Extreme(ly Annoying) Couponing

I've watched maybe one full episode of Extreme Couponing, and caught snippets of various episodes. One of the many things that stuck with me is how very stressed the couponers are when they get to the checkout line, because transactions have to happen in just the right order and amount and coupons have to be perfectly organized, in order for them to meet their spending needs/goals. They get stressed, nervous, cranky... it's not pretty.

Irrational Ranting

I used to get stressed out if I had five coupons when I got to the register. So. Very. Stressed.

I also didn't know how in the life of me to keep my dang coupons organized. I tried putting them in baseball card holders which was incredibly annoying. Then I had them in categorized paper envelopes in a small Rubbermaid container.

And then there are the digital coupons... so many web sites where you can scroll through pages and pages and... then more pages of coupons. And Target.com has coupons, many companies' web sites have places where you can download coupons, and........ there is just not enough time for all the flipping coupons.

Time to Get Rational

So what's a girl to do, in order to stay sane in the face of all this coupon pressure? Well, here's what's keeping me mildly sane:

1 - Treat coupons like a bonus, and not as a crutch
I focus on weekly sales, then if I happen to have a coupon that stacks on top of a sale item, then woohoo: bonus! More money is freed up for other purposes. If I don't have a coupon for an item I need/want to buy, I try not to kick myself. As long as the sum total of all purchases meets my budgeted amount for groceries, then no biggie. This helps lower the stress of coupons a bit.

I know this isn't possible for everyone, as some families rely on coupons to make ends meet.

2 - Find useful online sources that direct you to good coupons based on weekly deals
I kept getting sick of looking through weekly ads and then trolling through all my coupons to see if there were matches. Turns out, there are many hard-working folks out there already doing this for us, and providing the info in easy-to-digest formats!! Get excited. And stop trying to do all the work yourself! It's amazing how much time you'll save.

3 - STOP CLIPPING COUPONS
Ok, I know this sounds weird. But hear me out: the aforementioned web sites tell you where to get a physical coupon from. So on Sunday when you get your weekly booklets of coupons with your newspaper, write the date on each coupon booklet. If you get a Smart Source ad booklet on November 11, then write 11/11 at the top. Put it in a folder. Repeat for remaining coupon booklets. THEN, refer to the web sites I shall send you to. They will say: "hey, if you want this deal, then go get the Smart Source from 11/11 and cut out X coupon." Or something along those lines. That's it! No more clipping hundreds of coupons and sorting them in ways that will force you to hang onto expired coupons and make you so mad that you give up on coupons. This was a big change for me since I used to clip out coupons and sort them into envelopes... this new method was a change for the better.

And then you say: "But what if I want to look through all the coupons to find one that I need? I don't want to rely only on these supposed useful web sites' lists of weekly deals. Gr." Point noted. And so I respond: "Well these useful websites ALSO allow you to search a big database for a product and then it will tell you if a coupon is available for that product and from where! So nyah." More details in #2 below.

My Favorite Online Sources for Help

These sites have made it fun for me to look through and take advantage of sale+coupon combos at MANY stores: Target, Walmart, Walgreens, etc. Even better, #2 & #3 are based in the Midwest (where I live) and also provide deal info for my local grocery stores!

1 - Money Saving Mom
This is a site I often reference, and the first one to introduce me to the amazing concept of telling ME what great deals you can get each week! She posts weekly deals for most major stores like Target, and she links you directly to relevant printable coupons, and/or guides you to a physical coupon based on the method I described above (coupon booklet name + date). Only downside here is that she lives in the South, so her grocery store deals are for Kroger and other stores that I don't have near me.

2 - Pocket Your Dollars
So far, this is my most favoritest site for coupon help. She lists deals per store in a way that allows you to check a checkbox for a specific deal, and then (once you've checked all the checkboxes you want) print out a list of every deal that you checked! Including the relevant coupon info! For a nerd who likes to check stuff off a checklist, this is heaven. Even better, the woman who runs this site lives in the Twin Cities and lists deals for grocery stores in our area (Cub, Menards, Rainbow, etc). Such a time saver!!

ALSO - Pocket Your Dollars has a Coupon Database (go to use the Toolbox > Grocery coupon database). So as for the previous question about how to find a coupon in your huge folder-o-coupon booklets, use this database!! Search for a keyword (like Hormel) and it will list all Hormel coupons, both physical and digital.

3 - Creative Couponing
A friend just told me about this one, so I'm still feeling it out. It is very similar to Pocket Your Dollars, so PYD is my go-to, with Creative Couponing as a backup if I have time to use it. But maybe you'll like it better, so check it out!

Reforming the Queen of Snooze

I loooove sleeping. I try to get at least 7 hours of sleep per night, 8 if possible. When I left my job, I was getting pretty good at waking up early so I could get stuff done AND enjoy some peace and quiet, all before humans and animals woke up.

A couple months into it, I started slacking and "sleeping in". With a toddler, sleeping in really isn't as fabulous as it sounds. :) Regardless, I was hitting snooze so often that it's a good thing my husband is a deep sleeper otherwise he would have been pretty annoyed with my phone's rooster noises. Every 5 minutes. for 30 - 45 minutes. Oopsy.

I could not get myself to stop with the snooze button!! Even though it didn't make me feel more rested and in the end made me feel more stressed. I wasn't getting my quiet time and I wasn't getting a jump on anything, so I felt so behind in my day by 7 AM! Worst of all, sometimes coffee didn't get made. I know.

