My Coupon Notebook

"Wow! That is beautiful!"

As I stood in the isle of King Soopers (Krogers in other parts of the country), I heard a women beside me commenting on something in my grocery cart. No, it wasn't my worn out purse. Or, the faded sweater tossed over the edge.

Ahhh, it was my blue 'coupon notebook' nestled in the front part of the grocery cart and open to the 'bread' section. (Pillsbury rolls were on sale, and with my coupons I was about to get a half dozen free!)

The notebook is a WalMart back-to-school special. The 'pages' are for baseball cards holders from Target. The tabs were designed to fit my personal shopping needs in alphabetical order. Batteries-Breads-Cleaning Supplies-Juice-Laundry-Meats-Paper Products-Pasta-Pet-Rice-Toothpaste-Vegs-and so on.

The woman went on to tell me she had just started a coupon class at her church, and she was quite excited to start using coupons on a regular basis in order to save money.

As I gave her several of my homemade business cards listing my coupon blog (this one), and my email address, she promised to give one to the coupon teacher at her church. I'm looking forward to hearing from them.

While professional coupon shoppers are quite likely to be discovered in most every isle of your favorite store, each one has their individual method of storing, shopping, and organizing. The 'notebook" is just my personal preference.

My friend, Buffy, keeps her coupons sorted in boxes at home and only carries what she plan to use as she shops. Others cut out their coupons just before shopping. Some carry a few in their purse. I prefer to store all my coupons in my coupon note book and take it with me as I shop. You never know when you're going to find a close-out on something. Or, you find an unadvertised deal on laundry detergent that offers enough free Tide to last a year with coupons added to the special price. Palmalive dish soap is another frequent freebie.

Each week as new coupons are posted online or after the Sunday paper coupons come in, I search for my favorite products and cut out any coupons. I'm able to get extras at my work on Sunday, so this has been very helpful. (I do save the coupons that I don't cut out for my notebook. Sometimes I mail coupons to my kids and coupon-saving sister, Sandy.)

If you can locate a newspaper carrier in your neighborhood, stop and ask them if they have a source for the Smart Source and Red Plum coupon booklets. For a little tip each week, they might drop off extras at your house. I happen to know that hundreds of these booklets are TOSSED OUT by newspaper carriers after they insert them into their Sunday papers.

In the evenings while hubby and I watch a few of our favorite TV programs, I organize the coupons into my coupon notebook.

Each week, I search the local grocery store weekly deals (including Walgreens and Target), to see where I want to use my coupons this week. Be forewarned, if it's a really good deal, the item will be 'off the shelf" by the day after! That's how I'm positive that there are far more serious coupon shoppers than we are aware of!

In my case, my coupon notebook includes sections for things I regularly use in my home. We live in a small apartment where space is limited, so getting 12 gallons of "free' milk is not cost effective for me. Getting 12 rolls of free tissue paper and storing them in the garage is my idea of great coupon usage. I have secret stashes of cereal (Honey-nut Cheerios for 97-cents a box is the highest I will pay), pasta, tuna, ziploc bags, popcorn, hot chocolate, bath cleaners, shampoo, pet food, and more.

I hope this helps those who are interested in using coupons. Maybe you can pick and choose how you will use your coupons. I can promise that you will never pay for toothpaste, bath tissue, dish soap, laundry detergent, or Kleenex again.

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life and coupons,
~Linda

email me: bestnurse@usa.com

Coupon Hopping Once Again! October 18, 2010

We've been in Colorado (from Ohio) for going on three months now! How time flies! Today was the first day I actually took my big coupon book and went grocery shopping with a plan - and coupons!!!!

I was spoiled in Ohio because my newspaper carrier left extra coupons every Sunday. Here I have to buy the extra papers, and it's not something want to do. So, my coupons are only one or two at a time.

At Scoopers (called Kroger in Ohio), they have a 10/$10 sale this week. In order to make sure I got the minimum quantities, I put a smaller carrier in my cart and put those items in there. (You don't have to get 10 of each item, just a total of 10 of those that are in that sale.) That helped a lot for less confusion on how many of the 10/$10 I had in my cart, so I would get the free $5 at checkout AND get the reduced price for getting 10.

I tried to use my coupons also on those special cost items. I hear there is a much bigger and nicer "Kroger" close to where we live, so I'm going there next time.

At Target, I matched the store $1 coupon with a manufactures $1 coupon to get dark chocolate kisses for only 99-cents a bag. I like them frozen!

At Walgreens, I was very disappointed that they wouldn't take my $3 off Nieva body wash making it free. They said it was only for men's body wash. I could have gotten some for hubby for free, but he has a closet-full of body wash already! I did go ahead and get cans of black olives and jars of green olives for 99-cents each.

So, in the future I hope to give you more up-to-date coupon deals and free meals now that I'm getting back on track.

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life and coupons,
~Linda

Sunday, October 3, 2010

We should have three coupon booklets in our paper today. For my friend, Edith, please find in the Smart Source the nice PediaSure $2 coupon and the 50-cent Irish Spring off any one coupon.

There's 75-cents off Colgate that, if doubled, provides free toothpaste.

We also like the Brush's Grillin Beans for $1 off.
75-cent V8 coupons, and $1 Softsoap.

I may order extra Mentos' $1 off so I can send a little care package to my son in South Carolina for his math students.

This is just from the Smart Source alone. I haven't looked at the Red Plum or P&G as I got up late and have to leave for work in an hour or so.

Have fun today. Enjoy the fine autumn weather! I see on Facebook from Buffy that it looks like rain in Columbus.

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Extra Sunday Coupons Today 9-12-10

Here in The Denver Post I found four coupon booklets today! There are two Smart Source, one Red Plum, and one called, Better at Home. Might be worth it to pick up the paper today if you don't already get it.

I hope you'll click over to my Linda's Notebook blog to keep up with the 5 W's of life in Denver.

Your friend in life and coupons,
~Linda

Before You Call...

Before you call your newspaper to complain about no Red Plum, Smart Source or P&G this Sunday (September 5, 2010), please note there are none scheduled due to the Labor Day holiday...(And my birthday. lol)

I post this because I was reaching for the phone before it dawned on me that today is one of the few Sundays the paper does not carry my favorite coupons!

What a dork! Well, I'll take the time to organize the few I have collected since our move to Denver and try to match them with this week's sales. We pretty well lost all our "pantry" with the big move. Except for paper towels and toilet paper. What more does one need in life anyway?

Hope all are enjoying nice weather and taking advantage of some happy family time together. Or, sleeping in. Or, cleaning out the garage. Or, taking long walks. Or, catching up on housework. Or, washing the car. Or, going to a local festival. Or, a cool bike ride. Or, doing something special with the kids. Or, just hanging out and catching up.

Take Care on the Journey,
Your friend in life and coupons,
~Linda

New Blog for Great Deals

Sometimes I think I'm the lone writer/reader of this blog, so this is a link I want to save. It might be a Denver link, but it also has some great information for anyone else visiting my Good Deals and Free Meals world.

HERE or http://www.groceryshopforfree.com/

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda

Great Target/Coupon Website

Here in Denver, I finally started getting the Sunday newspaper but no Red Plum on either Sunday! Bummer. If anyone in the Denver area knows the deal on that, please let me know. Does the Red Plum get inserted on another day?

Here's a link for many Target deals: HERE Thanks to iheartsavingmoney.com

I'm still getting used to Target even though it's within walking distance to our home now. But, maybe something at that website will have a great deal for you.

I miss all of you!!!!!

Take Care on the Journey,
~Linda