Coupon Organizer

     After searching online for methods of organizing coupons (google it, there are lots), I went to the Dollar Tree and figured out my own system from what they had available. It is working for me so far. Here are some pictures. (Having trouble with pics right now, will post them later)
      I am using a weekly planner (academic, so it goes through 2010) to write down weekly specials at local stores. Then I paperclip store coupons to the pages. I also write down any money related tasks for the week and coupons or specials that will expire. I use the days to menu plan and write out my grocery/shopping lists. This is working for me so far. The bonus is that after I’ve been using it for a while, I will be able to track produce price trends for next year.
      I was able to get adorable mini file folders for my coupon box and I labeled them all. There are a lot of lists online for categories to sort coupons into. I found that a lot of them didn’t apply to me, so I made my own based on what I buy/use. I’ve included a list in case it will be helpful for you. I’d love to hear from others as to how you organize your coups.
     I made a separate mini organizer for restaurant coupons. This way I can take that with us or into a restaurant without bringing my whole big filing box. I organized these into 5 sections (that’s how many slots the plastic organizer has): Fast Food, America, Desserts/Beverages, Mexican/Asian and Italian/Pizza. In retrospect, I should have done a fine dining slot, but then again we don’t “fine dine” that much around here.
     I got a small notebook with sections to make a price book. I am just getting started on that. My plan (after reading suggestions online) is to visit some of the stores that have the lowest prices and record their prices (breaking the price down into weight units). Then I will record lowest sale prices I have seen at other stores. I will add to this as I go along. Eventually, I would love to have a PDA with all of this information at my fingertips in spreadsheet form. Maybe my blog should be called The Frugal Geek.
     Dollar Tree had these great soft sided lunch box with a zipper top that is the perfect size to hold ALLof my coupon organizing equipment. I can even fit my entertainment book in the box when I need to. I added a calculator, small pair of scissors, pen and paper clips for a finished organizer. I made it about a week ago and have been using it daily since. I know I will have to keep up with it or I might lose track of deals, but overall I think it’s going to work great for me.

Categories in the Coupon Box

Note: I put coupons in each file by expiration date, those expiring soon in the front. As I plan my weekly shopping, I look in the file for that item, ie pasta, to see if I have a coupon for it.
Front Section
• Gift Certificates
• Affinity/Loyalty/Membership Cards (ones that I use often are on my key chain or purse)
• Rebates
• Receipts
Grocery Section
• Baking
• Beverages
• Breads/Grains
• Canned/Jarred Goods
• Cereal
• Condiments/Spices
• Dairy
• Desserts
• Frozen Foods
• Meat/Poultry/Fish
• Nutrition Bars/Powder
• Pasta/Pasta Sauces
• Prepared Foods
• Produce
• Snacks
Non-Grocery Section
• Auto/Tools
• Batteries
• Beauty
• Books/Gifts
• Cleaning Supplies
• Clothing/Shoes/Accessories
• Décor/Home
• Entertainment/Recreation
• Feminine Hygiene
• Household Goods
• Outdoor
• Paper Products
• Party Supplies
• Personal Hygiene/Bathroom
• Photo
• Prescriptions/Medical
• Professional Services
• Technology
• Travel
• Vitamins/Health/Fitness

Day 9 - Week 1 Complete

     I haven't been blogging for a few days since my eyes have really been hurting when I'm on the computer too much. The diet overall has been going very well, although I have to admit that $$$Dad is doing much better than me. He hasn't spent ANY money, except for gas in over a week. He needed new jeans but dug around in his wallet and found a Costco cash card to pay for those. He is the ALL STAR in the diet at our house. I have spent money as needed on groceries, gas, etc, but have been carefully shopping to spend as little as possible, just not as careful as him.
     However (big confession) I did stop at the Goodwill yesterday (first mistake). I was looking for something specific and got sidetracked by an awesome bag/purse. It's a backpack purse, which I really can use since I like to walk alot of places but hate carrying a purse. However I didn't technically NEED it. I caved and spent $6 on it. So now, I have to find a place to cut or make the $6 so I won't feel guilty. I did not, however buy the amazing coffee table they had for $150. I was sorely tempted as it was just the type I've been looking for. Of course it would be at Goodwill during the diet to test me like that.
     In other news, Small Change started school today. They feed him breakfast and lunch for free (part of the program he's in) so that should save on groceries a bit. I am inspired by all of you fellow dieters and your posts. Let's make this a game and try everywhere to get deals. It never hurts to ask!!!

