Accountability and Responsibility

I’ve never been a big coupon clipper — neither were my parents when they were growing up. In the past few months, though, I’ve been trying to find a way to save some cash without making the coupon-hunting time be a waste of money. I know people who spend 10 hours a week to save US$15, and for me US$1.50 per hour is not worth my time.

When coupon-clipping has saved me the most has generally been in large purchases. I especially like preferred customer cards — Best Buy’s offers 3% cash back and we use it on all our purchases (and any family member who doesn’t belong to the program). Over a year we’ll get back almost US$500 in gift certificates based on all the purchases we convert from people we know.

Yet lately we’re trying a new idea. Many times during the week we’ll find ourselves unsure of exactly what to do. Since I now work primarily out of my home, getting out of the house more regularly is important. For a while, though, getting out of the house has been expensive as we’d go “window” shopping (spending money on things we didn’t need) or go to a restaurant (when we could have eaten at home). Now our new coupon-hunting time spent at home does double duty — it also helps us plan what we’ll do in the days and weeks ahead.

I picked up a simple little filing sleeve made of plastic. It has 15 8×5″ x 5″ sleeves and cost about US$7 at the office supply store. I labeled each file sleeve with a day of the week, starting on Sunday and going through the second Saturday. Using a dry erase marker I’ll also write the actual date next to each day of the week — planning for 2 weeks ahead or so.

When we sit down and spend our 1 hour a week or so looking through all the coupon mailers and online site coupons that we found, we plan our schedule around the savings. We find numerous restaurant coupons (up to 40% off sometimes) and a crazy amount of grocery coupons. We also find car maintenance coupons, travel and entertainment coupons, and the rest. We just dump the coupon right into the file on the particular day we plan on using it, and we’re set. Sometimes we’ll throw in coupons we’re only partially interested in — just in case we might find an hour or two free and want to head out of the house.

We’ve been following this trial for 3 weeks now and I am surprised at how much we’ve saved above our budget — almost US$170 in 3 weeks. We’ve prioritized certain days as “Go to this town” day, and we even prioritize each day’s coupons in the order of need: groceries and things that need chilling are put at the end of that particular file. For restaurants, if we don’t use a particular coupon on a given day, we can move it to another day as long as the coupon isn’t expired.

Coupon expiration is usually ignored by most retailers and restaurants, but this filing system also allows us to toss coupons that we know we can’t use, and when we come across them, we don’t have to even look if they’re still valid.

While we’re still working out the bugs — and finding new features — this system is working great for us and I can’t wait to see how much time and money we end up saving by combining two of our trickiest acts into one, with both acts helping one another. By managing your schedule and your coupons into one process, you’ll likely see even more savings than doing just one or the other, or both separately.

Discuss this article at the accountability and responsibility forum.

I recently decided to take a short break from full time work so I can focus (or refocus) on my plans and goals and hopes for the decade — I’m now in my 30s. For most people, it is a near impossibility to just stop having a major income due to debt, bills and just the basic cost of living.

While my break is voluntary, sometimes life will bring you periods of unemployment, failed businesses or health situations (stress and depression count here, too). But beyond the stressed of temporary unemployment comes a bigger stress that you may not even notice: the daily stress of making sure everything is taken care of each month.

My recommendation is to get ahead on those payments and stay ahead. What I like to do is pay an extra 10% over the “Monthly Bill” portion of the utilities and all payments. If you do it every month the amount is minimal (sometimes just $8-$10 per bill), but within a year or less you’ll get ahead an entire payment. Keep on with the program and you’ll find yourself months ahead. For the past year I’ve been trying to pay 20% extra a month.

Note that you don’t want to pay 10% more than the Amount Due portion, as this portion will shrink each month from your overpayment. You want to find the smaller number that shows the actual Monthly Bill, before they subtract your credits.

Some people say you should use your extra dollars to pay down your highest interest credit cards first, or pay down your mortgage quicker, or any of those things. I don’t think this is a reasonable situation — when people pay down debt, they tend to run it back up. Debt, mortgages and loans are a huge headache in general, but if your utilities are paid a month or three in advance (or a year as I will soon be!), the underlying stresses are significantly reduced. A sadness you didn’t even realize was there is lifted off your chest.

I hear from many families how they can’t put two dimes together to get ahead, yet I see those same families buying junk in the convenience store. Cutting back two fast food visits a month is enough to get 2 months ahead of your utilities in just a year. The nicest thing about receiving bills after you’re ahead is seeing the “CR” tag after the amount due — meaning you have a credit, they owe you! Once that happens, you’ll find yourself not fearing the mailbox check each day, except for the revolving debt you might have climbing on top of you. Once you are ahead of the utilities, keep on trying to pay 10% more than the Monthly Bill but now focus on getting rid of that debt.

Once you get ahead of your daily responsibilities, you’ll find it easier to stay ahead in more than just finances. Lowering the quiet small daily stresses that you don’t realize you have is a huge step in getting rid of stress and depression that you notice in a more obvious way.