Organic & Natural Living Thursdays!

I wanted to make a quick post on "Organizing Your Organic Coupons." Since I have the Binder method for all my other coupons (here), I really wanted to sort out Organic Coupons as well. Erika recently bought the purple poly expander at Fred Meyers for $2.69 and I like how small & portable it is so I went & got one for myself too! Now I just need to use her label maker, ha!

Sorting my coupons

Labeling My Coupons & Cash for my $250

Grocery/Household Monthly Budget

I hope this inspires you to Organize your Organic Coupons from your other coupons. Sometimes it's nice to keep them separate & to start a cash envelope system for your Grocery/Household budget. I would love to hear how you organize your coupons. Please leave a link if you have a post.

Christina

Are You A Newbie?

New to the whole coupon thing? Here are some informative links on how to get started and a few pictures for inspiration (click on them to enlarge, some are kinda small).

• Go here and here for an overview of how to get started


• Go here, here and here for coupon organization tips


• Go here to get some stockpile inspiration

Also, there are many misconceptions about coupons, including that they are only good on junk food. Not true! Stick around and you'll see that there are a lot of great deals and coupons available on organic, natural and healthy foods.

Don't understand the abbreviations? Check out the left column for the translation, and as always, leave a comment or email us if you are confused or have any questions. We know it's overwhelming at first trying to get the system down and learn the lingo!

Erika & Christina

New to using Coupons?

Here are a few tips to help beginners and those who are interested on how to use coupons.

Tip#1

Start buying the Sunday paper and look for coupon inserts. To save more money get coupon inserts from family or friends or go to the nearest coffee shop and look through the newspaper recycle. It's amazing how many people throw coupons away. Remember Coupons are free money from the manufacturer to help us save more on our groceries and household items.

Coupon Inserts:

Redplum (RP)

SmartSource (SS)

Proctor & Gamble (PG)

G everyday saver (GM General Mills)

Parade

Tip#2

If you live in Oregon you can get the Oregonian Food/Day delivered to you for Free every Tuesday. This has quite a few weekly ads i.e. Albertsons and Safeway in them and about once a month Safeway will release a $10/$50 coupon.

Tip#3

Clip the coupons you know you will use and file them in a binder or an according file. There are so many ways to organize your coupons. You can see an old post on my Coupon Binder here.

With the coupons I don't use I keep them in a basket in chronological date, so I can quickly access them when I need them.

Tip#4

Use Internet coupons in addition to coupons from the Sunday paper.

Here are a few websites:

Coupons.com

SmartSource.com

Pillsbury.com Sign up and get access to print Internet coupons

EatBetterAmerica.com Sign up and get access to print Internet coupons

Organic Valley

Safeway.com

Mambo Sprouts

Tip#5

Load eCoupons onto your club card. eCoupons are Internet coupons that you can add to your Rewards/Club card. When you purchase these items they will come off your receipt.

ecoupons: you will need to register and add your club card to get these savings.

Shortcuts

Cellfire

Safeway

I hope these tips are helpful to you and you are able to get started on saving money on your grocery and household items.

Remember to get the grocery or drugstore ad's first.

Look at the on sale items and match a coupon with the item to get it at the rock bottom price.

Make a Grocery and or Menu Plan list and stick to it and keep a budget.

Christina

My "New" Coupon Binder

Finally, I splurged and went to Wag's for a New Coupon Binder!! Thanks to Erika's binder for the inspiration. Also, you can see her post here for more details. I do have to say that this was not a cheap purchase. However, it pays off in the end because you save so much on groceries by using coupons & being organized.

You can get this Five Star Mead at Walgreens for $14.99.

These photo inserts are at Office Max. I bought three Photo page inserts (8-1/2 x 11) for $3.79 each. You get 2-4x6 Landscape pockets, & there is 10 in one packet. So, 20 photo inserts to put your coupons in. Also, I got a baseball card photo page insert with 9 pockets on one page of 10. I wouldn't recommend getting it because the pockets are so small.

