Crash Course #4 On the Home Stretch...

Hello again!

We finally made it! We're on to the last installment of Attila's Crash Course on Sticking it to the Man.

Click here for Part One, Two and Three.

How do you save money on groceries between promotions and on fresh stuff?

The trick is really simply about planning ahead and having a good idea what/how much stuff that you use on a weekly basis. And then think larger.

How many gallons of milk do you go through each week? Loaves of bread? Salad?

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned that stores do know what coupons are being offered, and in most cases, there will be a sale of that item some time during the life of the coupon. That will give you time to get together multiple coupons of things you use most often.

There really aren't that many coupons for things like fresh meat or fresh fruit and veggies. Sometimes you'll find them in your Wednesday newspaper or sales circular. In our part of the country, we get coupons for things like Foster Farms or Tyson Chicken from time to time.

So I go with store brands and the sales. This is also where belonging to a club that offers bulk goods or places like SuperWalmart might come in handy.

A gallon of store-brand milk runs 3.99 here. My guys drink about a gallon and a half to two gallons a week (it's 1% so it's all good! LOL).

About once a month, our store has a 2 for $5.00 sale on milk. The "sell by" date is usually around 10 days ahead (and products are generally good for 7 days after that).

So I buy 4 gallons.

Sales on fruits and vegetables rotate pretty frequently, depending on the season. If stored properly in your refrigerator, they can actually last for a few weeks. One exception is pre-bagged salads. They turn into slime pretty quickly. Another exception is bananas.

If there are items that you use regularly, like mayo or salad dressing, why wait until it's gone to buy one more bottle which may or may not be on sale at the time? If there's a good sale and you've got coupons, stock up. Unopened they will last for months in your pantry.

The same goes for blocks of cheese or wrapped American singles. Unopened, their expiration date is months ahead. Don't be afraid to stock up in advance. Unfortunately, the same doesn't really apply to shredded cheese. I've had some go moldy on me before ever opening them.

If you find a really great meat sale, think ahead. Once in awhile, our store will offer a 10 for $10 sale on bulk 1 lb rolls of ground pork, turkey, breakfast sausage, Italian sausage and hamburger. When this happens, I buy as much as my budget and space allow.

Does your family eat turkey at times other than Thanksgiving or Christmas? Usually around these holidays our store offers turkeys for around $6.99 with a 20 dollar purchase. Limit one per visit. I always go back and get another. I do this both at Christmas and Thanksgiving. It's also a good time to stock up on pantry purchases of Stove Top or dry mashed potatoes because this is when the great coupons and sales are. They last for months.

Right before and after St. Paddy's day, there are usually really great deals on corned beef. If I can get them for 79 cents a pound, I'll buy 3 or 4 of them to eat throughout the year.

Fresh meat/seafood sales also rotate frequently. One week they may have chicken on sale. If you were feeling like eating a steak, hopefully you've already got some in your freezer from when they were 50% off! If it's a great sale, buy as much chicken as you can fit in your budget.

By buying only on the rotating sale schedule, we've got a freezer full of a variety of meat and seafood at 50% or more off.

Be sure and rewrap the tray-packed items in foil and label/date them. Too many times I've pulled out a roast that has been freezer-burned because somehow a hole got poked in the wrapper. :-(

This week, our store is having a big sale on eggplant. This doesn't happen in the winter very often. The guys love eggplant parmigiana, so I'm going to make 2. One to eat, and one to freeze.

And all I need to buy is the eggplant. I've already got the sauce, the Italian sausage, the Shake 'n' Bake and the cheese.

Between promotions, I usually shop on Monday or Tuesday before the new sales week on Wednesday.

Why?

Because sometimes the store is out of stuff. Yes, that's right. They're out.

Then I can get a rain check.

When I get the rain check/s and the clerk asks me how many I want, I always say "10". I might not buy 10, but it's nice to know I can if need be. Rain checks are usually good for 2 weeks to a month.

Why do I want one?

