I thought that my friend was like so many of us. His income was fixed, his time was fixed. If he wants more time, he needs to reduce his money needs. There are mediators for this such as buying on sale, couponing, or living within your means. If he wants more money he needs to free up time. The mediators for this are efficiency and labor-saving devices. Another is organization.

Can organization actually save time and free up more money? A major principle of organizing is that for all of the elements of a set to be considered organized, all must be equally and readily visible. No moving or shuffling an item to find another. Consider the Parable of the DVDs.

Sarah’s son wants to watch a DVD and asks her help to locate it. She knows it’s in the pile of DVDs on his bedroom floor. They scan the titles on the first layer, oriented in different directions. The title is not found. The top layer is obviously blocking the next layer so the pile is shuffled. The search begins anew with the same results. After 20 minutes the title is found. Search, shuffle, find, no, repeat. The son is about to scamper off to watch TV, but Sarah feels a lesson coming on. She works alongside her son to gather all the titles and place them in a DVD rack on the closet door. Now, she asks the son to find a title. He scans the rack and finds it within a minute.

It’s good when time and money mediators collide. Couponing (money mediator). Organizing (time mediator). Coupon organizing. Coupon organizers.

Couponing saves money but takes time. Can organizing recoupe some or all of the time? I maintain that the more that true principles of organization get applied to couponing, the less time it has to take. Do you ever walk in to a store with a stack of coupons in hand, a shoebox, your purse, or a coupon holder? You enter the cereal section. You fumble through the stack, looking for the target coupon. You may find all the products for which you have coupons. But it will take unnecessary time. What if you could organize your coupons so that you could see them all at one glance? It would save you time in every section of the store. There are many so-called organizers on the market. They each add varying degrees of order to couponing. But most still leave your sorting through the stack and wasting time. Some allow you to see all of your coupons, but putting them in and taking them out is time-consuming.

Time and money saving mediators collide best when you have all of your coupons in a convenient binder, with the store sections divided by tabs readable at a glance, and coupon pockets that allow all coupons for a store section to be visible at a glance (and the coupons are easy to insert and remove). Mrs. A’s Coupon Organizer is a great example of a tool that brings time and money closer together, saving much of each.

Don't buy what you don't need. Take a deep look at yourself. Do you buy to mood alter? Living within one's means provides a peace greater than the excitement of a purchase if it leaves you with the stress of debt. This list could be much longer. It was an exercise for me to see what I could think of off the top of my head.

Copyright © 2007, Paul Stout, Mrs. A's Corporation

This, in itself, could fill a book. Masters of time and lifestyle management, such as Stephen R. Covey (author of "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"), teach us that day planning is not just making a "to do" list and checking tasks off during the day. It is a process of identifying what you most value in life, then identifying the goals that will fulfill those values, and then each morning, planning your day's activities to accomplish the goals which fulfill your values. Then, you are able to stay focused on that which will bring to pass what you most want out of life, and not be distracted by things that are urgent but unimportant.

Doesn't a similar process apply to our finances? We identify what money-related items most matter to us, make goals to fulfill them, and then organize our finances and shopping/spending habits to accomplish them. As an example, our core financial values might be an adequate and lovely home, ability to buy the food and staples we need, adequate health insurance, retirement funding, staying debt-free, educating our children, family vacations, hobbies, etc. Obviously, the goal planning to realize this takes time, thought, monitoring, and various tools, and is done yearly, monthly, and daily.

Value-based spending, then, would suggest that we don't just go to the store and fill our carts impulsively. The result of such is buying products we don't need, spending beyond our means, cluttering our homes, and sabbotaging the realization of our financial goals. Value-based spending means that we have identified and written our financial values, have converted them in to long and short term goals, have written plans supporting those goals, and then, before a shopping trip, we plan the stores we will visit and the items we will purchase. It is useful to record these items on a shopping list (especially purposefully-designed ones such as found in Mrs. A's Coupon Organizer which tie in coupon savings). Shopping from such a list prevents impulse buying and keeps you focused on your larger values and finances their realization.

Wouldn't it be a shame to never realize your dreams because you can never pass by the Twinkies? I, myself, can pass by the Twinkies (it's the donuts that get me):)

Copyright © 2007, Paul Stout, Mrs. A's Corporation

In our last issue, we posted a lengthy article about the lifecycle of a coupon. This month, I'd like to present a memory enhancement for your head. 

We hear lots of cell phones ringing in the grocery stores these days. Poor men, like myself, get calls from their partners asking to bring home additional items. If the list gets too long I forget some of it. To help, I use a mnemonic device which was taught to us in Psychology 101. It's like music and poetry. How many teenagers can or want to memorize poetry? Just add a catchy tune and, well, most teens mind's are full of verse.

One is a bun.

Two is a shoe.

Three is a tree.

Four is a door.

Five is a hive.

Six is a stick.

Seven is heaven.

Eight is a gate.

Nine is a mine.

Ten is a hen.

