Starting couponing

Alright so I hope you have had time to order your papers get your coupons and organize them to your desired method.  The two different methods are clipping and no clipping.  Clipping means you cut out all of your coupons when you receive them and then organize them in some way such as in binder filled with baseball card sheets.  The second is no clipping which is the method I now use and went over in my previous post.

The key to successful couponing is organization.  So it is key to find a method that works for you.  I am going to go over coupon lingo today.

Here are some of the common terms you will hear referring to couponing and what they mean...  I only shop at Albertsons or Walmart so I will be covering these stores.

The inserts that come in the Sunday paper will be refered to as these initials
SS-Smartsource
RP-Redplum
GM-General Mills or Vlassis
P&G- Procter and Gamble


Coupon Lingo
B1G1-buy one get one free
WYB2-When you buy 2
B2G1-Buy two get one
OOP-out of pocket
MIR- Mail in rebate
FAR-Free after rebate
OYNSO- On your next shopping order
Stack- refers to using 2 coupons for 1 product (at albies you can use 1 store and 1 manufacture coupon on a single product.  But you can't use 2 store or 2 manufacture)
YMMV- your mileage may vary


Some Lingo that stores use are as follows
Albies- Albertsons
Doublers AKA twice the value coupons-  At Albertsons the main store I shop at they send out coupons in their paper every once and a while making it possible to double any coupon up to 1.00 value.  Ex. 50cent coupon becomes 1.00, and $1 becomes $2.
Round up-  Albertsons runs a promotion once and a while where any coupon under .99cents is automatically rounded up to 1.00.  There is no limit on the number of coupons you can use and you don't need any extra coupons such as a twice the value for the coupons to be rounded up.
Catalina- These are a type of coupon that print out of the machines next to the register at Albertsons.  These machines register when you purchase certain items.

So there is the lingo you will need to know. Hopefully this helps.  I will do a post in a few about the double deals at Albertsons this week so check it out.

Craft fair...craft fair...craft fair!!!

Here is some of my latest items for the craft fairs I am going to be in.  Let me know which ones are your favorite please!  There will be more added as I make them.

 One side of the blocks says Happy thanksgiving and the other says Merry Christmas.

 2 sided blocks

 2 sided blocks

I really want to know which ones people like best so I can make more of them.  SO PLEASE comment and let me know thanks!!

Craft fair

I have always wanted to do a craft fair, but never knew what I would make.  This year I decided to take a risk and try doing one.  My sister and I are going to be vendors in the Rigby craft fair and we are so excited.  I posted a post a little while back called just feeling crafty.  I will be trying to sell some of those things in the craft fair.  However today I wanted to post my more recent stuff.  I am also in the process of some subway style art I will post pics when I am finished.  I decided on doing vinyl blocks, tiles, frames, and cards.  Here is a few and I will add more as I finish.  Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below, and if you have any ideas for me I would love to hear them.

Organizing coupons

So I wanted to wait a while before the next coupon post in hopes you would order your subscription to your paper and have the coupons to organize them.

There are really 2 ways that are great for organizing coupons.  They are clip and no clip.  I will first explain the clip.

Clipping coupons simply means that every week when you get your coupons you cut out every coupon and then put them into clear baseball sheets categorized by what they are.  The clear sheets I'm talking about are pictured below.

There are some benefits to doing it this way and there are also some negatives.  One positive aspect is you know exactly what coupons you have.  This helps when you go to the store and you find an item on sale and wonder if you have a coupon for it.  You can quickly turn to that section pull out the already cut coupon and you are good to go.  A huge negative to this is the aspect of time.  When I first started out couponing I would find myself spending hours and hours clipping coupons only to throw away a giant bag of unused coupons when they expired.  After having our second kid I decided I had to find another way because I did not have the time or the energy to continue this route.  If you have the time then by all means this is the way to go.

The second method of organizing coupons is the no clipping method.  My method now.  Each week when I get my Sunday papers I pull out all of the coupon inserts.  I order 5 Sunday papers so I have 5 of each insert.  I then take all of the same type of insert for ex. all the red plum inserts and layout each page together and then neatly stack it back into the booklet it came in.  This helps so that when I need to cut out a coupon, with one cut I cut out all 5 coupons instead of making 5 individual cuts.  I then go to my favorite website fabulesslyfrugal.com.  On this website they have a listing of all the coupon inserts each week and what coupons came in each.  I quickly print off the list and then tape it to the front of the corresponding coupon booklet.  And that is it.  My prep time each Sunday is maybe 30 minutes and I am set for that week.

I store each coupon booklet in a clear sheet like the ones below.

The benefit of organizing your coupons this way is it takes way less time!  A downside is that if you are at the store and you find an item you know you have a coupon for you have to quickly cut it out.  However you don't waste time cutting out coupons only to throw them out when you don't use them.  This is my recommended method.

If you are just starting to  coupon and haven't ordered your papers yet... there were doubles for Albertsons in this weeks paper.  For $10 I will give someone a one on one lesson with 5 sheets of doubler's and whatever coupons you need to get the great deals this week.  I will also set up your transactions for you.  I only have one available for either today or tomorrow.  The doubler's expire tomorrow night.  So comment quick if you want the lesson. 

My next coupon post will be on how to figure out deals.