Coupons keeping it all together

Using coupons is helping our family stretch the budget during this rough financial patch that we are all going through at this time. One of the most frugal, money-saving things that I can do is utilize as many of the coupons that are at my disposal as possible for the products that we use.

In order for me to utilize these coupons to the best of my ability I had to come up with a way to organize them so that I would be able to use as many as possible. The more I use the more I am able to save.

The first thing that I did was to organize the coupons into simple categories.

• Dairy

• Canned

• Frozen

• Baking

• Cereal/Crackers

• Boxed Meals/Sides

• Seasoning

• Snacks

• Cleaning

• Paper Products

• Beauty

The second thing I did was decide on if I wanted to put them into a binder or index box with dividers. I chose the binder, that way it fit nicely on my office shelf and was also easy for me to carry in the cart.

I used binder 5 tab dividers to divide all of the sections with. In each section I placed zipper pocket and baseball card holders to hold all the coupons in.

I like the zipper bags the best because it is easier to place the coupons inside. The draw back is that you can not see your coupons at a glance. So I have both in each section of my binder.

How to Make a Zip Pocket Holder for Binder

I cut down a gallon zip lock bag from the bottom end so that it will fit in the binder, next I cut a sheet of card stock so that it will slide into the zip lock bag leaving a little hanging out the end that you cut. Once that is done I use clear packing tape and tape the cut end closed. After the bag has been reinforced with the packing tape I punch holes in the zip bag with a three hole punch.

Using the coupons at the Grocery Story or other Stores

When I make out our shopping list for each store, I put the coupons I’ll be using in each store envelope. I then write my list for that store on the outside of each envelop and place a circled C next to the items that has a coupon. This way I make sure that I am getting the right item while at the store and it also insure that I will use all of them at check out.

 

Here is another cute coupon organizer from Glowgirl.

Glowgirl

Coupon Organizer

Trimming Your Monthly Budget

• Turn off some of those cable boxes through out the house. Each boxes cost you $4.95 a month. (We saved $14.89 a month)


• Look at your phone bill. Turn off some of those features like call waiting, phone messaging and caller ID and you can save up to $10.00 a month. (We saved $8.95 a month)

• Cut back on magazine purchases to just one and start trading monthly magazines with friends. This will help you save about $4.00 an issue. (We saved $8.97 a month)

• No more bottled water, instead use a water filter pitcher. Saving around $5.00 a case. (We saved $20.00 a month)

• Go for a walk or a run with a friend or family member instead of paying that monthly gym payment. (Savings of $25.00 a month.) If you want the change up your work out go to the library and check out a workout DVD.

Once you have done all the trimming on your budget add up the monthly savings and take those saving and place them toward a credit card debt. Start with the lowest balance first and work your way up.

I created $77.81 saving on my budget by cutting the things from above. I then took those savings and put it toward one of my credit cards that had a $218.00 balance on it and I was making a payment of $25.00 a month on it and not getting anywhere fast. Once I combined my savings of $77.81 to the $25.00 I was able to make a monthly payment of $103.00 a month. That let me pay off this debt in less than three months. Now I am taking that monthly savings and placing it toward another credit card debt of just under $4,000.00 dollars. I was paying $120.00 a month and know I will be able to make a payment of $223.00. This will take me 22 months to pay off that credit card debt. My goal is going to be 18 months; I will find something else to cut so that I can pay it off faster.

If you want to know how long it will take you to pay off your credit card debt log on to http://www.walletpop.com/calculators