couponing

About a month or 2 ago, I decided I was tired of not having any money. I decided to start couponing. I have a few friends that do it and they save a ton of money. My friend April, showed me pics of her surplus of grocery item she got really cheap or free. So I thought I'd give it a shot. She told me she uses a binder and baseball card holders to keep her coupons in, so that's what I got, too.

I usually buy anywhere from 3 to 6 newspapers on Sunday. You can preview the coupons for the week at sundaycouponpreview.com to help you decide how many newspapers to buy. When buying newspapers you may get stared down as you inspect every newspaper for your coupon inserts but make sure that you check each of them as I have been robbed of an insert once. You can buy more newspaper if you have a bigger family or if you feel there's something you really want to stock up on. I also use websites like coupons.com and couponmom.com as well as SmartSource.com , RedPlum.com and WeUseCoupons.com Those are the major ones I use. They have helpful hints to help you coupon and links to more coupon websites too. Also Target's website has a section for coupons and some of them are manufacturers coupons while some are Target coupons.
I research the store's website, browsing their local ad to see the deals and compare prices. I usually do this on Saturday and Sunday nights since one of the stores I use changes their sales on Saturday night while the other major store I use changes their ads on Sunday nights. I shop stores like Meijer, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS. The coupon policy is different for each store. Right now, Kroger will double every coupon up to $1. So say you have a $.50 coupon for something, Kroger will give you the other $.50 so you will save $1. Meijer does that too, but only on the first 2 coupons so if you want to use more than 2 of a coupon that is less than $1 you will only get face value for each additional coupon. CVS, Target and Walgreens sometimes have store coupons that you can use in addition to a manufacturers coupon. I have personally only done this at Target and tried at Walgreens, but the store coupon was $.99 and my manufacturers coupon was $1 and for some reason she would not allow me to use the coupon.

This is kind of hard, dedicated work. Takes patience and sometimes you can be in the stores for a few hours. I am fortunate enough to have all these stores really close by so as to not have to drive all around to save money. I have been to as many as 3 different stores in one shopping trip.

Today, I bought $134.05 worth of groceries at 2 different stores for $55.04. total savings of $79.01. I saved $34.48 in coupons alone along with $44.53 in store promotions and bonus coupons. I purchased 67 items total. Some of them were:

oral b toothbrush $2.00 ea -2.00 off 1 coupon =free x5
suave deodorant $1.19 ea -$.50 coupon (doubles to $1) $.19 x4=$.76
hunts tomato sauce $.97 ea coupon for free store brand pasta when you buy 3 I bought 4 cause that stuff is like $1.07 at Wal-Mart if not more. $3.88 and the pasta was $1.05 (free)
tuna and hamburger helper 10 for $10 -$.75 off 3 (doubles to $1)=3 for $2 x 2 so 6 boxes for $4
frozen vegetables again 10 for $10 -$.60 off 3= 3 for $2 x2 so 6 for $4
post cereal $1.88-$1 coupon $.88 x4=$3.52
coca cola 3 12pk for $9
dial hand soap $1 ea -$.35 (doubles to $.70)= $.30 x3= $.90

That's just a sample of the things I bought today.

I also got 2 razors one today and one yesterday at walgreens sale priced at $7.99. I had a manufacturers coupon for -$2.00=5.99. Then, you get a coupon at the register called register rewards for $4.00 off your next purchase so I have $8.00 to spend at Walgreens now.
I will try to write more blogs as I get better at this. There are so many different ways you can coupon and probably a ton more options out there like coupon clipping services but I am doing good enough on my own I think. I am not trying to buy a boat load of stuff just because I can. I don't understand the point of buying a ton of one item, you know you will never use that much of just cause it's cheap.