Extreme Couponing... Simplified

I wasn't expecting such a big response from my last "Extreme Couponing" post. I received a few emails asking me what I thought, and where should people start, which prompted me to write an additional post on where I think everyone who is serious about saving money should start. Prepare yourself for a rather long post. It may seem like a lot, but it really will simplify your life, and maximize your savings!

First and foremost, you must learn to say goodbye to brand loyalty. There are a few items that my household uses, that we are brand loyal, but for the most part, we are not. Believe it or not, my husband used to only like the Gillette Gel deodorant. I have since been able to get him to try other "Gel" brands out there, and now, as long as it's a gel, I can buy any deodorant.

Secondly, you need coupons. You can find coupons just about everywhere. Look down the aisles of your grocery store for those red machines hanging on shelves. These dispense coupons for a nearby product. Your Sunday paper contains coupons just about every week. Weeks that holidays fall on, generally do not have coupon inserts in them. Doctor's offices, check the bottom of your drug store receipts for store coupons, Catalinas are other type of coupons that will dispense certain coupons depending on what you buy, these are then handed to you along with your receipt by the cashier. Some of the catalinas are not coupons, but information about an ongoing sale. Read these! They contain valuable information that you can use to help you save additional money! I always save ALL my catalinas that are not coupons, and I sort them by store.

If you're a regular reader, you know that I will post these ongoing deals every few weeks, letting you know what other sales are going on. Magazines are another great place to find coupons. All You is probably the best source of magazine coupons, but don't pass by other magazines like Parents, Better Homes & Gardens, Redbook, etc. Again, Brandy's Big Bargains 2.0 will post free subscription offers to some of these magazines when they are released. Brandy's Big Bargains 2.0 will only post truly FREE magazine offers, and not the offers that are free with purchases. Sign up for Facebook, if you aren't already. Many companies are releasing Facebook only coupons, which means, you can only print them from their fan page. Internet. There are literally thousands of coupons that are available to print on any given day. Brandy's Big Bargains always tries to list hot printables, or newly released coupons, usually at least one per day.

Now there are a hundred different ways to organize your coupons, different binders, holders, methods. I am not going to recommend any of them. What works for me, probably will not work for you. I've tried the binder method, I've tried the recipe holder, the don't cut them until your in the store method, the accordion folder. I have found that when I bring ALL my coupons to the store, I end up using more then I wanted to. I cut, and research sales at home, and sort them according to stores into their on envelopes. Then I head to the store. I found that I was fumbling around and wasting more time in the store with a binder, and my time is valuable. I was defeating the whole purpose. My coupon stash is neatly organized in my filing cabinet, in my office, behind my desk. I have in my top drawer, a pen, notebook, scissors, calculator, and envelopes. Simple. Everything I need is right at my finger tips.

My next piece of advice is crucial. Sign up for every reward card for stores that are local to you, even the ones that aren't local to you. I have store loyalty cards for grocery stores that are upwards of 50 miles away. Driving to a grocery store that is 30 or 40 miles away because of a big sale is the norm in my household. This is of course not something we do on a weekly basis. This is for when sales are so good, and items that we need are dwindling down that the savings far outweigh the cost and time of driving. With that said, you can follow these links provided to get store loyalty cards.

~ CVS
~ Rite Aid
~ Albertson's
~ Big Y
~ BiLo
~ Bloom
~ Dominicks
~ Food Lion~ Fred Meyer~ Giant Eagle~ Giant Food~ Hannaford
~ Harris Teeter - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Hyvee - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Ingles
~ Jewel Osco~ Kroger
~ Marsh
~ Meijer
~ Path Mark~ Price Chopper~ Publix - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Ralphs
~ Randalls - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Safeway - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Shaw's
~ Shoprite
~ Stop & Shop~ Von's - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Waldbaums - Must go to nearest store to obtain Loyalty Card
~ Weis
~ Wegman's
~ Winn-Dixie
There are so many great benefits to obtaining store loyalty cards now a days. Many places have or accept ecoupons which are loaded onto your store loyalty cards, in addition to accepting printed coupons. Upromise is a college savings program that are tied to your loyalty cards. Each month they have ecoupons you download, and if you purchase the item, you'll be rewarded with a dollar amount that is put into a savings account for your child's college. Savings add up quickly! You can also recruit family members to add their loyalty cards to increase your savings account even more. In addition to applying for the loyalty cards, make sure to sign up to receive the weekly add, emailed directly into your inbox each week.

Stockpiling truly is an art form, and needs to be learned. Once learned, it's constantly evolving as per your family's needs change. Sit down for 20 minutes, and make a list of the items that your family uses on a regular basis, and of those items which ones can be stockpiled? For instance, you don't want to stockpile milk or yogurt, but you can stockpile toilet paper, shampoo, toothpaste mouthwash, cleaning supplies, etc.

