You can use the new website any number of ways, depending on what works best for you. After the last two weeks of playing with all the ways to use the list, I came up with a process that I really love! This description may seem long, but when I’m doing it, it’s all just quick clicks. Describing it takes alot of words. So bear with me, please. You may decide you like my routine!
I keep my inserts intact, which means I don’t keep a coupon file. Saves me tons of time now, since the list will sort by coupon insert and date. And takes me much less time than cutting and filing all my coupons!
You may do it totally differently. But here’s my process.
First, I have my defaults set. You can choose to set a number of things for “now” or as “default”. I click “Show/Hide”, then under “category filters”, I made my default to hide: alcohol, baby products, and feminine products. I have Marley, so I want to keep seeing the pet items. He loves his treats!!! Off and on, I stock up on baby supplies to make baskets for baby shower gifts, or to donate. But I have a good supply, and I don’t have any showers coming up. If someone I know is going to have a baby, I can un-check that, and I’ll have months to stock up! Once I become a grandma, I will gladly “uncheck” that default setting to see baby stuff! I will stock up on SO much baby food, baby wash, and all kinds of goodies! I look forward to that day! 🙂
In “Show/Hide” I did not choose to show all details on the list. I like the brevity of scrolling through the collapsed items. That seems cleaner to me in determining the bottom line of cost and what I want to buy. The details open up automatically as I select items, so I like to see details only when I check the items. I also do not choose the default white background. I tried it for awhile. But for me, I find the black background to be easier to look at. These two features I just mentioned were not in the official launch, but members wanted it, so we added it. There are a number of things in “Show/Hide” that were added post launch as per members’ requests. Check out the other options under “Show/Hide” as you may customize with other things as your default.
So that’s it on my default settings on “Show/Hide”.
Each week, I go through these steps.
1. I hover over the day I’m going to shop on the calendar on the left.
2. On the “Comparison Shopping At” box on the upper left, I check only the stores that are shopping days according to the calendar for the day I’m going to shop.
3. I click “Change Sorting” and choose “Savings %”. Now my list is sorted with all deals in all stores I’ve selected, starting with the free items, and going down by savings percentage.
4. I check off all the things I want to stock up on until I get to 60-70% range. Now, I begin to think about what I’m out of and pay attention to blacks and blues, and become even more selective. I do go all the way to the end, even into low savings percentages, because maybe there is something there that I really like, or forgot that I “need”.
5A. Now I change the sort order to sort by “aisle”. I usually only shop one store. So I will scan through and see which stores have the best deals for me this week, with the most things I like. Then, I go to the “comparison shopping at” box on the upper left, and uncheck the stores I will not be going to, leaving the one store checked that I have chosen for this week. The items that I had previously checked are all there, just without the other stores’ items. I really like this, because some weeks one store is better than others, and vice versa. I like being able to compare quickly and choose the best store each week.
5B. If I have time to cherry pick (go to multiple stores), I uncheck the stores that have the same thing. Like if 3 stores have Wishbone salad dressing, I choose the one with the best price, and uncheck the list items from the other 2 stores. I also change quantities as I go, in case I decide to get more of something. This updates my subtotal too! (running subtotal of what I’ve checked, is shown on bottom left box)
6. Now I click “Gather Coupons”. I love this so much! Because it will only show me the items that have coupons. And it’s listed by coupon insert and date. And since I don’t keep a coupon file, it’s a huge time saver for me! On the left is a tally of the sections from the paper that I will be going into to find my coupons. Sort by coupon date is something that members have asked for for many years! Plus the printables are sorted in groups too, so I can easily see what I need to print, as well as electronic coupons (cellfire), and others.
7. I hover over any symbols to see the notes I need to know about. I really love not having to look down at the footer or up in the header to figure out what those abbreviations mean!
8. Now I click “Print and Shop”. Since I left it at sort by “aisle”, it’s ready to print that way. But if I didn’t leave it by “aisle”, I could choose it by “aisle”, or another way. Printing the list by “aisle” works for me. Because I can put my coupons in order of my printed list, and find things in the store very easily. When it prints, if I had multiple stores, it will print out each store separately and sorted by aisle.
I love the tally of the subtotal on the left. I watch that as I’m checking off items. It’s great to know about how much I will be spending! And I like to see my savings percentage. Funny thing, when I shop at one store, I’m usually right at about 67% off! if I cherry pick, I’m usually saving 80% or better! 🙂
Maybe you’ll try my routine. Or find a method that works for the way you shop!