In the terms of fresh meat items---unless you are there bright and early the day of a great sale or right after they restock, by the time you get there, everything will be pretty well picked over. I just don't have time to do that. If you can get these items in the next week, you'll be able to get the size/cuts you want.

It will also give you time to get additional coupons together for the other rain-checked items.

Other Stuff

When the guys were little, I usually shopped at Walmart or thrift stores for clothes. They were growing so fast, and my budget was tight.

Alas, as they got older, they got pickier and more brand-conscious.

And yes, I admit, Hubby and I like nice things too.

But you can't buy a BMW on a Pinto budget, unless you want to overload your credit.

So some years ago, I tried to figure out how to get "stuff" for almost wholesale, or at least for an incredibly fabulous price.

Hubby and I have a very large extended family. Not only do we have our own children to buy yearly things/gifts for, but siblings, nieces and nephews, parents, etc.

It really puts a hit on the wallet.

I still shop at places like Walmart and Target for socks and underwear. It's hard to beat their prices. Unfortunately, I have to drive down into the city to do that, and I don't always have the time.

A couple of the great bargains I've found online in the past few years include:

Brand new Gap Khakis and Jeans with the tags on for $7.50 a pop (plus shipping). Got some for my sons, hubby and brothers.

6 brand new Eddie Bauer sleeping bags for 15 bucks a holler to give to all the men in my life for Christmas.

Buying all of our friends and family George Foreman grills for 11 bucks each.

Calphalon Saute pans for $7.99.

Anybody can do it. All you need is a little organization and the willingness to Christmas/birthday shop all year round (an added benefit for me is no more rushing around at the last minute during the holidays which are stressful enough)!

Start with your trusty notebook. Who do you have to buy for during the next year? Holidays? Birthdays? Anniversaries? Baby gifts?

What are their sizes? If you're buying for kids, it's usually best to go up a size or two because they grow so fast. Likes and dislikes?

Find an online coupon site. My favorite is Clevermoms, but there are others out there.

These sites have comprehensive lists of companies that are running coupon promotions. They provide you with a coupon code for things like "20% off" or "$25.00 off a purchase of $100.00", etc. Copy the code and use it at check-out.

If you don't see a coupon code for a favorite store listed on one of the sites, just google the store you're interested in, with "coupon code" or "promotional code" or even just "code" and see what pops up.

Here's how it works.

I got a coupon code for the Gap for an offer of $25.00 off a purchase of $100.00. Then I went to their sales page.

At that time, they were listing Flat Front and Pleated Khakis at a clearance of $9.99. They had several pairs of jeans at a clearance of $9.99 as well. Regular price was around $39-49 bucks.

Armed with my list of everyone's sizes (sons, hubby, brothers), I bought 10 pairs of jeans and khakis, plus a pair of boxers that were on sale for 3.50 to push it over 100.00. And I had a 25.00 coupon.

So everybody got 2 pairs of really nice jeans and/or khakis for their birthday, and I spent less than 20 bucks on each person. They felt special and my wallet wasn't screaming.

I have a list of favorite stores that I go to every couple of weeks to check out their pages. You never know what fabulous find is going to hit the clearance aisle or when, so you have to check regularly. They include:

Macy's
Gap
Eddie Bauer
Bargain Outfitters
Pacific Sunwear (for all those skater clothes---LOL)
Smart Bargains
Coldwater Creek

If I see anything interesting, I'll look for coupons.

It really takes very little time if you have your preferred stores already saved in your favorite places.

A few months ago, Hubby's nephew became the proud new daddy of the family's first great-grandchild.

I had a 20% off coupon for Macy's and went to their babies clearance page.

Found a gorgeous 3-piece Ralph Lauren suit that was originally $79.00.

Paid $13.00 for it.

If I can do it, anybody can do it! Get saving!

P.S. If you've got kids and plan for college in their future, I highly recommend checking out UPromise. If you shop through their link, you can get 1-10% back of what you spend in addition to all of the other savings for a college account.

Thanks to everyone who sent in their money-saving tips!

Quinn sent in a link for Freecycle. Check it out!