Once you have your list of items, now you have to decide just how much do you want or need to stockpile? Doing the math for this next step may take a week or two. Count how many rolls of toilet paper your family uses in a week, or how many bottles of shampoo or conditioner you go through in a week. Now all you do is multiply that number by the amount of weeks you want on hand. Sales usually have 12 to 16 week cycles, though rock bottom prices are generally every six months.

Our family has a different length of time for different products. We can easily store a years worth of toilet paper, or 250 rolls (worst case scenario) This would be roughly 11 - 24 packs. We hold only a 6 month supply of paper towels, which will generally last much longer, as I like to use reusable cloths for the majority of clean ups. Shampoo and conditioner in my house, is a different story. With 2 girls both with long hair, and myself, we go through quite a bit of this, so I will usually pick this product every time it's on sale, and I can get it for less than $1.00 per bottle.

To me, tying up half a bedroom with 4000 plus rolls of toilet paper is just absurd, there is absolutely no reason for it. This goes beyond extreme, and crosses into the category of hoarding. Buying products that you don't need or wont use is pointless as well. Unless you are donating these items to a local food bank, or homeless shelter, it's defeating the purpose of saving money. If you are donating these items, you can deduct the full price of these items on your tax return.

Stockpiles grow, and can grow quickly. It is absolutely imperative that you designate an area or two before you begin and learn to stick to it. We are fortunate to have a rather large laundry room that we dedicate to 98% of our stockpile. For items that can get lost easily, we went out and spent approx. $55.00 on an 8x4 sheet of peg board, and the hooks. Items like batteries, razors, chapstick, floss, toothbrushes are all placed on hooks on the peg board. This is a HUGE space saver, and now, I never lose those items, and I always know how many we have. When the peg board is full, I know that I will not be purchasing those items, unless they are free, AND we are donating them.

Meats. unless you are a pro at meal planning ahead of time, I would suggest you put this off, until you have a rock solid plan in place. The average family throws out hundreds of dollars of produce, and meats because they didn't eat them in time. We were no different. I enlisted the help of ALL the members in my family to begin a structured meal planning menu. You will save more money in the long run by following two rules. Buying what's in season is always a great way to save in the produce, and meat department. Everyone having a say in meals. By doing the later of the two, I have found that my girls are more apt to eat even the meals they don't really care for too much.

We now are up to planning out 30 meals, or one month at a time. As a busy family, we don't always have the time to prepare and cook a meal from scratch every night. Our solution. When hamburg goes on sale for $1.99 per pound or less, we will purchase about 20 lbs. Once we get it home, we prepare meatballs, roll them and place them into bags and freeze them. We will also cook up the remaining, and separate them into bags according to what we will be making, some bags will be made into taco meat, others, will be placed into bags for Shepard's pie, and still more will be placed into disposable bread pans for meatloaf. Once all the hamburg is cooled, it all gets placed into the freezer and pulled out each day for dinner. This cuts our prep time down dramatically.

I know that I have given you a lot of information here, and it's a lot to take in all at once. The biggest thing you can do for yourself, is to get organized. To get organized, you don't need to purchase items, you can get yourself organized by simply using items that you already have around the house. Don't get discouraged if you feel like you're missing out on deals. Deals come and go, and deals are a dime a dozen. If you miss one, wait, another one will show up. Sign up to receive newsletters from your favorite blogs like this one. You can sign up on the right side bar of Brandy's Big Bargains. By signing up on this site or any other sites, you will receive an email each day letting you know of all the deals, that blog posted for that day. This is a huge timesaver when searching for deals that apply to you.

Next is email. People don't like signing up for a lot of emails because they don't want to get bombarded with hundreds of emails each day. There is however a great solution, learn how your email works, I mean really learn, all it's features. Emails such as Gmail or outlook have filters and rules that you can apply to incoming emails. This makes things so much easier when deciphering through hundreds of emails. For instance when family members send you an email you can apply a rule that will make their email stand out in red, grocery stores you can apply a rule that will make the email stand out in blue, or you can have it sent directly to a folder that you create. The possibilities for organizing your inbox are endless, as long as you understand how all the features work.

All in all, being an "extreme couponer" doesn't mean you have to go overboard. It only means that you know how to make your dollars stretch beyond that of the average couponer. It means that you know what a good sale is, it means you know how to stack coupons, it means you know just how much $1.00 can buy you in the grocery or drug store. It also means you don't get discouraged when your total isn't as low as you would like it to be, and that you try that much harder next week to meet or exceed your goals. It means that you know every penny saved is a penny more in your pocket. Simply put.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? We would love to hear them!