The Five Mead comes with a five pocket file according to the left & a 3-ring binder.

There is a zip pocket for misc & a pocket for your scissors.

Here is the according file I take with me when I go grocery shopping. You can usually get these at Wag's for $1.99, or super cheap on clearance for $.25, just check the clearance isle!

And just in case you were wondering what the Walgreens Coloring Book IVC (Instant value coupons) looked like, well here it is. I believe these coupons expire in March '09. The Walgreens Coloring book is $.99, and may be available at your local store. Keep these coupons and use them on your purchases. You don't have to cut them out because they are the same as the IVC's in the ESC booklet.

And here is my old filing system. I used photo albums for my coupons and manila folders for dated coupon inserts. I'm definitely not sad to see these go. I don't know exactly how I am going to file my dated coupon inserts yet, but will keep you posted.

Here is the total cost of the binder:

Mead Binder: $14.99-$10 RR at Walgreens

Photo inserts: 3 at $3.79 & 1 at $3.49 at Office Max

Total $29.85

OOP: $19.85

Christina

Money Saving Tips for the Coupon Shopper

Here are some Money Saving Tips for you part-time/full-time SAHM's & working mom's!
Using coupons are a huge part of my life when it comes to saving money. I have a husband who is in school full-time getting his Master's Degree. I work 3 days a week and stay home with my 20 month old. I know how important it is to save money where you can.
Here are a few tips that may be helpful in living more frugal in today's economy.


1. Watch the weekly & Sunday ads.
2. Match up coupons to the sale item.
3. Write a "list" and stick to it. That way you know what your OOP will be when you pay for your groceries.
4. Stick with a monthly budget if you can. Currently, I do the cash envelope method, about $250 a month on groceries & household items.
5. Stockpile when items are on sale at rockbottom prices.
6. Hold unto coupons with "High Dollar Values".

Example: Electrasol $2.50 mfr coupon
Walgreens had them on sale last week for: $3.49 each

$3.49
-$2.50 mfr
-$1.50 ESC Rebate
=Profit $.51 (even though you pay $.99 OOP!)

7. Watch for store promo’s like Albertsons Spend $30, Get $15 back!
Most of the time this is before coupons, so you make money on these promo’s.

Example: Buy 3 Pampers Jumbo pack for $30

$30
-(3) $1 mfr coupon
-(3) $1 DBL (if available)
=$24 OOP & you get $15 back + $5 towards another baby purchase.
So really it’s $4 for 3 Jumbo packs.

8. Buy meat in the Clearance section at that the meat market. Call your local store to see when the meat/chicken shipment comes in. The previous meat from that week will be put in the Clearance Section & you will save between 20-50% off the price (usually, there is a sticker on the meat that is taken off & scanned by the cashier).

9. Try to shop once a week or once a month depending on what works best for you. I choose to shop on my days off, either Thursday or Friday. If my husband is home (when my baby is napping), then I will shop for about 2 hours and try to hit my favorite stores, Albertsons, Safeway, and Walgreens. That way I get to know the cashiers and enjoy my shopping experience without being in a hurry.

10. Make couponing fun. Watch blogs for weekly deals and work with friends to write up list & scenarios for the best grocery saving trips.

Christina

Abbreviation List

Hi Everyone,

here is a list that I thought would be helpful to our fellow bloggers & newbies. We typically will use abbreviations in our deals that we post. You can also find this list on the left-hand side of our blog.