The Blair Bitch sent in the advice for finding free coupons on the internet and gave us the link to Cool Savings, Coupon Surfer and www.upon.com .

Jodi emails companies and tells them what she likes or dislikes about their products. They send her coupons!

She also sent links to a couple of interesting sites---The Grocery Game and CNN Money/Grocery Bills. They're a great read!

Many thanks to all of you for stopping by and checking out the crash course. Special thanks to Mr. Fab for getting the ball rolling.

Talk atcha later!

Crash Course Part 3: Putting it to Work

Welcome Back!

If you're just coming in at this post, go here and then here first.

My friend The Blair Bitch brought up a very good point in comments.

"Why pay for coupons online when you can get them for free? There are tons of free sites that I use and that can easily be found."

I think that's a fabulous idea! Any way you can get your hands on coupons is great!

I just don't always have/want to spend the time. I pay for coupons mainly for the convenience, and found that this is the best way for me. I like that I can find what I want by looking at one or the other sites I listed, make a couple of clicks and have 50 or 60 bucks in coupons delivered to my door already clipped and organized. I don't mind paying $4-5.00 for someone else to do the heavy lifting. :-)

Promotions

Now that you have your basic tools at hand, let's get down to work. This installment is going to be pretty long, so bear with me.

Last time, I asked you to suss out the long-term promotions that might be offered in your Wednesday Sales Circulars. I offered up a couple that were consistent in my area.

Let's start with the "If you buy $70 dollars of 'selected products', you'll get $10 off on a future shopping trip".

This promotion has been offered by our Kroger/King Soopers/City Market franchise about 5 times a year.

What they don't always point out is that you can do this up to 50 bucks.

You just have to buy about $280.00 of "selected products".

Don't freak out. Have I ever actually paid $280 to get the $50 bucks off? Oh HELL no. This is where the "process" kicks in.

As I said previously, stores KNOW what coupons are being offered. In fact, you'll probably have coupons for a good number of those "selected products" in their promotion. They WANT you to use coupons. They get reimbursed by the manufacturer.

These promotions usually run 2 to 3 weeks. The "selected products" will stay the same, which gives you time to get all the coupons you need and make a couple of trips to the store (since new coupons come out every Sunday).

Here is the kicker. The Holy Grail. The reason you can get stuff for a couple of bucks and tax.

If one of the "selected" items is on sale for $1.99, and you have a $1.00 coupon---you'll pay 99 cents for the item, but will be counted for the $1.99 towards that $280.

Does that make sense? If not, let me know in comments.

Here is a representative example of previous endeavors to show how it works. I tried to make a table, but Blogger's system just defeated me. Click on it to make it larger.

The original price was $322.05, I actually paid $78, at a savings of about 76%. But better yet, I received $173.63 in credit towards my promotional credit goal of $280.

Explanation for some of my choices?

Everyone will ALWAYS need toiletries, cleaning supplies and garbage bags.

Unless they're completely anti-social, smell funky and live in a cave. ;-)

These items require no special care except space. They don't expire. You could stick those suckers under your bed if you had to.

Since you will ALWAYS have a need for them, you can get them OUT of your grocery budget for the next 6 months or so.

Plus there's the bonus of the extra "bucks" that go towards your promotion total.

No one in my family has any weird scalp conditions, or special hair needs due to coloring or perming. All we require is something that will CLEAN our hair. If we only spend 13 to 30 cents a bottle on shampoo, it's more than a deal for us.

This is approaching what I mentioned about "expanding your horizons" in my last post.

My Hubby has it stuck in his mind that Charmin Bathroom Tissue is the "ONLY" toilet paper for him.

I'm willing to concede the Mitchum anti-perspirant thing because yes, to me, it works better on our type of stank than other brands.

But TP? You have to be kidding me! All I require is that it's soft and doesn't fall apart in my hand mid-wipe. I've gotten free packages of Cottonelle, and put the rolls in his bathroom, and he's never known the difference (or maybe he's too scared to complain--either way, it's all good).

A lot of it is just a mind-set against certain products.

Take, for instance Hamburger/Tuna/Chicken Helper, which is also on the above list.

