Working on my Coupon Binder.....again!

Back in the day (my day) when I started collecting coupons I had a small box I kept them in.  Back then, coupons hardly ever expired...it was great because you could save them forever, well, almost.  But then, I got lots of coupons from my family (they saved them for me) and I had to graduate to a bigger box.  And that worked for a very long time for me.  I just pulled out which coupons I needed and off to the store I went.  We didn't buy anything unless I had a coupon and since I didn't take all my coupons with me I only bought what I coupons for.  I thought I did pretty good at it, but I don't know.  I'm not nearly as good as some of the 'queens' of today.  I try, I really do.  But.....

Then the years rolled by, the kids moved out and I stopped couponing.  Dh and I would just go out and eat..it was easier because it was just the two of us and I didn't have to spent hours in the kitchen preparing food.  But then a few years ago, when the ecomony fell, gas went up, well, I found my coupon box and decided it was time to get back doing this.  So I used my box for awhile and then I went online to see how couponers were saving their coupons and everyone was using a coupon binder.  Oh my goodness.  Whatever had to the index card boxes we used to keep things in?  LOL....okay, so I ordered me a biner online and started setting it up.  I thought it takes much more time filing my coupons then putting them in a box.  But, I got it all done and took it to the store a few times and I felt it was so bulky.  And truly, I was sorta embarrassed to carry this huge note book around with me. I don't know why.  Once I took it with me and my daughter shopping and my daughter was making fun of me and saying how embarrassed that looked.  Ok, I know she was teasing me, but still, it was weird. 

So, I went to Staples to see if I could find a smaller binder and I did find something that I really liked a lot.  I made it work; it as small and easy to carry around.  I could fit quite a few coupons in it, too.  But last night I was clipping coupons...online coupons, paper coupons and then I had too many to fit in my small binder.  Frustrated, I looked at that huge, green binder and I said to it, "well binder, it looks like we are partners again" and here I am working to transfer all my coupons to the big binder again.  I think I drive myself crazy!

You can see my small binder at the top of my big binder.  Now, I have to find a new used for it.  LOL 

I've been using coupons for just about everything.  As soon as I get my receipts together I'll post my savings.

Extreme Couponing

I'm sitting here watching extreme couponing.  I understand the concept behind it all and how cool to be able to get free stuff.  I wish I knew how to do that, but some of these people have 3 years worth of cereal sitting in their homes.  I don't know about their home, but if cereal sat around here opened or unopened for a long period of time it will  eventually end up stale.  So I ask, how do they keep their food from going bad?  Huh?  On the last show they has Chris Duff who does a lot of his couponing for the needy in his neighborhood.  Now, that's what I would want to do.  Can you imagine if extreme couponers could do that and keep the food banks from running out of food?  That's what I would want to do. 

I went to Target today.  Here's what I spent:

Arm and Hamer Laundry:  $8.50

Tostitos xxl:                        $2.50 ($1 coupon)

Utz chips:                             $3.14

Ocean Spray Juice (2@148) $2.96

MP Water:                          $2.99

Ball Park Franks                $7.58 (1)

Kelloggs Rice Krispies      $3.39 (.25)

Kelloggs Froot Loops         $2.50 (.25)

Wonder Bread                    $2.29

Bananas                              $1.20 ($1)

Sierra Mist                         $1.69 (Free)

MP Milk                             $2.99

Photo albums (3@8.00)      $24.00

This is pathetic.  I save $6.87.  When my kids were little they used to help me cut coupons.  In fact, Saturday was our day for clipping.  When the kids would seeme getting my scissor and coupons they asked if we were going to the store.  Hahah.  And I used to get that look at the register where people couldn't believe how much I saved in coupons.  But the thing back then is prices were so much cheaper and manufacturers would still put out coupons for .50 off.  So that was a great savings.  Sometimes I'd save 50% on my groceries.  I really need to sit down and rethink all this coupons stuff.  And, our coupon queen, the one pioneer of couponing was (and is) Susan Sumtar:

Here's here website:  http://www.refundlebundle.com/

This is who we followed for couponing.  She has youtube videos, too.

Anyway, I'm still not ready to leave toorrow.  Basically, we go the motor home cleaned, watered up and the refrigerator is on so it will be cold tomorrow.  We got needed supplies (at Target), I've packed some clothes, but still need to pack food, personal items, bed sheets....and then we have to stop by the post office and I have to get a medication refilled.  Even for a weekend trip, it time consuming getting ready! LOL I'm not a morning person, so I'll have to get up early to get last minute stuff done.  Whew!

That's it for tonight. 

Coupons

I have been clipping coupons for a long time.  Well, actually, I clipped all the time when the kids where little; I was even one of those couponers who, while reading a magazine in the doctor's office I would clip coupons out of those magazines.  I didn't always do that, but when I started seeing all these coupons in those magazines expire, I couldn't help myself!  Then, when the kids got older and weren't in the house much anymore, I stopped cooking and clipping and cleaning.  I went into depression.  After all, I'd been a mom for 30 years....it's like having a job and than all of a sudden you show up for your job and you realize you've been laid off.  I still struggle with 'what is my job' these days.  I feel as if I've been displaced. 

