Spend And Save, With Magic Coupons!

How often do you feel like your piggy bank has officially started eating up your money? Does it seem like most of your earnings practically vanish into thin air? Do you have an ‘I-must-save’ albatross hanging around your neck every time you go shopping? Well, fear not girls! There is a perfect solution to all your worries- ‘Coupons’! These little pieces of paper are quite literally magic tickets that get you discounts, free services, exchange offers and many many other great deals. All you need to do is collect, and cash in! Now you can find these valuable tokens practically everywhere, if you know where to look! Try the classifieds and ad columns in your morning paper, carefully scrutinize brochures and pamphlets left at your doorstep, browse through the booklets at the billing counter or skim through the spam in your junk folder; and you are sure to hit jackpot!

Start by collecting as many coupons as you can. This information and resource gathering stage is critical for success. Even if it seems you don’t need a massage chair right now, do not throw out the offer slip. You never know when someone in the family is going to want one, or maybe your mother-in-law’s birthday will come along and a chair will be the perfect gift! Use your coupon stack wisely. It is a smart idea to make monthly or bi-monthly shopping trips to buy household necessities, stock up on provisions etc. Once you make the plan, go through your coupons and pick out all the best ones you can use to win you the best deals! But keep in mind, your satisfaction with the product you are buying is more important than cashing in on a coupon with it!

Another important factor is organizing your coupons well. Albert Einstein once said “Being organized finds simplicity in clutter, harmony in discord and opportunity in difficulty”! Do not just throw all the coupons you get into a plastic bag, as you will never find it when you need it. Be it in a shoe box or a plastic folder; arrange all your coupons in a manner that allows ease in locating the relevant coupons at the right time. We women can never say ‘no’ when it comes to great deals. So you may end up having coupons for everything ranging from dog-walkers to ice-makers! In our perennial hurry, we will never be able to find the appropriate chits when we go shopping, unless it is classified based on the kind of item. Also, most coupons have an expiry date on them, so be sure to arrange them from soon-to-expire to long-way-to-go!

The industry today is filled with a wide variety of smart deals. It started with the initial ‘cut-out coupons’, moved to online printable coupons; and now there are electronic coupons. Larger stores even give digitalized cards to their customers with a weekly and monthly offers programmed into them. All you need to do is swipe in the card and type the code based on the discounts you want to avail. With all these wonderful new alleys open to us, I’m sure shopping will take on a new meaning! Be smart and sensible and use couponing to your advantage!