1. Do you know that you can donate your expired coupon to families in the military bases? They can use expired coupons in their commissary.
2. Keep your shopping list short when you coupon. You only want to get the best of the best deals when you shop.
3. Make time to TRACK your family's favorite products. Every 3 months is fine or if you have the time...do it monthly. You can now establish a trend as to how that item fluctuates in prices and you can schedule when to use your coupons. Example: catsup, mustard, bbq items are on sale in summer. Baking items are on sale during holidays. Be conscious now of the trend of when your products are on sale.
4. Prepare for your shopping expedition. Don't be the person who has a handful of coupons never ending sorting and dropping them half of the time. Put them in envelopes labeled. Find what works for you. The goal is to be efficient and not be in the store for half a day. When I plan my shopping trip and I have more than 10 items, I put them in a 3-ring binder in trading card plastic sheets. I place the coupon in each pocket so I can open the binder on the shelf thingie in the card and I can see all my coupons. I also put my shopping list clipped on one side of the binder so I can cross off what is done.
5. On your shopping list, put how many items of a product should you purchase to maximize your coupon. I also put the total coupon value. I compute what my total will be. When paying and there is a discrepancy on your tab, you can easily trace.
6. If you coupon plan did not work - don't purchase the item. Normally, the cashier or a manager can resolve why it did not work or they can manually input the coupon and it will work. If it does not work, don't buy it. Plan to purchase on our next shopping. Remember, you are not shopping for now 'at the moment' so there is really nothing that you immediately need. You are working on your stock pile.
7. When picking a cashier, chose the shortest line. You will take longer than the rest in paying if you have several items. They say the younger cashier or a guy cashier is more open to processing the coupons --- in my experience, it does not really matter. Young, old, male, female -- they were all astonished when I do couponing and get excited about it. If you can shop not during rush hours or days will be best.
8. If an item is FREE or you made money from purchasing it - buy it and donate it to Goodwill, your church, to a shelter, someone needs these items. I get disposable diapers for adults and babies if they are free or some medication and donate it to charity.
9. FIFO - First In First Out rule. As you build your stock of goodies, put your recent purchase at the back or bottom so you use the ones you bought earlier on. You will not end up with expired items.
10. Draft a plan of your family's consumption of products. Ideal is one year, however, you can start with 3 months. Take into consideration your budget and the space where you will do your stockpile. I
11. Manage your inventory. This means knowing when to stop buying a certain item and when to purchase some. Monitor what your household use then you know what you need. Make a master list of items your family use and track your consumption. The more you understand your family usage and consumption, the better you can plan on your stockpile.
I will add on to this list as I remember other tips so please check from time to time.
Happy couponing and saving!
Love,
Ethel
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