So, my wife calls me in the store and asks me to get a jar of honey, diapers, apples, etc. Having the little rhyme easily memorized, I map the list to the rhyme. One is a bun. I imagine honey poured on the buns (honey buns). I've created in my mind an image. Two is a shoe. I imagine (OK, it's personal but it works) excrement running down a toddler's leg in to their shoe. They needed a diaper. Three is a tree. I imagine the apples on a tree. And so forth.

It's a simple matter to memorize the rhyme. Then, whenever you need to memorize something, associate rhyme and list images in your mind. It's amazing how well it works. You can expand the concept with other mnemonic techniques. Do an online search on the topic. If you have trouble with names, and you get introduced to someone named Mike, maybe you see that his hairline has a widows peak and forms an M. We don't have to be lost without our planners.

Copyright ©, Paul Stout, General Manager, Mrs. A's Corporation, 2007

Do you remember the articles such as “I am Joe’s pancreas” in Readers Digest describing how parts of the human body worked? Perhaps this article should be titled “I am Jane’s coupon”.

My son asked me why women wear makeup. Not really knowing, and nervous that my wife was casting me a glance, I responded that once the first woman did, she had an advantage over other women. The rest of the women chose to follow suit or be left behind in the areas where perceived beauty paid dividends. It’s been a powerful practice not easily eliminated from our society.

I don’t know when the first coupon, as we know them, was offered (probably some time after the printing press was invented), but that manufacturer found a sales advantage which competitors had to imitate. Do you think stores like dealing with coupons? You may conclude, after reading the below article, that they would like to see them disappear. Many have predicted that, with online shopping and all the electronic communication methods now in use, the paper coupon would disappear. However, it remains stronger than ever. After all, coupons are free money with decades of consumer momentum continuing to push their usage.

Let’s examine the lifecycle of manufacturers’ coupons; how they are typically created, how they get to the consumer, and how stores redeem them to get their money back.

The Manufacturer Manufacturers of consumer goods are always looking for ways to increase sales. Coupon promotions are one way. Many factors are involved in creating a promotion. The coupon design, value, method of distribution, validity period and other parameters all have to be determined and are contained in basic marketing knowledge. The basic knowledge is tailored according to the specific industry of the manufacturer. And finally, manufacturers keep statistics on the success of prior coupon promotions. They take their best shot on the coupon campaign based on marketing knowledge, either from their internal experts or from consultants, and then compare sales or revenue before and after the promotion. With time, a manufacturer learns which promotions work and which don’t. Are there ever surprises? Most definitely. Many have been the promotions which cost more than they made.

Distribution Channels The manufacturer now has to get the coupons to the consumers. There are many methods for this. Free Standing Inserts (FSI) are placed in newspapers and magazines, coupon packs and post cards are direct mailed to consumers, coupons are dispensed in-store at the point of sale (POS), coupons are obtained online, or flyers may even be left on a home porch. When I was a teenager, our scout troop had a project where we arranged for flyers to be printed for local companies. On a Friday night we’d collate and staple the flyers together via a revolving table. On Saturday, we ran the flyers to the porches of about 30,000 homes. Our troop always had good money for activities. Later, a boss required me to place flyers on the windshields of all the cars in the mall parking lot. Manufacturers often have established distribution channels. Or, they may turn to marketing companies (such as manufacturers’ agents like NCH) who have the connections to distribute the coupons to newspaper/magazine publishers, mailers, stores, or online distributors (and maybe even boy scout troops).

Consumers Consumers are those who buy the manufacturers’ goods through the product distribution channels known as retailers. Consumers receive the manufacturers’ coupons through one of the distribution channels mentioned above. Consumers often trade information regarding where to obtain desired coupons, or even trade coupons. Coupons are valuable. If a coupon reduces the amount of your purchase by $1, that is $1.15 to $1.50 you don’t have to earn (based on your tax bracket). Thus, they fall in the category of “a penny saved is a penny earned”. I guess Ben Franklin wrote that before the days of big taxes. Consumers who use lots of coupons are called couponers. I’m always amazed at how much money some couponers save. Savvy couponers find a good coupon organizer to maximize their savings, save time by reducing clutter, and make couponing a smoother process.

Retailers The consumer buys the manufacturers’ products through a retailer, such as a grocery store. Upon checkout, the consumer hands money and coupons to the clerk. The consumer has saved money on her purchase. The manufacturer has hopefully influenced the consumer to buy their product. Life is great for the manufacturer and consumer. However, the retailer or store has just taken the loss for the coupon created by the manufacturer. The manufacturer needs to pay the store back for that coupon (redeeming). But the store carries products from so many manufacturers. Major chains collect millions of coupons. How is the debt reconciled?

Coupons are placed in till drawers along with cash. At the end of the day, cash from tills is counted. The cash value of coupons is also counted in order to balance out the till. The manufacturers’ coupons are then bagged and sent to the retailer’s headquarters, usually weekly (of course, this can vary by store size, etc. Smaller stores may process the coupons in-house and mail the coupons to the manufacturer’s redemption address on the back of the coupon. Retailers are typically paid 8 cents per coupon to cover the redemption costs). Large retailers box all of the coupons. They are still in the bags as sent in from the originating stores (can you see how important organization is in this process?) as the end goal is to get reimbursement to the individual stores. The boxes are then sent to a Retailer Clearinghouse.