If you're sneering, believe me, I've been there! Anyone my age (Gen X) was probably served one of the barfworthy original three Hamburger Helpers which included beefy roni, cheesy beefy roni, and some sort of beefy roni with a side of powdered sour cream as children.

These Helpers aren't our parents' Helpers any more. There's a big selection now.

I'm busy. I don't have a personal cook/housekeeper like Carol Brady did.

I don't always have time to make side dishes from scratch. Or anything else, for that matter.

These make a good base even without the beef/tuna/chicken. I saute some veggies and throw it all together.

If you look at Lipton Pasta/Rice Sides, or Pasta Roni in the box, you'll see that they only serve 2. Or 2.5.

Really!

The Helpers serve 5. What's the better deal if you can get the Helpers for less? All you have to do is jazz it up. The Alfredo Tuna Helper minus the tuna (or even with) is great with onions and mushrooms. Or broccoli. Add a little fresh garlic...mmm you get the picture. Or throw in some sauteed shrimp or scallops.

Now let's put it all in action!

When you get your Wednesday circular, and you see a promotion, check out and see what coupons you have on hand for the "selected items". How long does the promotion last? If it's 2-3 weeks, you have time to work with.

Keep in mind that in the following Sunday paper, there's a VERY good chance it will contain coupons that will be relevant.

So do you order coupons now from the coupon-clipping service, or on Sunday?

It's hard to say. You might want to go to their websites and see what/how many they have in stock. If it's a big name franchise that's running the promotion across the country, the coupons might go fast. Or not.

Remember that it will take 4-5 days for any coupons you order to get to you.

Next, sit down with your notebook and make a list. How many of what product will you have to buy to meet whatever goal you have? How will you store it? How many coupons can you get your hands on?

If you're working with a pal to rack up those promotional dollars, you might want to share the same Value Card. Don't forget to split the savings as well. ;-)

Buy More Save More Promotion

Our Kroger chain started the above promotion a week or so ago. If you buy 2 or 3 of an item, you get a store coupon for $1.00 off your next visit. If you buy 4-5, you get $2.00 and so on (there are different offers for different "selected items"). It runs until August 1. I got out what coupons I had, and made my first trip to the store.

Of the "selected items" I got (click on the left receipt):

6 packages of Pillsbury Toaster Strudels and Scrambles, because they were on sale and I had a ton of coupons.

I know it's junk, but the guys love them, and I have lots of freezer space. ;-)

I also bought 6 packages of Lender's Bagels and 9 Cans of Pillsbury Grands biscuits.

A service organization that Hubby belongs to is hosting a brunch and his contribution is Biscuits and Gravy for 40. Since I already have about 10 rolls of bulk breakfast sausage (bought at 50% off!), all he needs is milk and spices when the time comes and he's good to go!

I'm a real sucker for good coffee. I love Seattle's Best Breakfast Blend. They had it on sale for this promotion, and I had coupons, so I splurged and bought 3 of them. I know it screwed up my percentage, but hey! It's coffee! I bought some 8 0'clock bean coffee as well, which wasn't part of the promotion, but they were Buy One Get One Free, and I love their Columbian.

Also bought a whole bunch of those Snackpack puddings. Even thought I didn't have any coupons, they were 50% off and the little guy loves them. Plus they don't have to be refrigerated, so they can be stored in the pantry.

Anyway, although I only saved 39% off my order (all that damn coffee!), I also walked out of the store with $22.50 in coupons towards my next purchase.

Since Number One Son had to be in the city to take a biology test, I decided to run over to one of the stores in the same chain that double coupons so you can see that the savings "really" isn't enough to make it a deal breaker.

I got all kinds of good stuff. I folded the receipt on the right where the coupons were, simply because it was too long for the scanner.

The only thing that wasn't on sale was the Electrosol, but I had a 2.00 coupon that was about to expire and it was too good to go to waste.

Also, there was one of the freak in-store deals that happen from time to time (which is why you should always bring your album of coupons with you!). I guess they're discontinuing these particular items, but they had some Mrs. Smith's pies marked down to $1.87. I had 3 $1 coupons, so I grabbed them.

