Tuesday's Tip...Saving TIME

It seems to me that the #1 commodity that we're given is TIME.  We're all given the same amount of seconds, minutes and hours in each day.  You don't have more than me and I don't have more than you.

I'm frequently asked when teaching a coupon class this one question...

"HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE?"  


I have found that I can't answer that question.  We're all individuals with different abilities, tastes, jobs,  organizational skills, etc.  What I can give you are some pointers that work for me.

1.  Don't clip coupons unless you know that you'll use them.  Even so, don't clip them until you get ready to use them.  There is a "clipless" way to file coupons that will save you tons of TIME, frustration and needless hours scouring all those coupon inserts.  Go HERE and learn this method from Jenny, at Southern Savers.  She's does an excellent job explaining it!

2.  Plan your shopping trips before you hit the store.  Get your coupons ready and in an envelop before you even shop.  Write down a list of what to buy and you never even have to look at your coupons until you pull them out for the cashier.  If you're going through your coupon binders/files while you're at the store you'll not only be spending more TIME at the store, but most likely you'll spend more money by not sticking to your original shopping list.

3.  Plan your shopping trips and get them all done on one day.  This not only saves TIME, but gas as well.  Going along with this, if you don't have one day to shop in then plan your shorter shopping trips (like Walgreen's deals) around other errands you'll be making.  For example, last year my kids went to a private school that was 6 miles from my house.  The only CVS we had at the time was just about 1 mile away from their school.  It made sense for me to go to CVS after I took them to school.
Another example is this...I go to church on Sundays and Wednesday.  I pass 2 (almost 3) Walgreen's on my way to church.  I usually get my Walgreen's shopping done on one of these days since I'm passing by it anyway.

4.  Limit how many deals you do for the week.  If you try to do every deal out there you'll not only be spending a lot of TIME getting them all prepared, but you could experience what I like to call "coupon burn out!"  There are weeks that I don't shop at all.  Take a break if you need to....especially if you're stocked up on enough items to last you for awhile.

These are all the TIME saving tips I could think of for now.  Do you have any time-saving tips you would like to share.  Feel free to leave a comment below!