My Sunday Ritual

So tomorrow morning (I mean today) is Sunday....and so starts my new Sunday ritual.  First thing I do is go pick up my Sunday paper and store guides (CVS and Walgreens only as Dominick's and Jewel have new ones that come out on Wednesdays and those are usually included in the Sunday paper).

This month, the Sunday Chicago Tribune (which tends to have more coupons) is apparently on sale for $0.99 at Jewel...so I'll totally be picking up my paper there for now.  Some super couponers buy more than one paper...I'm not quite there as I'm only feeding myself right now.  I think if I had a family, I might consider buying multiple papers so that you get multiple copies of the coupons to use.  I don't think I'm there yet.

Once I've picked up all the store books and the paper, I come back home to start the clipping and organizing.  I haven't done any shopping on Sundays yet as I like to plan out what I might buy first AND I like to take advantage of the postings by bloggers like Jill Cataldo and Mashup Mom who help me understand what coupons I can use in the current week to get the best deal.

So first thing I do is label any of the coupon booklets from the paper - the Red Plum, SmartSource and/or P&G.  Sometimes you'll get more than one of each which is kinda great :)  Before I file them, I look through them to see if there is anything I might buy and clip only those coupons.  If I do find anything, I'll also go through the older ones to see if I can use multiple coupons for that one item.

I then painstakingly go through the other coupon inserts in the paper to see if there is anything.  I'll clip the CVS, Walgreens, Dominicks and Jewel booklet coupons that I know I'll use and put those in my little expandable folder.  Since I won't destroy the store books completely, I'll put these as extra copies in my larger expandable folder to help plan any future shopping that week.

Make sure to look at every page....you'll be surprised how much stuff is there sometimes.

Also, now that I have clipped for three Sundays, I've had to start organizing my coupons better since I'm not ready to upgrade into the full binder.  I'm paperclipping my grocery section into themes.....snacks, dairy, bread, cereal, etc.  This should help me from having to constantly go through every coupon in that section.  Here is what is currently looks like.

 Before I go shopping on Monday night...I make a list of the things I need and I STICK to that list as much as possible.  I also make sure to explore any money making possibilities at CVS because the Extra Care Bucks are great to buy some of those extra household items that never seem to go on sale.

That's my chaotic process....not completely figured out yet, but this is how I do it for now.