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Since I'm not out shopping for bargains today I thought I'd take a minute to give you my advice on getting started on saving money for your family.
#1. You need to get your hands on some coupons. I suggest buying at least one newspaper (Sunday) but optimally you should try to get your hands on at least two sets of coupons....or more if possible. There are a couple of reasons to get more than one set of coupons. First, a lot of sales are buy 2 products get something free or an additional discount. You want to have a coupon (if available) for each of those items. Even if the store is having a BOGO sale, you can still use a coupon on the free item you are getting. This is where you can get some of your best discounts. The second reason for getting more than one set of coupons is because one of the points of couponing is that you need to buy enough product to get you through until the next sale. So if I see spaghetti sauce is going on a great sale I don't want to buy just 2 cans/ jars of it. I want to be able to buy 6, or 10 or 20 jars....enough to get you through about a 3 month period or until the next good sale. This way you are buying at rock bottom prices and not forced to buy that item at it's highest price. You can buy more than one Sunday paper or you can just ask a few friends and neighbors to please save their coupons for you if they aren't using them.
#2. Organize those coupons. Go to your local Target. Right now they have accordion files for $1 in their Dollar Spot. Buy one or two of those. This is all you need for organizing. They also have the smaller coupon type organizers for $1. You may find having a smaller one helpful to have as well. Once you have your coupons and your accordion file all you have to do is file each insert (or group of inserts) by date.
#3. Finding the coupons when you need them. It will take a few weeks of building up your coupons but eventually you are going to wonder how to find the coupons you need. Let's say I see an add and I see that Target is going to have a big sale on Colgate toothpaste. I want to see if there are any coupons out there that will make the sale a better price. I'm going to go to a coupon database ( I use www.afullcup.com) and search for that product. The database is going to tell me if a coupon exists for that product, the value of that coupon and where to find it. So it is going to tell me there is a $1/1 ($1 off one) coupon in the 1/2 (January 2nd) RP or Red Plum insert. Then I can go to my file and pull the insert from that date, clip the coupon(s) I need and refile the insert until I need it again. If you visit other blogs (and I am going to try adding it to mine as well) when they post their "deals" or shopping ideas they will post where to find the coupon as well. So having them organized this way is very helpful. If you want you can take the time to clip and organize all your coupons by category but I'll say I think that is much more time consuming.
#4. Find a blog or two for the stores you visit most (see my side link about my favorite stores). Check on them once to twice a week....best to do it a few days before a sale cycle starts. They will tell you the BEST values for that add and how to work the very best deals. I like to write down deals I see, and then I clip my coupons and store them by store in the smaller coupon organizers. That way on the day I go shopping I can just take my smaller organizer with me and I don't have to worry about taking all my coupons with me. I also try and keep some paper and a pen with me and then if while I'm at the store I see a good sale I'll write it down and go home and see if I have any coupons to go with it.
#5. Don't start too big. Pick one grocery store and one drug store to start with. A lot of times I find Albertsons will have a Rite Aid in the same shopping center making it an easy way to hit two stores without running all over the place. It also seems a lot of Fred Meyers will have a Walgreens near them.
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