Coupons

Hi again!!

I said I was going to write about the coupon binder I was working on.. Well, it was finished the other day.. Using baseball card holders, a zippered binder, dividers, and over 700 clipped coupons, I organized my coupons in a way that I would be able to easily search them whenever I went to the grocery store.

Now, it came out looking great! It was nice and organized just the way I wanted it, and it was just the way I pictured it. It was beautiful, and between all of my other daily parenting responsibilities, it took me hours (A large chunk of that was just clipping all of my coupons that weren't clipped yet..) and I was really proud of it.. But, that doesn't mean anything if it doesn't work.. So I knew I wouldn't be satisfied until I actually got to go shopping, so, I tried to go to Walgreens to see if I could get anything for an extremely low cost.. My daughter was with me, so I had to concentrate on her, and she was deciding not to behave properly on this particular day, and, regrettably, I told her that if she didn't listen, that we were going to leave and go right home (I had promised her a trip to the park afterward if she had behaved herself.). Well, needless to say, she did exactly what I was telling her not to (in this instance, it was standing in the shopping cart) so I turned the shopping cart around, and than we walked out of the store and back home..... That's OK though.. I have been looking through the CVS flier, and I have a feeling that I will face some MUCH better money saving situations there.

Today, however, I went to Harris Teeter to pick up some our groceries. Now, normally, I will spend a considerable amount of time going through the sales ad and my coupons comparing prices and deals.. On this particular day, I honestly didn't have the opportunity that I thought I would to do that. So, I blindly grabbed my binder, and went into the store with my daughter. Now, I still spent $118. BUT, I got a lot of meat, two large containers of Tidy Cats cat litter, and some other usually really expensive items. Without any planning, in a little bit of a hurry, and with my three year old in tow, I still managed to save over $45. In this one (though slightly disappointing, since I honestly thought I'd save more on my first trip... this is the importance of planning) I saved enough to justify the cost of the binder and its contents twice. I am pumped to do this with a little more planning next time!