Organizing a Shopping List Without Writing it Down

Don't write it down??? But I'll forget stuff!!!

Ok, ok... I'm not saying that you necessarily have to forget about writing any list ever! But just hear me out... er... read me out...

I shop with coupons. At least 80-90% of the time, I will have a coupon for each item I'm buying. I check the store circulars before I leave the house (they're all online these days), and I match up the coupons I already have or can print out with the deals I find in the circular. I grab my stack of coupons that I intend to use for a particular store, and I sort them based on the order in which I will come across that item in the grocery store. So I may have my canned goods coupons first, then pasta sauce coupons for the next aisle, shampoo coupons for in the hygiene aisle, and refrigerated and frozen foods coupons last, as that is always the last aisle I visit.

When I go to the store, I keep my stack of coupons in my hand in that order, and after I grab the item on the top coupon, I move that coupon to the back of the stack. Once the first coupon is on top of the stack again, I know that I'm done with my shopping trip! No written list! Plus, if the coupon has specific instructions or exceptions, it's right their under my nose to read the details. I don't have to go back and forth between a list and the coupons, to make sure I'm getting the right items, and most of the time, the sales are listed on the shelves, so you can make sure you're getting the correct items on sale too.

Now, true, sometimes there are a few deals that you might want to take advantage of that you might not have a coupon for, such as a "Buy One, Get Two Free" deal. Let's face it, if you're getting more than half off, most of the time, it's worth taking advantage of even without the coupon. My reasoning is that if it's a good enough deal, I'll remember it. If I forget it, maybe I don't really need it in the first place. I rarely have more than two or three items that I won't have a coupon for though, so for the most part, I do not write lists.

Even though I hold my coupon stack in my hand for my shopping trip, I do carry the rest of my coupon stash with me as well, for one main reason: clearance items. You never know what you'll find on clearance. Once, I found a $4 bottle of shampoo marked down to $1.27. I took out a $1 off coupon from my coupon stash that I had with me to make that shampoo just $.27. Just this past weekend, I found a can of Campbell's Chunky soup, normally over $2 marked down to $.75 because of one very slight dent. I had a $.50 coupon that doubled, allowing me to get that soup for free! Again, these clearance items are unpredictable, so they would never appear on a list to begin with. No need to write lists!

I also find that when I'm coupon-centered instead of list-centered, I have a much more accurate memory of the types of coupons that I still have in my stash. This can be very helpful for matching up with those clearance and marked-down items that I suddenly find in the store.

So don't feel pressured to always write a list. "Have" a list, but you don't have to write it. Using an organized coupon stack as your list really helps you focus on using your coupons correctly, and you can still walk out of the store with the great deals you intended to get.