**Please leave a comment with any feedback or if you have something that would be helpful to others that we can add.**

Coupon Lingo:
Mfr: Manufacturer Coupon
ONYO: On Your Next Offer
OOP: Out of Pocket (how much money actually paid for purchase)
BOGO or B1G1F: Buy One Get One FREE
CAT/Catalina: Coupon printed from Grocery Register onyo
MIR: Mail in Rebate
WYB: When You Buy
Peelie/Blinkie: Peelable coupon located on packages or Blinkie from small machine located in the grocery isles
IP: Internet Printable
YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary (depending on the store policies)
HTH: Hope That Helps
GDA: Good Deal Alert
DND: Do Not Double (sometimes this in on mfr's or IP's) and the coupon can not be doubled

Walgreens Lingo:
RR: Register Reward - Walgreen's "money" onyo
ESC: Easy Saver Catalog (Booklet) at Walgreens
IVC: Instant Value Coupon at Walgreens, inside ESC booklet
FAR: Free After Rebate ( these are items at Walgreens that will be FAR when you buy them. Once you submit these rebates online you will get the price of the item back for Free!)

Sunday Coupon Inserts:
RP: Red Plum-Coupon insert from Sunday paper (RP is formerly known as Valassis)
SS: SmartSource-Coupon insert from Sunday paper
P&G: Proctor & Gamble
GM: General Mills
Parade: sometimes has coupons available

Safeway:
SFWY/SW: Safeway
DBL: Double Store Coupon inside the Safeway ad or Thriftway ad. The coupon can be doubled up $.50 on mfr up to 4 coupons

Albertsons or Albies

Rite Aid:
SCR: Single Check Rebate (from Rite Aid) $$ back!


Christina

Stockpile Inspiration

I remember seeing pictures of some one's stockpile for the first time and being so motivated by it. So I thought I'd share some of mine! Keep in mind that I have been doing this for one year now.

This is in our garage. Yes, I am constantly made fun of for my Windex stash!
Top shelf: pasta, canned beans & tomatoes
Bottom shelf: applesauce, lipton onion soup mixes, chicken stock, pickles, canned soup

This is in an unfinished part of our basement. A couple months into using coupons I talked my husband into building me shelves so that I could store it all in an organized way.

I store canned apple cider, juice, cereal, pasta, pasta sauce, condiments and boxed items like brownie mixes on these shelves.

Since it is a basement and I've had problems with mice in the past, I store chips and cookies in big plastic bins. Both of these bins were completely full in the summer.

You can see that we haven't had many sales since then on these kind of products!

Cookie bin.

I store the drinks on the floor since I ran out of room on the shelves.

The diaper stash!

These shelves hold all the household items. Below are some closer pictures of these shelves.

Hair products.

Tooth paste, tooth brushes & feminine products.

Random medications.

Cleaning supplies.

I never imagined that having a stockpile like this would be so useful and help me save so much money. Here are just a few ways I have been able to save money with it.

1. In September I had my first garage sale ever, and the majority of what we sold was from my stockpile. I ended up making $545 in a day and a half. I was pretty pleased since it was the end of September, and really past garage sale season.

2. I also use my stockpile for gifts. All of my families stocking stuffers came out of here this year. I also use it for bridal gifts. I will buy a nice basket and fill it with useful things like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, glade air fresheners, soaps, etc.

3. I don't have to run to the store so often because I have many staple items already.

Erika

Coupon Binder Set-Up

I have had a few questions on what categories and sub-categories I have in my coupon binder. I thought I was going to just add it to the coupon binder entry, but decided it would be easier to just make it it's own post. This will be long, so just skip over this if you don't need it!

Condiments (already stated the sub-categories in the other post)

Canned/Dry
Canned Soup
Canned Veggies
Canned Beans
Canned/Jar Fruit
Rice
Pasta
Canned Meats
Boxed/Other

Snacks
Chips/Crackers/Popcorn
Cookies/Candy
Granola Bars/Fruit Snacks
Cake & Brownie Mixes

Drinks
Hot Beverages
Juices
Pop

Breakfast/Lunch/Baking
Cereal
Oatmeal/Hot Cereal
Pancake Mixes
Jams/Honey/Syrup
Peanut Butter
Oils/Non-Stick Spray
Sugar/Flour
Other

Fridge
Yogurt & Milk
Butter/Cream/Sour Cream
Cheese/Eggs
Meats
Dips/Veggies
Other

Frozen
Meats
Veggies & Fruit
Desserts
Other

Household (also broken down in other post below)

I hope this helps. If you have pets, you would probably want to add a category or sub-category for their coupons somewhere too. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Erika

Coupon Organization

Continuing a series I started a couple days ago for those of you just getting started with coupons, here is how I organize my coupons. Everyone seems to have their own method, but this is what has worked for me. (If the pictures are too small to see detail, click on them to enlarge.)

