Missing In Action

I have been missing in action for WAY too long.  Where have I been exactly? Well to me its similar to my early 20's when I was just a sponge and couldn't help but get my hands and brain on any kind of personal growth information.

Lately I've been consumed by coupons and fitness.  I've changed my views on coupons.  At one time I didn't feel that I had enough time to dedicate my efforts to a binder and was happy with an according style letter keeper like in this post. Less money in our pockets due to life, and the cost of EVERYTHING rising I have moved to a coupon binder.  I have a 3 ring binder and I've based my categories and carrier off of Jessica's system that you can find here. Jessica's site is Utah Deal Diva and her site ROCKS if you are trying to save a dollar and live in Utah.  Every week when new ad's come out I check her "Grocery Smarts" link on the right hand side.  There is instructions on how to navigate and its a great tool that I feel is one of the BEST that is out there right now for Utah. 

I've also been consumed by my personal fitness and trying to find a pace and routine that is best for me. I've been soaking up information on what different foods do to our bodies and where that I feel will always be overwhelming I'm trying to make my way through it as best as I can with the time that I have.

We recently took a road trip to Indianapolis, Indiana.  We even hauled the 4 year old girl child and 2 year old boy child with us and yes it was in the car.  Do you know how long it takes to get there.  My maps app on my phone says "24 hours with traffic".  Love the 'with traffic' part.  Traffic really? Where? Well if there is construction and you get a slow, rude, lame semi truck driver that feels like being a jerk then I can see being a bit delayed.  It was a fun time all in all.  Will post more on the trip another time. 

I feel like I'm getting back into my groove and getting a little bit in front of the 8 ball.  I've wanted to put this component of blogging back into my life for a while. Hope anyone that still checks this blog is having a nice beginning to their summer.   

Clip coupons

I try to save money by clipping coupons. I take the Sunday newspaper for this reason and this reason ALONE. Yep, you got it. I pick up the paper sort through the contents until I get to the coupons and then I put it with the recycle.  It pays for itself pretty quick.  Especially if you get just the Sunday subscription and not the whole week subscription.  Unless you really like to recycle or compost, which is another post for a later date.  Weekly I go to websites like www.coolsavings.com and www.coupons.com for other coupons than what come in the paper or sometimes in your mail.  Most grocery stores and places take these web coupons, there are a few that don't that I have run across in my neighborhoods like REAMS and Dan's. I have had intermittent success with Dan's but REAMS has never taken my web coupons. If you do a search for printable grocery coupons you are going to get a ton of websites. I have found that they are both basically these same coupons that the sites I mention above have and some make you sign into them. That means they want to solicit you in some way shape or form, even if its by email. I personally have enough email even with email I want and like let alone the junk and then add some more junk into it.. no thanks.  There is one other site that I almost forgot that I sometimes find some coupons on www.redplum.com has some every now and then that I use.

Some people claim to not have time for these or they are too hard to organize. The amount of time I spend on a weekly average to clip and organize is seriously 15 to 20 minutes total.Weekly savings varies but I would average that I at least save $2-$5 a week. I figure any savings is savings. Over time it adds up. If you save even just $2 a week in a years time you will have saved $104. Imagine if you saved more per week and you usually do. It ebbs and flows.

Organizing the coupons: for me the best thing that works is a cash/bill organizer that expands as needed. I put all the coupons in order of date. Each pocket has a month and within that month the coupons that will expire the soonest are in the very front. Every time I put new coupons in I put them into piles per month and then incorporate them into where they belong by date. You can get all fancy and sort them by type of product like the supermarkets but this requires monitoring multiple sections for the expiration dates and even though there have been a few times that they have not noticed the expiration date and they have worked for the most part the checker is on their toes and they will not accept the coupon beyond the expiration date. I do go through all my coupons every week before I do my shopping. It takes probably 3 whole minutes to pull out each month and see if there are any coupons that will aid in saving you money on your pending shopping trip.
The exceptions to the organizing rule.  Printed web coupons go to the very back of my organizer. They are all the same size and its easier than mixing them in with the slick paper that the others are printed on. Store coupons, the ones that are specific to that store and can only be used at that store I put in their own store section near the back with the printed ones. This way you can look at just that store and they all usually expire at the same time. Makes for easy clean up.

If you have any tips or tricks regarding coupons feel free to leave me a post. Would love to hear more ideas and what works for you.