Day 3

Day 3 has begun, well actually 4 for me since I started early, of the $$$ Diet. So far this week, I have spent $23. $21.45 on gas and the $1.55 on groceries. That's pretty amazing for me. I am truly starting to get how much of a habit spending money is. I spend on stuff I totally don't need. I think there is a little "rush" that comes with spending that I miss already, though. I did read a study a while back that said that if you can trick yourself into feeling like you're spending money when putting it into savings, then you will still get a spending rush. I am going to make some charts today to track our progress in saving at home. That should help! I'll post pics when I get it done.

Day 2

     Yesterday went really well. I posted that Jake and I went to the bookstore, read for a couple of hours and didn't spend any money. While menu planning, I realized that I have alot of food here. I think for the first couple weeks I am going to try to use up alot of food I have and only buy what is necessary. That way I am using things before they get freezer burned or expire. Often I forget what I have and buy more. I'm also guilty of having to throw out alot of food because of poor planning.
     I am finding that I'm experiencing a strainge emotional phenomenon, though. It happened when I started losing weight too. I think it's the fear of expectation. With weight, I was afraid that if I lost weight but couldn't maintain the loss then I would feel and appear like a failure. With money, it's kind of the same fear, I think. If we cut back and save, then I will be "aware" of the waste and will have to clip coupons and quit spending frivolously forever, right?
     As I was losing weight, I just recognized the fear and didn't allow it to change my behavior. I told myself that failure wasn't an option and as I dealt with the emotional reasons I overate, the urges diminished. I don't fear gaining the weight back anymore. I recognize that I will always need to make good food and exercise choices, but it doesn't seem so overwhelming anymore.
     I think I will have to apply that same practice to saving money. Just take it step by step and not allow the fear of expectation to alter the course. Changes always seem overwhelming at first, but I'm sure as I practice living frugally it will become easier.
     All of this leads me to the larger question. What is it about human nature that leads us to crave excess in pretty much every area of life?

FREE Stuff

    One of the 4 steps in our $$$ Diet is exploring creative ways to bring in money. For the next few days, I am focusing on FREE stuff and FREE money. I did some “googling” last night and spend a couple hours online signing up for free stuff. I will let you all know how it goes when the “stuff” starts pouring in. Since my birthday will fall during the Diet, I am planning ahead and signed up for a bunch of restaurants that offer free birthday treats or even full meals. More on that in November. I also signed up for free samples of everything from cereal to tampons. Below are some links to some great lists of free stuff.
    I have a few tips:
    First, do it at a time when you can sit at the computer for a while (watching TV or fighting insomnia works well), it takes a while to fill in all the forms.
    Second, have a “spam” email account you use for online stuff. You don’t want your regular email account flooded with junk. I use a yahoo email, but there are lots of them out there for free. I go a bit further in this and have a “spam” name I use. OK, I’m outing myself a bit, but sort of as a joke years ago, I started writing my undercover name, Gwendolyna Massatoni on drawings at the fair. I wanted to see how much junk mail I would get. Well, about the time Gwen started getting credit card offers I got worried. No wonder identity theft is so rampant. Since then, I always use that name when signing up for freebies online. I hope the restaurants won’t check ID on my birthday. I did let our mail carrier know so they won’t send my free stuff back (God forbid!) I also use a fake phone number if I have to put one in so we won’t get telemarketing calls. A few places, require you to set up an account on their website. For ease of remembering, I use what my husband the computer guru calls a “naming convention.” I use the same user name and have a standard password I add the company name to: ie chickenpoxredrobin or freestuffkashi333.
    Finally, be careful on these list sites. Some of them have viruses or are purely fronts for information gathering. Don’t download or accept or open anything. Most of the good lists link you to a company site where you ask for samples directly from the company.
    Over the next few days, I will be posting other creative avenues I find to get free stuff or money. Please post anything that has worked for you!
Great Birthday Freebies List
List of free stuff/samples
Another list