As you can tell, I only saved about 6 dollars with doubling. If I didn't already have to be in the city, it wouldn't have been worth making the trip.

I also walked out with $6. more in cash coupons.

Since I've been doing this for awhile, my freezers and pantries are full of staples and meat.

All I really need to buy on a weekly basis is fresh stuff (milk, fruit, veggies, bread, etc).

So how do we apply this to fresh stuff and items between promotions?

Stay tuned!

Keep sending in your money-saving tips and tricks. I'll post them with a link to your blog in the last installment!

And thanks for dropping in!

Crash Course Part 2

If you're coming in late to this fiesta and wondering what this is all about, please go here first.

To everyone else, Welcome To Attila the Mom's Crash Course on Sticking it to the Man.

Otherwise known henceforth as Screw U.

Just kidding.

In our last installment, we covered a lot of things, but the most important was:

1) Stay Organized

Your time is money in this endeavor, so the better organized you are, the less time you will waste fumbling around looking for stuff. If you invest the couple of hours on the outset to get your stuff together, the rest is pretty much cake.

Now let's go on to:

2) How to Get the Right Coupons

Here are some notes on coupons...

I know it's obvious, but it still has to be said. Don't clip coupons for things you will never ever use. People really do that (said Attilla the Mom sheepishly)!

Clip for things you are sure to use.

Clip coupons for things that you "might" use if the price is right. Even clip for things you thought you'd NEVER use but might be willing to try out if the price is REALLY right!

I'll include something about expanding your horizons in the next installment.

It really isn't worth buying 3 Sunday newspapers for the coupons, unless there a whole bunch of fabulous ones that can be doubled or tripled at your local store. What's the use of spending 1.50 on an issue for a couple of great 50 cent-off coupons?

If you've got local friends or relatives you can hit up for their discarded coupons, do so only if it's convenient (think time=money).

Now clip them all out and put them in your organizer.

Do it while you're watching your favorite TV show. Try to do it on Sunday! Will explain later!

In the future, use this time to move the the old coupons to the top.

Next step:

It really does pay to hook up with a coupon-clipping service.

What is a coupon-clipping service?

There are a bunch of them online. They clip zillions of coupons and offer them for a tiny "handling" fee (plus a small processing fee and shipping).

Most are legitimate Mom and Pop businesses.

Some are scammers, or high-end operators. They want you to pay a "join-up" fee for like $99.00 dollars, or require you to pre-purchase "vouchers" good for X amount of coupons from their service.

Run away. Run far far away. In my humble opinion, if you can't pay as you go, it's NOT a good thing.

I use two different companies and like them for different reasons (I'm sure there are other good ones out there if you look). This way, you only get the coupons YOU want, and depending on availabilty, as many as you want.

The Coupon Clippers is very organized, and it's easy to find what I'm looking for because they're listed by product-type. The only drawback is that for the most part, you have to buy a minimum of 5 of each coupon.

I don't mind. Their time is money and they have to make a living too.

This is the quantity thing I was talking about before, and explains why it might be good to team up with a pal or another couple.

The Coupon Master only requires a minimum of 3. They're a little tougher to browse---everything is listed alphabetically and not by product-type.

However, their customer service is absolutely the best. And they're really fast.

Note: Don't pay for priority mail. First class only takes about 2-3 days in the continental US. Priority mail will NOT get it there faster.

Both companies accept Paypal and Visa/Mastercard. I think you can even send them a check or money order in advance and open an "account" with them. Go take a gander and familiarize yourself with them. Also check out their FAQs---especially their list of abbreviations (Like "DND means "Do Not Double" or NED means "No Expiration Date"), so you won't be caught with your pants down when trying to reach the finish line.

One really GREAT thing about these services is that you can get coupons for things that weren't necessarily offered in your own regional coupon inserts. I love it when I find this stuff!

I'll come back to this when it's time to put it in action in the next post.

Large grocery chains know which coupons are coming out on Sundays. In the majority of the cases, they WILL have a sale on an item during the lifetime of the coupon.

