently so that I can keep my stockpile stocked. I've been known to go to ShopRite twice a day, every day for a week in order to get as many free or close to free items as I can when a sale combined with my coupons yields a deal this great. My downstairs freezer is stocked full with Aunt Jemima frozen waffles. I actually had to stop buying them because I ran out of freezer space for them. Every single box was free. I recently donated 20 jars of pasta sauce to the Interfaith Food Pantry in my town and still had plenty for my family for quite a few months. I also recently sent 25 boxes of Curad band-aids to a clinic in Africa with a woman from my church who was traveling there for a visit. I still had enough to cover all of the boo-boo's that show up on my active daughters little knees after a trip to the park. All of the band-aids? Free! I have enough free toothpaste and toothbrushes to make a dentist blush, and we could probably wash our hair three times a day every day for a year with all of the free shampoo and conditioner we have stockpiled! We will be moving into our new house at the end of August, and one of my favorite features of the new house is all of the shelving in the basement that is just waiting to be filled with my stockpile!
My best "trick" is to be organized. Coupons laying all over your house aren't going to do you any good, and coupons stuffed randomly in an envelope are not going to be useful to you either, because you most likely will not take the time to thumb through the entire pile to find the ones you need.
If you make it a part of your routine, couponing and sale-matching need not take you an inordinate amount of time. My ShopRite circular arrives on Thursday afternoons, and so on Thursday evenings, I comb the circular for sales and go through my well-organized coupon box that I bought from Michelle. Using the circulars and my coupons, I add to my generic grocery list (milk, bread, apples, etc.) all of the sale items I will be buying with my coupons the following week. Then I go online and find the coupon preview for the next week and match up sale items with the coupons I know I will be clipping on Sunday morning. I also add those items to my list.
When the paper arrives on Sunday morning, I clip all the coupons, set aside the ones I'll be using that afternoon at the store, organize the ones in my coupon box that I'll be using another time, and put the rest in an envelope that I weigh on my postal scale and then go online to post that I have a coupon potluck that I'd like to trade. All of my couponing tasks are done by 10 a.m. Sunday morning (and yes, I have a 3 year old and a 5 month old).
The only extra time I need to devote is if I have bought items that will be free after rebate, and then I fill out the paperwork, cut out the upcs, and get it all in an envelope as soon as my groceries are put away. Again, if you don't do it right away, you may forget and then whatever you bought turns out to be not such a great deal after all!
So, to sum it up, create a stockpile so you never miss out on great deals because you don't need the items right away and be organized. Following these tricks will help bring out the Coupon Royalty in anyone!
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Sep. 11, 2009 By:
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