Getting Started

The first thing you want to do is buy the Sunday newspaper. You can do it without the Sunday paper, by printing coupons from the internet. A lot of stores won't take printed coupons, so check before you go. Sometimes it depends on the cashier too.

When you get the Sunday paper clip all the coupons. I clip every coupon that I think I would ever possibly use. I don't have a cat, so I don't clip kitty litter, other than that I clip everything else. The best way is to buy at least 2 Sunday papers so that you have double the coupons. The general rule is to have 1 coupon for each person in the house that you will be buying for. The trick with couponing (is that a word?) is to stockpile. You want to buy as much as your family will eat in a year. That's your goal. Certain foods go on sale at certain times of year i.e., the Quaker sale just happened, it happens big once a year, the baking goods all go on sale in the fall, before the holidays, General Mills happens twice a year.

After you've got your coupons all clipped you will want to organize them. There are a couple of ways to do this. Some people use a small accordion file, I use a binder. It's a 3 ring binder with baseball card holder pages. They come in boxes of 10, you will probably want 3 boxes. Organize them in the way that feels most natural to you, you want to be able to find them fast. You'll want at least one page empty in the front. I put all my coupons in there for the week separated by the stores I'm going to use them at.

My binder can be written on the front, so I have all the stores listed and then each week I write what I'm buying, the sale price, the price after using the coupon, and how many to buy. That way, it's very simple, once I'm in the store. The more organized you are when you go to the store, the less money and time you will spend at the store.

At the beginning you won't be buying a lot because you won't have a lot of coupons. The trick is to wait until things go on a great sale and then use the coupons. You'll be amazed at all the money you save. There are lots of opportunities for stores to pay YOU to take the products.

I go shopping Sunday-Wednesday. I hit Walgreens, Safeway and other drug stores on Sunday and I go to the other grocery stores on Wednesday. Most stores I go the day the sale starts to make sure they don't run out of anything. Safeway I wait until Sunday because they have 24 or 48 hour weekend sales that usually end Sunday night. I've learned you have to go Sunday morning or they are sold out of everything.