Couponing... MY way!

I've been saving money with coupons... a lot of money! It's a lot easier than I thought it would be. It's a lot easier than it was backintheday when there were no blogs about it! This is how I do coupons. You can do them however suits your fancy. There are tons of blogs out there about this very thing. (beware... some of them have you pay for a subscription. Although they are user friendly... you can find the exact same info on the blogs I have listed and on many others.) Find what fits you then start saving! Hopefully I can help. Remember, I'm just a blog comment or email away!

My suggestion for getting started is to keep the inserts from the papers for a few weeks before you really start. If not, you won't be able to use many of the deals because you won't have a stash of coupons (and nothing starts a fit in me faster than a good deal I miss out on...). Couponmom suggests organizing your coupons a really easy way: write the date on the top page of the insert and keep it all together, don't cut any out until you are ready to use them. To stay even more organized, keep them in a large accordion file folder. The websites that tell you the weekly deals also tell you what insert they are in, so it saves time. These websites tell you where you can print coupons (my faves are listed at the end) and if you go through some of these websites, they get credit. Also, find a neighbor or two that will save their coupon inserts to give you. When there is a really good deal, you will want to stockpile and use more than one coupon.

Stockpiling is a great way to save money. A stockpile is when you buy more than one even if you don't need it. If dish washing liquid is 75% off with a coupon, buy as many as coupons you have! That way, when you need some, you won't have to pay full price (gasp!). By stockpiling, I haven't paid more than 25 cents for a tube of toothpaste and I've even made money by buying shampoo!

Not only do the websites tell you what is on sale, many tell you where to get free samples. To keep my email inbox from getting spammed by signing up for coupons, I created a different email account. It is only for when I sign up for things. You can get tons of coupons AND FREE things.

Here are the websites that I have found to be the best. Couponmom (you have to sign up, but it's free!) is the main site I use to make my list. It breaks down everything that is on sale and tells you what coupons to use and what percentage off you can get. You can use it make a shopping list. I only look at items for more than 50% off, even if it is not our normal brand. Brand loyalty is out the window for me now! Southern Savers is good for reading more about how to do the whole coupon thing. She lists different scenarios. I double check my list with hers because she lists some deals that are not on couponmom. Becentsable is awesome because it has the grocery gathering. It lists most all grocery stores and what blogs tell about the weekly savings. Couponing can look overwhelming at first, but once you learn it, it is so easy! Freebies for mom lists free stuff. Coupons to print from coupons.com.

Review....

1. Keep coupon inserts from Sunday's paper and come up with your way to organize them. Find neighbors to give you their inserts. There are also groups that meet locally and do coupon swaps.

2. Check out the websites and read about how to save and get familiar with the whole concept of couponing.

3. Open an email account.

4. After you have a few weeks of coupons saved, and have learned about coupons, go shopping!

To avoid coupon mistakes, here are two tips:

1. Make sure you know when your store changes sales. Krogers near me sends out the sales papers on Sunday, but it doesn't go into use until Wednesday.

2. Be sure you know exactly what the specials are. (weekly store inserts from Sunday paper, and they are mailed to you)

Have fun learning about how to save money! I've cut our grocery bills in half! It's saving us $50 - $75 a week! AND since I'm buying more and stockpiling, we don't eat out or have fast food anymore! Since I've been couponing, our average monthly savings has been around $300!

If you have any questions, just ask!