- 1" Notebook
- Document Protectors
- Construction Paper
- Glue OR Tape
- Envelopes
I would suggest that you pick a certain day out of the week to cut your coupons & price matches. I chose Sunday because that's when the newspapers with coupons inside are sold. I do my grocery shopping on Sundays as well. You can pick up your newspaper from a local gas station.
The easiest thing to start out with is coupons. Go through each insert & cut out the coupons you may use. It's always better to cut them out & throw them away later if you don't use them versus never cutting them out to begin with. If it looks like something you may want/need, CUT IT. It won't hurt. After cutting your coupons, separate them by month. This is where your envelopes will come in handy. After you separate them by month, you can put them into their individual envelope. Easy huh? You can also find coupons online...
* Make sure to make a separate envelope for the coupons you will be using for your actual shopping trip. This will make it much easier for you & the cashier. All you will have to do is pull out the envelope, & hand him/her your coupons!
Next, you will move on to price matching. Only certain stores will honor price matches, so make sure you do your research. Wal-Mart price matches, so if you have one near you... Try them out! Price matching is a little more difficult, but I will try to make it as easy as possible for you.
When you get your newspaper, you will have a stack of advertisements in the middle. These will be the advertisements you will use for price matching. You may see stores like Dollar General, K-Mart, Ingles, Publix, ect. I get the best price matches for Publix! But I still look through every single ad provided. You never know what good stuff you will run into.
Start with one store's advertisement at a time - this will make it a lot easier for you.
Cut out anything you think you'll use now or in the future. I like to cut out different ads for the same product just so I can compare the savings. It never hurts to have more than one price match for the same thing. I also cut out different ads for similar products. Such as toilet paper, hair care products, ect. Sometimes your store may not have the product(s) you normally use in stock, & this will give you a chance to try something new AND save while doing it.
After you're done cutting out your price matches, separate them by similarity. Here's how my notebook is set up:
- Buy 1, Get 1 Free Items
- Beverages ( Kool-Aid, Tea, Gatorade, Ect. )
- Food ( No BOGO - Just regular price matching )
- Cleaning Products
- Personal/Health Care Products
* If I have BOGO items that are cleaning products or health care products, I will put them in that individual section. The only items I have in the actual Buy 1, Get 1 Free section is food.
After separating them, you will add them to your notebook. You can glue OR tape your price matches down on to your construction paper, then insert them in to your document protectors. I have two sheets (front/back) in each document protector.
Here's a sneak peak of my notebook:
Here's a little lesson on how to use both price matching & coupons on the same item.
Example: I have a price match on Gain Laundry Detergent. The price match is a 50 oz. bottle for $4.98. At Wal-Mart, they are normally $5.97. I will already be saving $0.99 on each one that I buy. I also have a coupon for $1.50 off of two bottles. If I combine my price match & coupon, I will get two bottles of laundry detergent ( 100 oz. ) for only $8.46. A regular 100 oz bottle of Gain at Wal-Mart is $10.97.
If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. I will add a FAQ section later on, so all answered questions will be posted.
