I am very glad that I do not clip all of my coupons anymore because the ones I have clipped look like that picture from above!  I’m getting there though; I’ll get organized one of these days!  Remember when I rambled on about organizing my e-life a few posts ago?  I’ve made some great headway but one thing that I did a few years ago that really helped me to feel moe organized is something I’m going to do again, starting this weekend, and for those of you who do not do this I believe it is something that won’t only help you feel organized and in control but also help you save money!  I am going to create my own personal coupon database.  I’m still going to build one for the site, for locals who would like some help keeping up with what coupons we have, but I’m going to build one that is just for my personal use.

Creating your own (CYO) database, or even a simple spreadsheet, is a simple way to keep track of the coupons that you actually have in your possession.  The point is to log which coupons you have, no matter what type of coupon it is, and how many of each coupon you have.  When you organize your shopping trips, and you should never go shopping without a plan, you use the database as a tool to help you and you simply change the number of coupons on your database/spreadsheet as you use them.

Does that make sense?  Sometimes even the simplest thing is hard for me to articulate and explain, so I just ramble.  Whether you choose to create a database or a spreadsheet you need certain software.  You may own a copy of Microsoft Office, which is perfect as is Microsoft Works (which is what I own).  There is absolutely no need to buy any software to do this!  You can easily use Microsoft Open Office, use Google Docs, or you can find more free software here or here.

I can’t stand for my coupons to be in a mess any more.  It has driven me to the point of insanity, because I am spending too much money at the store and watching sales go by without being able to take advantage of them.  I am about to have to actually pay for garbage bags, shampoo, and toilet paper.  I haven’t paid more than $1 for this stuff in years, and it’s all because I’ve gotten disorganized over the last few months.  I haven’t even paid for shampoo, the really good stuff, in 2 years.  Luckily I’m 2 bottles away from having to but that’s a very low supply in my home!  When I had my coupon database, I knew exactly what I had, how many of each, when they expired, and it was simple to clean them out.   I know that I probably have more time on my hands than some of you, but this is still something you can do if you take 30 minutes a day for a few days to commit to doing.  If your coupons are organized already, it won’t be a problem.

I am going to do the tutorial in another post, since I probably lost most of you a few saentences ago .  I will be doing the tutorial tonight and posting it for tomorrow so you’ll have the day to do it before Sunday’s coupons come out.  But you get to i twhen you get to it.  I just need most of the day today to put the tutorial together as well as finish up some coupon store match ups I’m doing.  I’m slow!

I am leaving you with some homework for those of you who are taking this step to becoming a New Shopper in the New Year.  This will definitely help you get there and help you save money really quickly and believe me, I’m lazy so I wouldn’t do it if it didn’t help me a LOT.

So anyway, your homework is as follows:

Read up and decide whether you’re going to do a simple database or a spreadsheet.  A spreadsheet is the simpler, quicker thing to do, but will take more time in the long run to use.  Not by much, but as you’ve seen by the databases on Hot Coupon World and A Full Cup there is a lot more you can do with a database.d

Find whatever software you’re going to use and download it if necessary.  OpenOffice is a HUGE file so keep that in mind if you download it.

The last step of homework I am giving you for the day is to gather your coupons.  Gather them up and make sure they’re somewhat orgnaized so that it won’t take you long to type in your quantity of each coupon you have, or the size specification.

Creating your own database or spreadsheet may  be a  tedious task but was instrumental to me in my savings years ago and will be  now!  I hope you all take this one (optional) step to becoming a New Shopper in the New Year!

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