Poll: do you bring your entire coupon stash or drive back later for a deal?

[honker]

Just wondering how other SCers do it . . .

When going out to shop do you:

1) Drag your entire suitcase full of coupons with you to the store in case you find a great unannounced deal (e.g., clearance)

OR

2) Find the deal, go home and get coupon and drive back for the deal?

I've only joined here recently, but already have a reasonably large stack of coupons. If the price was right, I could be convinced to buy a lot of stuff that "wasn't on my list" . . .

[miztia]

I take as much as my purse will hold, I have the mini albums, 3 or 4 of them, then keep the " only if the price is right" coupons in my car.

[Patty Smyth]

I have 2 of those dollar store binders in my purse now. I always have them and the stash at home is overflow but when the brandsaver flyers and such come out I usually take all those with me because I tend to find those products on sale or clearance(pink stickers). Most of those flyer coupons have few restrictions so I have found some pretty decent things that way. Just got 8 Airwick motion for free last week because Loblaws is clearing them out at $5!

I have literally run back home a few times though. LOL Once when I found the Purex 3in1 for $3 at WM. I called DH and said start cutting up the flyers ($2 coupon) I'm coming home to get them. HURRY!!!!! Ended up with 12 of them for $1 each.

By the way that was one of those coupons that I said I will NEVER use because they usually run about $6 and up so you never know.

I can imagine what people must think when I'm standing there going through these 2 huge binders in the store. Funny enough no one has every asked me what they are.

[Insane]

I have literally run back home a few times though. LOL Once when I found the Purex 3in1 for $3 at WM. I called DH and said start cutting up the flyers ($2 coupon) I'm coming home to get them. HURRY!!!!! Ended up with 12 of them for $1 each.

That's like a start the car moment, except it's "Start the cutting"!!

I carry my little portfolio thingy (the size of a wallet) everywhere. I have a basket that is my overflow. Mostly it's coupons for trading, trains, giving away, ect... I just can't bring myself to move to the binder thing. I would definately leave it somewhere!

Course if I have to run home for a coupon, it's 5 minutes tops!! You can drive from one end of town to the other in 15min, so nothing is far away! LOL

[lady_arianna]

i will drive back home if my coupons aren't with me, but i am 2-3 blocks away from most stores (SDM, LD, RCSS) the only one that is really "far" away is WM and i rarely shop there, but i make sure when i do, all of my coupons are with me

[julyprincess]

I carry my entire 'suitcase' everywhere...I hate having to find a deal in a store and then realize I left my coupons at home. Sometimes, I don't have the time to go home and come back and often times when I return, the product is gone

[FallenPixels]

I have my 'I will use' coupons with me whenever I go shopping, but like Patty and the Purex, if I don't think I will use them, they are at home. Sometimes I will go back, others I just tell myself, you weren't going to buy it anyway so leave the deal for those who want it

[French Lady]

I keep the coupons for things I'm most likely to use in a blue pencil case in my purse. The rest are in a shoebox or filed in an expanding folder if I've got time. I usually check the flyer for the store I'm headed to before going out to see if I can match coupons to sales. Works for me.

[iloveagreatdeal]

I have my "will use" coupons with me all the time, but I keep my "suitcase" lol in the car all the time too lol I have actually ran into a friend and a relative in a store and was looking at what they were buying and was like .... Can u watch my cart for a min... and ran out to the car to get them coupons... I work at a grocery store and just about cringe when i see people buying things that they could be using coupons for then proceed to complain when they spend so much...

[SmackUTwice]

I don't drive.

Have a small accordian folder that has a big selection of coupons I know or will likely use. Common items I buy, plan to buy, etc. It's a good picture of my whole collection. In the front pocket goes the coupons I will be using on future shopping excursions. As well as any I may use/possible deals/expiring ones I wouldn't mind using.

At home, beside my kitchen sink, lol, I have a briefcase, divided in half. One half is for all my other coupons. The other half is my trade side. It's lovely as it's labeled and if for some reason I need 3 of a coupon I only had 2 of in my collection, I usually had put 1 or 2 in the trade section... and all is well, lol.

[Litesandsirens911]

well I usually only carry a small folder of my best coupons like HV or FPC's, and whatever it is on my list that I can use coupons for...my coupons at home are in need of some organizing, they are all scattered everywhere, like in shoeboxes, cookie tins, on the living room table, etc...It's a mess because I am always cutting or doing raoks with them..lol

So to answer your question, yeah, most times I will leave the item there and go back for my coupons

[bojojoe]

I work at a grocery store and just about cringe when i see people buying things that they could be using coupons for then proceed to complain when they spend so much...

I get mad when I see people I do not know that do not use coupons that I have at checkout. I really want to put my coupons right beside their product( but I do not I do not know why)

[terryberry]

I keep all mine in the trunk of my car. I have a binder and a small accordian file. The accordian file has all my LD stacks and the binder everything else. I've been able to get great deals on clearance items at SDM and pink stickeres items at RCSS by having my coupons.

[princessd]

I bring in my binder, I can't go to a store with out it. People sometimes look, wondering what is inside. I keep it closed unless I need to find a coupon. I can tell who uses coupons, they ask if it is coupon binder and ask if they can see it. I has happend about a dozen times. My binder is like my third arm!

[ninna]

Mine are sorted into two piles-- "coupons I'm gonna use" and "coupons to trade."

Coupons I'm gonna use go with me where ever I go and I also use the dollar store accordion thing that Patty mentioned as my way of organizing them.

The second pile is my trade list which always stays at home on my desk. It's not as neatly organized...more like stuffed into envelopes of roughly similar items but at least in alphabetical order so I can find them when I need to.

I always sit down on Thursday nights using the flyers and SC and decide which stores have the best deals on the things I want or might need and after going through all those, I make a priority list based on where the absolute best deals are AND where my work will be taking me over the next week. (I travel alot for work). The list is fairly detailed (brand name, size, price; what value of coupon etc.)

Then I paperclip all the coupons I plan to use and sticky note what store each paperclipped stack is for and tuck that plus the priority list in an envelope labelled "This Week." That envelope goes at the front of the accordion so I'm not digging for coupons, scouring flyers etc. once I get in the store.

So the majority of my shopping leg work is done from home. When I get in the store, I find what I want quickly, and get out.

There have been occasions where I see an amazing deal and I don't have the coupon with me (because it's on my trade list). LOL. Would I drive back home to get it? Usually not...unless its such an amazing deal that it's worth my time and gas to do so and I might actually have a use for thing that's on super sale...but usually, that doesn't happen because I'm pretty discriminating. Things that go on my trade list go there because I'm really truly not going to ever buy them.