And then along comes MoneySavingMom.com, who announces over the weekend that she'll be starting a new three-week challenge: Make the Most Out of Your Mornings. It's like she's a mind reader.

Like all her challenges, she gives you daily motivation, tips, and then "homework". It's all meant to help you work on meeting the challenge goals. It's a great way to take baby steps towards, uhh, making the most of your mornings. :)

Yesterday was Day 3 of the challenge, so here's a quick recap:

Day 1: The challenge kick-off and introduction. Get excited to wake up early, people!

Day 2: I call this one Getting Your Beep Together the Night Before. Which seems like an obvious thing to do, but during my "sleeping in" days I was usually leaving things in disorder at night. I wasn't giving my morning self a jump on the day, which was making my mornings even more hectic and stressful. Blech. So Day 2 walks you through choosing a bed time for yourself, and creating a list of five things to do every night before bed. And making a commitment to stick to the bed time and 5-things for the next three weeks. So here are mine:

Bed time: 10:00 (trying to be in bed by 9:30 to read)
5 To-dos before bed: Prep Zach's lunch, Put kitchen in order, Tidy up living room, Kitty litter, Read

Day 3: "Getting Out of Bed On the Right Foot". Get out of bed at the same time every day, and don't hit snooze. Gulp. Being the queen of the snooze button, this is a toughie for me. BUT, this is a challenge and I can't fail! So I pledge to wake up at 6 AM for the next three weeks. I'm going to try some 5:45 AM test runs to start with because in the end I'd like to wake up even earlier. I'm going to put my alarm clock (aka my phone) far enough away from me that I have to get up to turn it off. Gulp again. I'm going to do this so I can make coffee asap and enjoy some peace and quiet. That is my motivation!

Today is Day 4 of the challenge, and I'm excited to see what it brings! Crystal at MoneySavingMom.com posts her challenge updates at 1 PM Eastern, and I look forward to each new post. It's so nice to have a sort of "coach" help me improve something that I truly want to improve!

So far the most difficult part of the challenge has been my daughter. She has also signed up for this challenge, because this week she's been waking up much earlier than normal! Today I heard her wake up at 6:15 and had to get her at 6:45. I feel like my early-morning challenge is being thwarted by this little stinker. I'm hoping this is a temporary trend and that she eventually goes back to her 7:30 (on average) wake-up time. Pleeeeeeeeease go back to your 7:30 wake-up time, Annabel!!!

Simple & Tasty: English Muffin Bread

What's that you say? You love homemade bread but don't like all the mixing of dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then everything all together, then waiting for all the rising action, then... well, you get the point. There are often a lot of steps.

Ohhh and you love English muffins???

Weeellllll then aren't you lucky, because here's the recipe for you: English Muffin Bread

Why is it so easy? Because:
- It's only FIVE ingredients (water, yeast, salt, sugar, & flour)
- It involves only ONE bowl, for mixing everything AND for the first rise
- Mix all 5 ingredients, let rise once, put in loaf pan, let rise a second time, and bake.

See? Easy!! And the results are really tasty. It has the telltale English muffin bread air pockets, it's very light, toasts great, and is super yummy coated in jam.

Find the recipe over at moneysavingmom.com, including freezing instructions! Yep, just bake, cool, slice, and freeze!

The second rise happens right in the loaf pan!

Finished product!

Cleaning Routine: Key for Sanity

Now on to the cleaning routine. Like my general daily routine, the cleaning routine has been key to maintaining my sanity. Like I said a month ago, I used iHeart Organizing's cleaning chart as my inspiration, and started with a list that I haven't really changed much:

Weekly cleaning tasks	Monthly cleaning tasks	Quarterly cleaning tasks
Clean toilets Wipe bathroom sinks/counters Clean bathroom floors Clean bathtubs + shower Sweep wood floor Vacuum first floor Vacuum second floor Vacuum stairs Dust first floor (basic) Dust second floor (basic) Wash sheets Wash towels	Clean refrigerator Clean microwave Full kitchen counter wipe First floor windows Second floor windows Purse / diaper bag reorg Clean kitchen garbage can Wash bath rugs Wash comforter Mop wood floor Flea meds for dog	Change air filter Wash pillow cases Wash couch cover Clean oven Vacuum mattresses

So am I getting every weekly task done per week? Hahahahahahahaa.... no.

But, I manage to get most of them done. Usually! :) And what I don't get done one week, I prioritize the following week. This has kept me from beating up on myself for missed tasks. Vacuuming has been the hardest to get done, because A) I HATE vacuuming, and B) Annabel is sooooo scared of the vacuum. Good enough reasons to slack, right?

Being that it is the last day of May, I can say that I only have one outstanding monthly task left: Clean refrigerator! Will it get done by the end of the day? Er, maybe. I'll leave it at that. Why yes it did!! Apparently posting my negative feelings towards finishing the last May cleaning task made my brain say: Challenge accepted!! Barney-style. And now every single May cleaning task is done. Big sigh of relief right?

As for quarterly cleaning tasks, I have one month left to do the lone outstanding task: Vacuum mattresses! Woo!!

I may keep adding to the lists going forward, but I can vow here and now that the cleaning routine is here to stay! It's given me a lot of satisfaction to keep the house clean, and to cross stuff off my lists. It's also kept me from going out of my mind trying to remember what I cleaned and when!

MoneySavingMom.com has some recent articles with other great cleaning routine ideas & inspiration:

My Money Saving Mom® Inspired Cleaning Schedule
Q&A: How do you stay motivated to get housework done?