You’ve got a pile of coupons. Now what?
April 6th, 2008
Continuing on our coupon discussion…so they can be helpful and they can add up to big bucks saved. But isn’t it a pain when you are at the store, you pull out your coupon, and drat! the darn thing expired last week. So much for savings.
So what can you do to avoid the expiration problem? Some folks buy coupon organizers that divide them by type (i.e. cereal, canned goods, etc.) so they can see their cornucopia of deals before them. And it works for them.
However, yours truly is too busy to be that organized–so I have found another way. So it’s not rocket science, but it saves some headaches and definitely more dough.
Try organizing by date rather than product type. If you get one of those plastic check sorters (a couple of dollars at Walmart or your local office supply store), they come with top tabs and month inserts. This way, at the beginning of each month, you can look and see what will expire and if you can use it, great. It is much, much easier to have a hazy idea of what you have coupons for rather than this plus when they will expire. And it keeps them in better order than jamming them in your coat pocket.
If you have a coupon that will expire at the beginning of a month, add it to the prior month’s section. Then you don’t have the situation where you open your “April” section and realize that half of them were up April 1st. Not helpful.
Keep your coupon “book” either in your purse or in your car. You don’t get to save any money if you leave them on the kitchen table. If your purse is big enough, this is definitely the best way to go. Then you can whip them out on a moment’s notice! Yes, I realize this is nerdy, but hey, we’re saving money here.
In other, non-book news, my little guy has sprung a tooth! Do you remember the first time you caught a glimpse of that white lump below the gumline? I get all mushy inside thinking about it. Then I am relieved that I am no longer breastfeeding, because he sure likes to chomp on everything in sight. Nicolas is now crawling along as well! It kills me because I will be working while he is playing and he crawls over to see me, with his big ‘ol gummy smile. And there is no price you can put on that.
Copyright 2008-2009 Kristin Delfau, author of Turbo-Mom's Guide to Saving Money Without Wasting Time a womens' personal finance book, and Aji Publishing.
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