Planning Ahead

Planning ahead is essential knowing what stores have what items can save tons of time and energy. This can be done in two ways. You can search the Internet for stores sale adds or just use the actual ad that comes with the Sunday paper.

I prefer to use the ads that way I can circle products that I am going to purchase. This also helps with price discrepancies at the checkout counter. Sundays are typically spent planning my purchases for the week. When the Sunday paper arrives the first thing I do is clip all of the coupons. I don’t clip things for products I don’t need or use. However, I do save these for friends or family members that may have a need for them. These are also useful in coupon-swaps.

Once all of my coupons are clipped I organize them into their prospective categories. I skim through each category to get rid of expired coupons at this time. The next step is to get out the ads.

I search the ads first for items that I need for the week things that I am going to buy regardless of whether I have a coupon or not. Then I search for things that I can stockpile. Stock piling I have learned is the most important part of saving money. It was something that I couldn’t wrap my mind around at first. However, once I got this down then the coupon experience became that much more rewarding.

Then once I have determined what I am going to get at each store and what coupons will be used I paper clip them to the ad. That way there is no confusion. The coupons and ad also serve as my grocery list. Planning meals around sale items becomes a breeze too.