Saving money by couponing can be easy and enjoyable; all you have to do is start. Not sure how? I am glad you asked that question. By reading through this Idiot’s Guide to Couponing you will learn how all the ins and outs of couponing work and become saver yourself.
Are you ready?
To start, grab a beverage and a comfortable spot to sit. In no time at all you will be on your way to saving money every day.
Why should I coupon and what benefits are there for me?
* Everyone should coupon because you simply save money by doing so. There are so many resources available to find coupons from groceries to household items to activities. All you need to do is look for them. The benefits are endless. Not only will you be saving money, but you will be teaching your family the value of a dollar.
Where do I start?
* The easiest way to begin is to simply make your weekly shopping list. Write down everything you think you need/want. Next, check out the sales fliers from the local grocery stores in your area. These are available online or an actual flyer. A lot of times you will be able to find the items you are looking for in the sales flier, or you will be able to modify your original list and replace some items with sales items.
* Next, you should try to gather all the coupons you can find. These are available on the internet, in the weekly Sunday newspaper, or through your local grocery stores website. Some internet sites you could use are www.coupons.com, www.redplum.com or www.smartsource.com. Remember, clip all the coupons you may use, even if you will not be using them at your next shopping trip. Most coupons do not expire for a little while and are not always available every week. Worst case scenario is you throw away expired coupons.
* Next thing you will want to do is organize all your coupons.
Group all like coupons together. Such as all paper products together, all dairy products together, health and beauty, meats, laundry, etc. Once you have the coupons are organized in groups. Each group should be separately organized. You do this by putting items together. An example of this would be grouping all toilet paper coupons then all paper towel coupons etc. Once each group is organized you can file away your coupons. A couple of options for this would be to use plastic container with color dividers to separate each group. Or you could use a binder with clear plastic sheets that are typically made for baseball cards or photos. You can find these at most office stores.
So, how are you doing so far? Easy isn’t it!
This process will take the most time when you are just starting out. Once you get the hang out of it, it will only take you a few minutes each week. Get yourself on a schedule every week and it you won’t even notice you’re doing it anymore.
So what’s next you ask, that’s easy. What do you do with the coupons once you have them organized? Simple, you use them. But how do you use them you may wonder. Again, this is simple. You have your list that you created. You checked your list against the sales fliers. Now, go through all the coupons and pull one’s for your list. You will be amazed how many coupons you are able to find. Once you have all of your coupons set aside for your shopping trip, you are ready to go! But don’t forget to take all the coupons with you to the store, even the one’s you are not using. You never know when you might needthem! There is nothing worse than going shopping and realizing you are low on an item and need to purchase it, all the while knowing you have a coupon at home for that exact item.
REMEMBER: Just because you have a coupon does not mean you need to buy the item. If you start doing that, you will end up spending more money on items you don’t really need.
REMEMBER ALSO: The key to saving money is to only purchase what you need and as you need it. Only buy bulk items that are on sale or you have coupons for. And only buy the bulk items if it is something that your family will use. (i.e. paper towels, toilet paper etc.)
So you are at the grocery store and ready to check out, is anything I need to do before I do? The answer is yes, you should make sure you are prepared to checkout prior to doing so. This is what I like to call coupon etiquette. There is nothing worse than being behind someone in a grocery line while they are spending 10 minutes fishing through their purse looking for coupons to use. My advice is to have all your coupons out and ready to hand the cashier. Take 2 minutes at the side of an aisle to double check that you are using as many coupons as possible and keep them aside. After the cashier has scanned all your items, hand over the coupons and watch your total decrease! It can be a lot of fun to see how much you are saving!
Make sure to read the coupon policy of your local grocery store to know what you are able to use and how many you can use. You can either look on the store’s official website for this information or on www.savingandmore.com.
See how simple couponing can be!! The more you save the better you feel and the better you feel make all those around you happy because you are happy.