If you've planned ahead, you won't need the item/s immediately. It won't hurt to hang on to a coupon until a few days before expiration.

One of the notable exceptions is Mitchum anti-perspirant. Coupons are infrequent, sales are infrequent, and in my neck of the woods, the two seldom meet. Since it's the only thing Hubby will use, I've been confounded time and time again!

Don't worry too much if your store doesn't offer double or triple coupons. Mine don't. Sometimes if I have a whole bunch and there are some great sales that make it worth it (since most stores limit the doubling/tripling to 3 of each coupon) I'll hit them if I'm down in the city. The receipts I showed in the last post were just plain coupons. With the price of gas the way it is, I pay about 8 bucks for a round trip, and it isn't worth the hassle.

Sometimes I'll cut out the rebate coupons and use them if they are for $5 to $10. Basically it takes a little more effort than I'm willing to put out for $2.39 minus my stamp and envelope. If you've got the inclination, go for it!

Hopefully by now you've got your hands on the Wednesday sale circulars from your major grocery stores (In our area, I call them the big three---Albertson's, Safeway, and Kroger/King Soopers/City Market). Sit down and and study them for a minute.

Do they have any extended promotions? The ones I most often see are the "Spend $70 on selected items and receive $10 off a future shopping trip" or the "Buy More Save More". If you buy 3 or more of selected items you'll get coupons for money off future visits.

Kroger USED to have a promotion that said if you bought X amount of selected items you could get 20 cents off a gallon of gas at one of their affiliated stations. Haven't seen THAT one in awhile, although recently, Safeway had a promotion that offered 10 cents off a gallon at "their" gas stations.

There are some that offer movie tickets, but I don't bother. I just want cold hard cash. ;-)

These are the promotions (not the movie tickets!) that will save you the big bucks if you work them correctly. Take a good look at what their "selected" items are.

Spend some time going over the circulars. Hopefully if you do this each week, you'll get an idea of what items go on sale most often on a regular or semi-regular basis.

I guess I should say that for the most part, the things I'm talking about are boxed, frozen, canned or packaged in some way (hence, the coupons). I'll hit the "fresh" stuff up soon!

Catch up with you for the next installment in a couple of days! I'm working on one of the "Buy More, Save More" promotions as we speak, so I hope to be able to show it in action.

Later Gator!

Cheap Doesn't Have to be a Bad Word

A few days ago our friend, Mr. Fabulous posted his grocery receipt on his blog Pointless Drivel (PG-13--No violence, but he sometimes writes about his nethers, lemurs, his nethers, raspberry jelly and his nethers. Often in the same sentence!).

Another blogging buddy of his had commented that Fab could post a grocery receipt and people would STILL love him and leave comments.

So Fab put it to the test.

The first thought that went through my head was "Olive Loaf? Who in the heck eats Olive Loaf?"

Why not buy some head cheese while you're at it? Or some liver puddin'?

My second thought was, "Dude---you spend wayyyy too much money on groceries!"

So I was feeling snarky and sent him an email entitled, "Ha! My grocery receipts are better than yours!" and included this (click on them to make them larger):















We shared a couple of emails back and forth, and I confessed that these were my personal best---usually it's more between 60-80%.

Fab very graciously asked if he could blog about it if I wasn't going to.

I said, "Sure why not? I never figured people would want to read about groceries!"

Guess I was wrong. From all the nice comments on his blog and the emails I've received, I guess people do want to know how to save a lot on their groceries!

Or would like to, as Mr. Fab would say, "Stick it to the man!"

Well, it's not really like that.

Companies put their offers out there to be used. And if you use them the right way, the savings can be enormous. There's nothing illegal or shady about it. Anybody can do it.

You might say, "I don't want to waste the time clipping coupons!"

First of all, neither do I. I hate wasting time.

It's not a lifestyle choice. I don't reuse bath water, or turn my underwear inside out, or wash Ziplock bags, or practice the myriad of other penny pinching but time-consuming tricks that are out there.

