My Grocery Game (Part 1)
October 23, 2006
As promised in my previous posts about using coupons and rebates for grocery-type shopping, here’s my routine.
Before I get to it, let me say that I don’t consider my routine to be the “best” routine or the secret sauce that will save you the most money.
The fact is, I don’t save the most money—there are many people who spend much, much less than I do. I do what makes sense for my life…and that changes constantly depending on my financial situation, my needs, my time, and my desire to devote energy to this part of my life vs. others. I am always aspiring to save more time and save more money. Is that possible? If you have the answer, let me know! 
I’m going to start with coupon management. Part 2 will be about finding deals.
Managing Coupons
Each Sunday, I get the Oregonian newspaper delivered to my home. I find the glossy coupon inserts from SmartSource and Valassis. Sometimes P&G will also have a coupon insert, I grab that too. I quickly skim each insert for coupons that I want to use that week (usually, I’ve already thought about buying something and, lo and behold, there is a coupon for it) and I clip those out. The rest of the insert I leave intact. I write the date on the front of each insert.
I have a filing cabinet with 12 folders, one for each month. I store the inserts in the appropriate month’s folder. In other words, I keep a year’s worth of inserts in my filing cabinet. The current month is at the front of the drawer. On the first Sunday of a new month, I go to the back of the drawer to find that month’s folder, recycle last year’s inserts, file the new inserts, and move the folder to the front of the drawer.
If you want to start a system like this and you have the resources, my advice is to acquire and label all 12 folders at once—instead of having to think about, find and label a new folder each month. Once you have all 12 folders, you shouldn’t need to get any more. You’ll just cycle through the same folders each year. Instead of a filing cabinet, you can store your folders in one of those handy plastic bins that are so in vogue right now, a cardboard box, or whatever your imagination might conjure. The goal is to be able to find a specific insert for a specific date. And you can always upgrade your system later. 
No matter what my schedule or other commitments, I make it a priority to collect, date, and store these inserts. This may mean saving old papers until I can find time to go through them. If I don’t collect the inserts, I regret it—my luck is that I’ll end up needing that one week’s inserts that I didn’t collect.
The downside of this system is that I don’t have the coupons with me at all times. If I were to find a great deal while shopping at a store, I couldn’t just find and use a coupon on the spot like I could if I used a different system (such as clipping all coupons and organizing them in a binder/coupon organizer by brand name or type of product). The upside is that I don’t need to clip all coupons, organize them and carry them around with me. I prefer to travel light, even if it costs me.
Typically, I don’t buy extra newspapers to get more inserts. I usually have just one set of inserts per week, and try to find more coupons online as needed. I’m torn at the moment about whether I should be more active about getting extra inserts.
Next time, I’ll talk about my routine for finding deals…and show you why I store coupons by date.
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