Coupon Storage

Guest Writer:  Ruth Morse

I am not an extreme couponer. In fact, I would rather the stores just marked stuff down in the first place. I mean, think think of all the steps involved:

• Cut out the coupon before I throw the paper away
• Store it somewhere
• Remember where I put it
• Use it before it expires
• Remember to take it to the store
• Pick the right brand off the shelf and try not to gyp the store by buying a different brand …………………….don’t ask……………. the dollar bill I once mailed to Price Chopper is another whole story.........................
• Don’t drop the coupon anywhere in the store and then have to trudge back down all the aisles looking for it ………………..don’t ask…………….
• Turn the coupon in to the cashier
• AND make sure the cashier remembers to give me credit

That’s too much work......

In my younger grocery shopping days, I'd write out a list. Then, I'd leave the list at home because, once the list was on paper, I could remember it! I could leave the coupons in my purse and whip them out at the appropriate time!

Not anymore.

Not only do I have to carry the list with me to the store, I have to hold it in my hot little hand ALL THROUGH the store or I forget to look at it.

Same way with coupons. I need to have them in my hand all through the store or I’ll get the wrong product or forget to use the coupon all together. I cannot even lay them down while I put the groceries on the checkout counter! Yes, this does slow me down a bit. And your point?

So then I give the wonderful coupons to the clerk and have to stare-stare-stare at where she put them to make sure SHE does not forget to apply them. It’s happened. Oh, yes, it’s happened.

I cannot solve all the problems of the world, but I have one little tip to make the above process a bit easier.
Use a binder clip to tightly hold your coupons AND your shopping list!

I used to use a paperclip, but coupons and/or lists can slip out and land on the floor. I hate having to retrace my path trying to find a stupid coupon. I have recently graduated to a very cheap binder clip from the dollar store. So far, so good.

Honest! I took this next picture this very morning at my local Price Chopper. That is NOT my coupon laying on the floor. Honest! This was NOT a staged shot. It’s also not a very good quality picture……I was a bit flustered at people having to walk around me while I tried to figure out how to take this pic with my cell phone.

(If you are wondering, yes, I left the coupon on the floor. I figured some shopper who did not have a binder clip would come looking for it.)

So! Get yourself a binder clip. Nothing falls out of a binder clip.

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...and one more thing......
uh, I'll get back to you when I remember it.
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The Cheap Senior Citizen is a Guest Writer who occasionally shares helpful hints she has learned through her experience.