Rookie Mistakes

Over the past week weeks I have made a few rookie mistakes and ruffled my feathers a little. I think what I picked up from the show Extreme Couponing is that checking out is stressful. Here are a few mistakes I've made and learned from.

Mistake #1: Not Knowing Your Store's Policy.

Don't worry this didn't result in a duel to the death with the cashier. Our first couponing trip after years of paying full price was at Ralphs. Now the last year or so I've shopped exclusively at Fresh and Easy and at Albertson's for last minute items. Now Albertson's doesn't double coupons and the cashiers are old and grumpy they have worked their since it used to be Lucky's. So we went to Ralph's because they doubled. How ever I "assumed" that doubled up to $1 meant that a $1 coupon becomes $2.

Mistake #2: Not Keeping All Of The Coupons.

When I first started couponing I just flipped through the Sunday coupon insert and clipped the coupons I thought I was going to use this week and threw the rest away. This turned out to be a big mistake as the sales cycles and the coupon cycles are not aligned as I thought they were. Sometimes a sale will come up the next week and if you didn't keep that coupon your SOL. Also sometimes you think you won't buy that or it's an expensive brand but the sale might come up where you can get it for free or next to nothing and then it might be worth trying.

Mistake #3 Buying Only One Paper

We already get the LA Times so I figured cool I have all the coupons I need I don't need multiples because I'm not planning to build a stockpile for 20 people just Don Coupon and I. Wrong. Sometimes the best deals will involve you having to buy 2 or more to trigger the lower price which combined with the coupon makes a deal into a steal. If you only have one of each coupon your going to pay more than you need to. Also sometimes you'll you use a coupon up one week and next week there will be an even better deal but you've already used your coupon.

Mistake #4 Not Organizing My Coupons

When I first started I didn't think I need to do an elaborate binder to keep my coupons in and I just kept them into a box which wasted a lot of my time and effort. I now use a binder.

Mistake #5 Not Having The Right Coupon At The Right Place At The Right Time.

When I first started I just took the few coupons I thought I was going to use to the market with me. This resulted in me say "Oh I have a coupon for that!.......at home." Now I keep the binder in the car just in case.

Mistake #6 Getting Stressed Out At The Checkout

Basically if you expect a problem you'll get a problem.


Now it makes it sound like I started years ago when really it's been only 21 days. A day at a time A day at a time