Here's my coupon binder. There is an outside pocket where I keep scissors, loose coupons I haven't filed yet, pens, etc.

Here's the first page as you open the binder. I use baseball type plastic sheets, and as you will see below, I use both the two pocket and three pocket style. I think it just depended on what I was able to find at the time. I have pockets for the top four stores that I shop at as well as one for dining out coupons and rebates.

Next I have each category divided with tabs and labeled.

Inside each tab I have sub categories for my coupons. For example, my first tab is Condiments. The sub categories in Condiments are:

General Condiments

Dressings

Sauces

Spices

Salsa

Pickles & Relishes

Here's another picture of my 3 pocket style for all of you who are visual learners like me.

This is in the Household category. The sub categories for the Household tab are:

Diapers & Wipes

Oral Hygiene

Make-Up

Shaving

Hair Products

Feminine

General Meds

Vitamins

Pain Meds

Cold Meds

Laundry

Kleenex/Paper Towels/Toilet Paper

Deodorizers

Other Cleaners

Kitchen Cleaners

Bath Cleaners

Dishwasher Soap

Plastic Products

Batteries

Deodorant & Misc.

Lotion & Soap

Other Household Items

This is how I organize my coupons when I clip them on Saturday's. I normally buy two sets of the paper. I put both pages of coupons together so that I only have to clip each set once. Then I organize each coupon in a stack corresponding to the sub categories I have made in my binder.

The whole process doesn't take much time once you take the time to set up an organized system for yourself :) Watch for more bargain hunting inspiration in the next couple days through pictures of our stockpiles!

Erika

For Those Of You Just Getting Started

I'm sure there are many people out there who have made New Year's goals to work on saving money this year. For all of you out there who are new to couponing, I thought I'd give some pointers on how to get started.

1. Get multiple Sunday papers each week. The rule of thumb for stocking up is 1 paper per family member. Get creative about this, ask your neighbors or co-workers to save their coupon inserts for you if they don't use them, ask your parents for theirs (what I do!), swipe them from your local coffee shop on Sunday morning, etc.

2. If you are in the Portland area, make sure you are getting the Food Day delivered to your house on Tuesday. This is free, and contains the new Safeway and Albertsons ads for the week as well as special Safeway coupons. For example, the first week of each month Safeway releases $10 off $50 purchase coupons on the back of the Food Day page. Without that paper, you would miss out on getting those coupons.


3. When you notice (or it's pointed out here) that something is on a really great sale, stock up! Buy more than you need right now so that you don't have to buy it later when it is not on sale. I'll give you an example, over the summer Nature Valley granola bars went on sale quite frequently. I had 12 boxes and figured I wouldn't need anymore for a while. Well, it's been about 6 months since we have seen a really great sale on them, and I've been out for months! I really wish I had bought more as our family loves them for quick snacks on the run. Knowing how much to stock up on at a time will be a trial by error kind of process. Once you have been watching sales and using coupons for about a year, you will have more of a feel for the sales cycles.

4. Get organized! All the coupons can quickly become overwhelming unless you have an organizing system that works for you. I use a coupon binder with baseball type plastic sheets with slots. Each of the slots are labeled and filed by category.

Now that I have been using coupons for about a year, there are a few things I never pay money for (or if I do, it's only pennies):

Toothpaste (adult, not kids)
Shampoo/Conditioner/Hair products
Regular style tooth brushes
Air fresheners
Pasta
Cereal
Cold & Flu meds

Watch for more tips and inspiration this week on bargain hunting and saving money!

Erika