I was asked how long do I spend per day couponing and shopping. This really is a great question. I never really sat down and figured out how much time per day it takes to actually save money. How many hours tick away that I really could be doing something else? I have no clue. Part of the reason for this is I don't want it to be something I dread doing. Instead of actually scheduling time in my day to cut coupons, file and figure out my shopping lists I space it out. I don't know if I will ever figure out the exact amount of time. It's something I enjoy doing and know that I could really put more into it. You get out of it what you put in. With all that said let's take a quick look at my week.
Let's take a week at a glance, starting with Saturday and ending the following Saturday. If I haven't cleaned out my binder for the week yet, I will grab my binder at some point on Saturday and take out all the ones that expire that day or the next. I try to do this in the morning or very early afternoon. Next, I will glance at the ads for the upcoming week and grab the coupon inserts that came in that paper. Nothing really registers much with me the first time around of looking at the ads. Too many things coming at me at once. The inserts go in my pile of coupons to be cut. I might also take a look at the deals I had planned out to get that week, see how successful I was in shopping and if whatever I didn't get was really worth going out for. It might take me a little bit to locate all the coupons for said deals. It might save me time if I make my list and then immediately following get my coupons ready clipped to my lists for the week. Maybe one day I will get there.
On Sunday I will head to couponmom.com and look at the list she has compiled for the weeks deals, coupons to go with the deals, etc. I normally check off the things that look good the first time around and send it to my e-mail. Most Sunday's I don't actually go out shopping.
During the week I will add my shopping into my daily errands or outings. Since I also compile my list of what I am going to get that week from e-mailed newsletters I might frequent a store more than once a week depending on when the e-mail with something good comes in. In any given week I will head to Target, Stop and Shop, Shop Rite and Walgreens. I have recently started adding Rite Aid to the mix. I might not go to all in one week or might set out to go to all of the above and CVS, but then reality sets in and if I did all that I would be out of the house more than home. I will look and see what is really worth it, what seems to be a recurring sale every few weeks, what do I really need, etc.
Inbetween all the other things of life I cut my coupons. However, I can't sit for hours at a time cutting and filing. I might take ten minutes here, go do something else, come back and cut and file a few more inserts. I find for me spacing it out works best. It really could be a full time job. If I put more time into it I probably could save more than I already do.
I don't want you to think that I save on every single item that I buy because that would be untrue. I try my best to save on the majority of what we buy, but sometimes it just doesn't happen. It does bother me though when someone else in the house goes shopping and gets things I know I have a coupon for, but I have come to accept that it will happen.
The one thing I hope to never hear myself say is I am to busy to coupon. I will always try and find some time somewhere. In the morning when I first get up, ten minutes before I go to bed, while my son is on his computer, etc...
If you don't have a lot of time to coupon, but know you need to save more come back tomorrow to see my suggestions on ways to coupon with little time.
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