I just found a fairly easy way to save money so our family can spend it on other things. Better things. Like college. Or a great vacation.

If you invest a couple of hours in the very beginning to get organized (and stay organized!), it takes about an hour a week.

That doesn't include time spent actually going to the store, but you were going to do that anyway.

I promise.

I do it most of it in front of the TV, watching a favorite show.

So what's an hour of time in front of the TV worth to you? $25? $50? What about $100?

Second of all, it isn't just about cutting coupons. It's about coordinating the different offers local stores have to optimize your savings.

Holy cow! I sound like an infomercial!

Because this is a multi-tiered and lengthy process (explanation-wise), I'm going to have to spread it out amongst a number of posts over several days. I think 4 posts might just cover it. So check back over the next week or so.

The last one will cover stuff other than groceries (new name brand or designer items at bargain basement prices--perfect for gifts!).

If you would like to share your own tips and tricks, please send them to me in email, with the url to your blog. I'll post them all with a link to you in the last installment!

So let's get started.

Who will this help?

Mostly families of 4 or more, simply because quantity is involved.

I don't mean quantity as in "buying-10-pound-jars-of-Miracle-Whip-which-will-expire-before-you-can-finish-it-unless-you-eat-bowlfuls-for-supper" kind of quantity. I'll explain in the next post.

If you're single, or a couple without children, you might think about hooking up with a pal or two to do this with.

I have no idea what the set-ups are outside the US, so this might not work in other countries.

Here is what you need:

1. An organizer for your coupons. I don't like the traditional ones, because they only give you one space for each type of product. It's a drag (and a big time waster) to have to shuffle through a handful of cereal coupons to find one for Special K.

Especially if the store is crowded and some lady is bumping your ankles with her cart because she wants you to get your crap and get moving.

I use a photo album. Not the big huge ones, but the ones with 2 windows for pictures per page. I make tabs every few pages labeled "Laundry Detergeant", "Frozen Desserts", etc. Then I put different brands in different windows so I can see everything.

This falls under your initial investment of a couple of hours to get organized.

And people either think I'm an auditor or a professional shopper when I walk in the store with it and get the hell out of my way.

2. A big freezer space. Better yet, a separate freezer. Mine is big enough to hold a body or two (like those belonging to ladies who bump my ankles with their carts).

3. Large pantry storage space.

4. Large bathroom storage space (under the sink will do, or a linen closet).

5. A Sunday paper.

6. A value card for all your local grocery store chains.

7. A Wednesday paper. Yes the whole paper---not just the store sale inserts! I'll close with an anecdote to explain why.

8. A notebook and pen

9. A Paypal account or a credit card, which will be explained in the next installment.

A few months ago, there was a coupon in my Wednesday newspaper for $10.00 off of this extra special Angus beef at a large grocery store. It was in the Lifestyle section where you'll find lots of interesting coupons for local stores that you won't find on Sunday.

It was good for any of their fresh beef products. The only caveat was that you had to buy a minimum of 10 pounds. No "one coupon per customer" rules.

I don't usually shop at that store, because their stuff is a little more expensive on the average, but when I looked at their sale circular, I saw that they were having a 3-day beef sale over the weekend. 50% off selected items. If I bought the "family pack", I suspected, it would be another buck a pound off.

I called my husband and ordered him to beg, borrow or steal 2 more Wednesday papers on his way home.

I bought 30 pounds of Rib Eyes. They were a little over a pound a steak, so there were 24 of them.

I know it's a lot of meat. But with family, entertaining, and the many tail-gating parties hubby goes to before football games, it's a good price in the long run. Since we live in a very dry climate, we're able to age our own beef in our freezer. Wrap 'em up individually in foil, label and date them, then toss 'em in.

Of course, I had to get rid of one of the bodies first. ;-)

Originally the steaks would have cost $9.99 a pound for a total of $299.70. With 50% off, plus the dollar a holler off for the family pack, plus $30 dollars in coupons, I paid $89.70, with a savings of about 70%.

And I didn't even get a chance to sit in front of the TV!

Stay tuned for the next installment!