Good Idea #30: Real Simple Couponing

As I've mentioned, husband and I are saving up to buy a house in the very near future.  One of the ways we're saving is by taking some time out to clip coupons for our everyday shopping.  If you use coupons, however, you may be able to sympathize with how frustrating I find it.  How do you walk through the grocery store, push the cart, juggle all those little scraps of paper, keep track of your shopping list and have any idea whether you're actually getting a good deal on something all at the same time.  Here are a couple of tips that work for me:

The first is a little on the OCD side, but it is really helpful for me.  You know when stores put things on terrible sales just to trick you into buying them?  Or they raise the price then put the item on sale for the same price it was last week?  Or when you buy a certain brand just because you have a coupon for it and it turns out another brand would still have been cheaper?  I have a really bad memory for numbers and I can never remember what I paid for tomatoes last time I bought them so I keep track of the prices I pay for the items I buy on a regular basis.  After each time I go shopping I come home and record how much I spent on cereal, soup, vegetables, pasta sauce, etc in a simple excel spreadsheet.  I also record where I bought it, what brand it was, whether it was on sale and whether I used a coupon.  I take this list with me when I go shopping and if I'm wondering if that sale on bagels is really any good I can look back at what I've spent on them in the past.  Maybe I will realize that $.10 off really isn't all that special or that bagels are that price at another store even when they're not on sale and I'll wait until another week to buy them.  Or I might realize that this is the best price I've ever found bagels for so I might buy several bags and put them in the freezer to save for the future.  Taking a few extra minutes to do this each time I go shopping has definitely saved us a good handful of change and relieves a lot of shopping anxiety for me.

Speaking of shopping anxiety, how are you supposed to keep track of all those coupons?  And even if you know what coupons you have, how do you juggle them with your shopping list and the calculator you're using to check the unit price of everything you buy (OCD, I know)?  Then you put your coupons down in the cart and they slip right through the slots and end up all over the grocery store floor.  Sometimes I think I will pay the money I'm saving with coupons just to not have to deal with this mess.  Then I found this little item:

This coupon wallet (I have the green one) from Real Simple is a brilliant little lifesaver.  It is cute and well-made and small enough to keep in your purse or in the glove box in the car.  It has file pockets for your coupons with changeable labels and it has pockets for your lists or store loyalty cards and even a place for your pen.  Best of all, the strap folds back and it will attach right to your cart - so no more juggling!  One tip:  don't try to attach it to the handle of the shopping cart like the picture on the tag indicates, it doesn't work.  However, it attaches beautifully to the child seat.  Brilliant!

Happy Shopping!