Back to couponing...when I first started couponing, I had a little box I'd file my coupons in.  Then the box got too small.  Then I moved up to another bigger box which I used up until a few years ago.  I was seeing on the internet that everybody started using coupon binders and so I was all excited about carrying all my coupons to the store and having everything I need right there in one place.  So I spent hours and hours filing all my coupons in those baseball holders and I used my binder a few times, but seriously, I don't like it!   It's too big and bulky carrying it around.  I don't like it.  Then I went into my drawer and pulled out my coupon wallet and put all my coupons in that.  I have a picture of it in one of the posts below.  I even got stopped by a woman in the store who asked me where I got all my coupons.  Well, I was so worried about my coupons falling out of that thing (who hasn't dropped all their coupons at least once?) and so I feel like this is not the way I want to go either. 

Then I saw this small coupon binder that someone made themselves and I thought maybe that wouldn't be so bad, however, I know all my coupons won't fit into.  I went to staples to see if I could find a binder of that size and they didn't have any that zipped up...so I had to get a smaller one.  Now I'm trying to thing how to manage my coupons in it.  Dh was with me when I was buying it and he asked me how I was gonna use it.  Hahaha..I had to tell him I didn't know.  He said when you plan to make something you should have some idea in your head about what you need to make it.  Ok, dh...but never every creative mind thinks like that! :)

Now this is my latest project...organizing my coupons again.  When I get it done I'll post a picture.

Day 22-Favorite Book; Coupons

I have read so many books in my lifetime that it's almost impossible to pick a favorite.  Although a couple do stand out.  For instance, when I was a teenager I was really into reading Ross MacDonald detective books.  I couldn't get enough of them.  His real name is Kenneth Millar and he wrote books under the name of John Ross MacDonald then Ross MacDonald.  The main character of his books were Lew Archer, the detective.  I think I read all the Lew Archer series and I was so disappointed when I couldn't find them anymore.  I did all my high school projects centered around Lew Archer and I still have those projects today.  I just can't seem to through them away!

I've recently read a couple of books by Lorena McCourtney.  She started a series of Ivy Malone books.  Ivy Malone was a senior citizen lady who just happened to get herself into the middle of murder cases.  Unfortunately, Lorena McCourtney had to discontinue the series due to publisher problems or something of that sort.  But she started another series with Andi McConnell who inherits a limousine from an uncle and she gets involved with murder cases, but not purpose. 

I like all kinds of books including true life; usually how someone over came a problem in their lives.  Christian books I read, too.

Well, today I had to do a little grocery shopping.  I had my huge 'wallet' of coupons with me.  While I was looking for a Lloyd's BBQ coupon I had a older woman (older than me) stop and ask me where I get all my coupons.  Wow!  I never had anybody ask me that before, so I felt like a super couponer!  Hehehe.  I told her in the Sunday paper and the Bowie Blade and Bowie Star on Wednesdays.  She told me her daughter and grandkids moved in with her and I finished her sentence and said they were eating you out of house and home, right?  She started laughing.  She said she was gonna get a small canned ham, but her grandchild could eat the whole thing in one sitting.  I told her maybe she could get her neighbors to save the inserts from the Sunday paper for her.  Lots of people don't use coupons and throw them away.  Now I hope that she'll be able to get some coupons going for herself.  I saved $13.75 today but that's including my store card and my coupons.  I penny saved is a penny earned--Benjamin Franklin.

I cooked a turkey yesterday so we are gonna have turkey, mashed potatoes and a veggie tonight for dinner.  Yum!

Ledos Free Pizza

The other day in the mail I received a customer appreciation coupon from Ledos Pizza.  It was a coupon for a free small cheese pizza!  It's a $5.49 value.  Cha-ching, again!  Tonight, I was feeling a hankering for pizza, so off we went to Ledos.  I will be starting a coupon savings jar..the money I save will be going into that jar for our vacation.  I want to watch the savings grow....8-). 

I was searching the internet the other night for a menu planner I could print out.  I found a couple I could use, but decided to make my own.  I know, it's in color and uses ink to print, but I thought it was kinda neat:


My Menu Planner ©

That's an avatar of me and my husband...hehehe.  I didn't want my menu planning be boring to I jived it.  Not only am going to try to plan the meals, I'm also trying to get a budget set up.  Somehow, the finances have got to get straighted out!  I have to be honest here, we have gotten lazy about the finances after our children got older.  I honestly believe that I got burnt out; there for awhile I just didn't care about anything.  Some days I'm still that way, but little by little I think I'm getting better about it.  It's much like depression for which I suffer.  Unless you have or had depression it's almost impossible to explain other to say that you feeling like a living dead person.  Or maybe it's a resemblence to a ghost now that I think about it.  You know how on haunted ghost shows the ghost hunters say the ghost hasn't left this world and still thinks they are living here, but in truth, they aren't.  Maybe that's how depression is.  It feels as if you are alive, but you cannot connect with anything around you.  You are totally disconnected, but it's not as if you don't know what's going on around you, you just don't feel it.  I know it's strange, but that's why depression hurts not only you, but all those around you.  Well, anyway, that's my plan. 


Losing weight-yes, I have been trying to lose some weight.  The last two years I have lost 12 lbs, but I've got 50 more to go.  That's another goal I really have to work at.  The other day I was on the Food Lion website where I found some nutrutional pages which I think might help me out.  Food Lion has also implemented a new program in their stores called the Guiding Stars.  I don't know how well it will work for me, but it's something to look into.

Christmas will be here in a week.  I am done shopping, almost.  Just a few more things and ta-da...I'll be done.  Oh, and I'll still have to get our Christmas breakfast and dinner foods.  Time to get out my coupons, again!