Minor Leaguer

Well, it's official.

You can call me a crazy coupon lady.

Yup. I've got my binder and everything...

I'm not quite "crazy" yet...

I'm kinda in the minor leagues still.

Not up with the big gamers.

I started a few weeks ago, shortly after Thomas and I moved into our apartment.

I figured with all these additional bills now rolling in, wouldn't hurt to coupon.

Let's side track for a little bit...

Speaking of additional bills,

Ya know what's annoying?
School loans.

More specifically, the interest.

Let's just say interest in general, not just school loans.

It's so frustrating to watch my bank account gather interest at a rate of like .04% a month, when my school loans gather at like 6.0%.

Rude.

In a month on my bank accounts, I gain a few cents.

In a month on my loans, I gain a couple hundred.

Rude.

Annoying.

Anywho...

So, like I was saying, I coupon now. 

To help with bills.

I started off going to www.thekrazycouponlady.com, and that's how I organized my binder, and figured out a game plan for couponing.

The site is nice because it spills out all sorts of deals:

"Use this coupon with this sale item at this store and save this amount of money."

It's really easy to follow.

However, I don't use a lot of her shopping hints she gives.

Because this is my couponing plan...and maybe why you can't exactly call me a "crazy" coupon lady...

1. I don't use coupons for items Thomas and I don't need or use.

However, I still clip coupons for items we use, but may not need at the time, and save until they expire.

2.) I don't buy eight of the same item to get the free price.

For a couple reasons: one, I don't have access to that many newspapers to clip that many coupons. Two, we don't need eight boxes of cereal, or jars of mustard, or whatever it is. I try to be practical.

3.) I don't shop around my meal plans for the week.

Instead, I meal plan around my shopping. 

And I shop around my couponing.

I try to coupon items we need, mostly groceries. Then, I use what I've bought to decide what we're having for dinner that week. 

So I'm a couponer now.
Still in the minor leagues.

I don't put hours and hours into it. 

But I'm teaching myself.

Browse the ads. Clip. Figure out who has "Double Daze" coupons.

Shop.

I'm teaching myself.

I gotta be in the major leagues before we have kids.

That's when couponing is really going to be the most helpful!