Retailer Clearinghouse The Retailer Clearinghouse (typically independent from any one retailer) has to sort the coupons by manufacturer and yet keep track of which retailer they came in from. Automation is used to the extent possible. Coupons with readable UPC codes (bar codes) are place on a conveyor belt where scanners read the codes and compute the total value of specific manufacturer’s coupons in a batch. Some coupons can’t be read by machine due to damage, dirt, etc. These require added levels of hand processing to sort and tally. The whole process is labor-intensive. Is it any surprise that some clearinghouses subcontract part of the work to offshore clearinghouses where labor rates are cheaper? In the end, the clearinghouse has sorted the coupons by retailer and then by manufacturer. The coupons get sent to the individual manufacturers with invoices as to how much is due each retailer.

Back to the Manufacturer The manufacturer now has to pay the store for the coupons redeemed, as well as the clearinghouse for their work. If the store is small and does the entire coupon processing in-house, they will receive remuneration (coupon value plus processing fees) directly from the manufacturers. If the process has gone through the clearinghouse, the manufacturer may pay the clearinghouse who will keep their cut and then pay the store for the value of the coupons redeemed. Or, the manufacturer will pay the retailer, who will then pay the clearinghouse for their services.

Now that a coupon promotion has come full circle, the manufacturer is interested in at least two things; how successful was the promotion (did sales or revenue increase and by how much) and was there any coupon fraud (have you ever wondered how many jobs exist solely to prevent others from being dishonest or how much of your job overhead involves efforts to prevent dishonesty?)? There is accounting in every stage of this process. Just as a store’s tills must balance at the end of the day, the coupons claimed by a retailer must add up to the coupons returned to the manufacturer. If fraud is suspected, the coupons may pass through another clearinghouse.

A manufacturer may employ a manufacturers’ agent to generate coupon count reports as well as marketing analysis reports. Companies, such as NCH, can function as the manufacturers’ agent (designing the promotion and coupon, linking to the distribution channels, generating promotion analysis reports) and clearinghouse (providing this intermediary service for retailer and manufacturer).

Information in this article is the opinion of the author and is based on Mrs. A’s Corporation’s manufacturing and retailing experience, the process flow suggested at NCH (http://www.nchmarketing.com/us/ab/coupon.asp) and "How do store coupons work? How does the store get its money back?".  July 19, 2000  http://money.howstuffworks.comquestion426.htm  (August 31, 2007)

Copyright ©, Paul Stout, General Manager, Mrs. A's Corporation, 2007

The first principle structures the elements so that all can be seen equally readily, and one element doesn't block the other from view. If you can see everything you are organizing, at the same time and with one glance, you will find your target faster.

I get asked how Mrs. A's Coupon Organizer differs from the many other "coupon organizers". My main comment is that the others are likely "coupon holders" and not organizers, or at least don't organize well enough to offer the full benefit. Notice that with Mrs. A's, one glance shows you all the tabs to quickly find the section for the area of the store you are in. Once in the frozen foods section, for example, one glance now shows you all the coupons you have for frozen foods.

To organize at this level requires marked tabs, clear coupon pockets, and the binder needs to be of sufficient size to hold all of your coupons in view. Look at the many "organizers". Are they small? Are they merely places to stuff and carry your coupons? If so, you will fumble through them in the store, and couponing will take more time than it's worth. Like one of our readers said, "you might as well take your shoe box full of coupons to the store".

Can you imagine if Google didn't organize or index all the web information? A search would be meaningless, or at least take forever. Have you been holding off on adding organization to your couponing? Don't settle for a coupon holder. Organize, benefically!

"Organizing is the act of rearranging elements following one or more rules. It can also be seeing as the opposite of messing up.

Anything is commonly considered organized when it looks like everything has a correct order of placement. But it's only ultimately organized if any element has no difference on time taken to find it. In that sense, organizing can also be defined as the act to place different objects in sequential arrangement for better searching."

So, just follow one or more rules and your objects will be organized? Well, I organize for the benefits I can get out of it. I look at my son's bedroom and consider the rule set he employed in organizing it (or disorganizing it). "When you're done with it, place it where it will take the least amount of effort to set down". A rule set was followed, but the resultant organization is devoid of benefit.

As an example, my son wanted to watch a video. There was a massive pile of them on the floor. He asked me if I knew where a certain movie was. I replied "no, I don't have the x-ray vision to see beyond the top layer on the pile. Now, if you would discipline yourself to return movies to the organizer on the closet door, then I could see every title at a glance, and rapidly find the one you want".

That's why I like definition 2 above. Beneficial organization structures the elements so that all can be seen equally readily, and one element doesn't block the other from view. That's why the video rack works so well. Not only does it save on space, but it saves on time each time I go to watch a movie.

Think about it. Your goals in life won't fly without organizing them according to their governing laws.