Day 1.2

    Apparently unable to read a calendar, I “started” the $$$ Diet yesterday, one day early. I’ll call it a practice day. I will happily report that the practice day went well. I made a menu for the week, clipped some coupons and went to the store to get ONLY the items I had coupons for, double coupons no less! I bought a bagful of groceries and spent (drumroll here) $1.55. Yup, no lie, $1.55. I used double coupons from Albertsons. They have been putting 3 coupon doublers in every flyer, the weekly mailer and the Sunday paper. You can get more by picking up more flyers. They double a manufacturer’s coupon up to $1.00 SCORE! Then I had some $5 off coupons from a previous receipt on a previous purchase. I realized they were expired, but guess what, the register accepted them and the cashier said it was fine. I have found about 50% of the time expired coupons work, so don’t toss them, especially rebate type coupons.

    On a sad note, I learned that Albertson’s no longer accepts competitor coupons like they used to. I am not sure all of the checkers know this, as I used some just weeks ago (apparently the policy changed months ago), but it is the official policy now. Bummer, when a good thing comes to an end!

Day 1 - The Plan

The $$$ Diet has begun. So far so good. We will reach our savings goal by:

1. Avoiding unnecessary or unplanned spending entirely for 3 months
2. Shopping frugally and spending as little as possible on the things we do need to buy or do.
3. Cutting back on regular monthly expenses (ie: utilities, insurance) any way possible.
4. Exploring creative avenues to bring in more money.

Today, I will write a menu for the week based on food we already have and what is on sale this week at the grocery stores near my house. Albertsons has double coupons again, so I will look for things I can stock up for the next 3 months. I’m also going to clean and organize my house (the never ending project). I’ll try to find some things I can sell on craigslist or ebay while I’m at it. At the very least, I can donate items to Value Village and get a 10% off coupon.

The Family Meeting

Thursday night we gathered for the family meeting. For anyone who doesn’t know us, our family currently consists of my husband (whom we will call $Dad) and our 14 year old son (hereby referred to as Small Change). We have three adult daughters and a three year old grandson, who all live on their own.
To start off, I just want to say how cool it is that my husband and son are totally on board with the plan. My husband is pretty frugal (except when his fingers do the ordering online; more on that in future blogs). Our son likes to spend money, but tends not to be a kid who begs or demands lots of new or name brand things. So I am blessed to have the support of my family as we embark on the adventure.
We accomplished quite a bit during the meeting. First, we went over our current spending. I had printed out the report from Quicken showing our total and monthly average spending in each category we track. The amount of money we have been spending on food, both in groceries and eating out borders on obscene to me. We were all pretty shocked to see the numbers. Because my husband and I are both physically active and compete in some sporting events, our fitness category was surprisingly high as well. The category “household” serves as a catch all for lots of stuff that doesn’t really have a home (toilet paper, pillows, makeup, mysterious things $Dad orders online, etc). This category is seriously bloated and needs to shape up quickly!

We are already pretty frugal in a lot of ways. We share one paid-off car ($Dad has a motorcycle too). We don’t have cable television, we use coupons (sporadically), and shop almost exclusively at thrift and discount stores for clothing, shoes, etc. It’s embarrassing though to admit how much we could cut out of the “fat” spending categories, so we’ll target those intensely.

After looking at the numbers, we agreed on how much we will try to cut from each category. I won’t post numbers because that’s a bit personal (and quite frankly I’m ashamed of some of our waste). I will post percentages saved and a total saved at the end, though. Overall, we are attempting to cut our monthly expenses by at least 30% with our new sleek budget. We did try to think ahead over the next three months to plan expenses. Things like birthdays, tools, auto services, etc were included in our plan.

Next, we determined what we will do with the money we save. This is where the meeting got fun. We decided that we are in agreement on a trip to Southern California, hopefully in early December. $Dad is trying to qualify to run the Boston Marathon next spring. He was ready to go, but an injury stopped him from qualifying in June. He is still recovering and if he heals on schedule, he plans to run a marathon in Sacramento, CA on Dec. 6th. Then we’ll drive down toward the Big Mouse and spend a week having fun in the sun. Neither $Dad or Small Change have been to Disneyland, so I’m excited for their first trip to the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Hopefully, we will be able to save more than the money we need for the trip. That money will go into our savings account to pay for the trip to Boston and for some other things we’ll need to spend money on in 2010.

10% of the money we save beyond our normal spending will be given to charity. We decided to use the money to buy animals for families in the Developing World through World Vision. They have an awesome online catalogue that shows how many chickens, goats, cows or ?? your donation will purchase. Small Change wants to buy at least two goats and a pen full of chickens. If your family is doing the $Diet with us and would like to pool money for this, that would be awesome!

We also agreed to one last splurge Sunday night. We went out to dinner at Red Robin and enjoyed every bite of our last dinner out for three months.

This blog has run a bit long. If you are following the diet along with us, I highly recommend the family meeting to get everyone on the same page. Please post and let us all know how it goes!

Countdown to the Diet

Only 5 days to go until our family starts our $$ Diet. There are some things we are doing to get ready. I thought I would share these with you all and maybe you can add comments about what you are doing to get ready if you are starting the diet with us.
1. Analyze current spending. We keep track of all of our spending in Quicken, which downloads transactions from our bank. This system has worked really well for us. I know others use different methods and I'd welcome comments sharing what you use and recommend. If you don't currently track spending, this will be a VITAL first step. You won't know how much you save unless you track your current spending. To analyze our spending, I will print a report of our average spending by category for the past year. I like to back at least 12 months to give myself an accurate view of things that might come up in the next few months and how to save for upcoming expenses.
2. Family Meeting. We are planning the meeting for tomorrow night. We are helping some friends get ready for a wedding so we'll have to keep it short (the boys will appreciate this). At the meeting we will all go over the expense reports and see which areas we think could be cut. We'll set a family goal and decide on our incentives if we reach it. We will also choose a charity to give 10% of our savings. Maybe more than one charity. Won't know until the meeting.
3. Since the diet starts on Monday, we will probably go out to eat Sunday night for a last fling with unnecessary spending before the crack down begins. This meal will probably involve many tears for me, as I truly hate cooking so much that the thought of cooking almost every meal for 3 months makes me question this whole idea (even though it was mine). I'll need lots of support from my friends who like to cook.

So that's our plan for the weekend leading up to the diet. What will your family be doing to get ready?

How It Works!

Here is how our family is doing the experiment. Feel free to change whatever works for you.

From September 1 - November 30, 2009, we will live as frugally as possible. We will analyze every aspect of our current spending to see what we can cut, at least temporarily. I will chronicle the adventure here on the blog and in the Facebook Group, Dollar Diet. I'll share our ups and downs, tips we learn, what we save and how we're all feeling about it as we go.

We have a family goal to reach as we slash our spending. We will increase our savings and save for a trip to Disneyland. I'll post a blog after our family meeting in the next few days, sharing more specific goals.

We will give 10% of what we save over our normal spending to a charitable cause. Our family will determine what organization(s) we will give to at our meeting. I'll post the details in a few days.

I would love to have others join in the experiment and share tips and strategies as we all go along.

Happy SAVING!!

-$ Diva