Coupons - Get Started!

To be successful at couponing you'll need to:

• Make the time and effort
• Do your homework and make a pre-shopping trip plan
• Don't shop with children if at all possible (it's easier to stick to the plan this way)
• Don't be BRAND loyal (unless there's only one brand of facial cleanser that will keep you from breaking out- then by all means, stick to it!)
• Buy things even if you don't need it right away. Stock up when you can get it for cheap or free!
• Be willing to shop at multiple stores throughout the week and not be a "one stop shopper".
• SPEND MONEY to begin with. Especially if you are trying to start the CVS or Walgreens programs. Don't be discouraged... once you spend money at these stores a few times, you'll start coming out with bags full of free items later.

This first step to saving money with coupons is collecting and saving your coupons!
Sunday newspapers have inserts in them filled with tons of savings. My paper caries a Red Plum insert, Smart Source insert, and Proctor and Gamble once a month,. This is by far your quickest way to accumulate a lot of coupons all at once. So go buy yourself a Sunday paper or plan on it next week.

There are also many many ways to print coupons from online. http://www.coupons.com/ is a great place to start. You can simply click on the coupons you'd like to print and print them out. You may be prompted to install a program so your computer can correctly print these. Go ahead and do this. You'll be happy you did. Many store's registers have a hard time scanning home printed coupons, and if they don't scan, many cranky employees will refuse to accept them. Though you'll get just as many nice employees who will go ahead and push it through manually.

Alright. Once you've got your pile of coupons, you'll need to organize them. I group them by category, and store them in a coupon folder. I've seen people use 3 ring binders- I'm not a big fan of this method- it doesn't seem very mobile to me.

Now, start collecting your local stores sales fliers. I mostly do CVS and Walgreens right now. I buy most my groceries at Walmart, and do some coupons there, but because Walmart doesn't put out store coupons, it's harder to get good deals (Walmart does however offer weekly samples from their website, and coupons usually come with them). Because of this, I've started to buy most of my household products like cleaning supplies, t.p., and make up at the drug stores.

There's only one other option for groceries around here, the HEB, and I have yet to figure their coupon system out. I DO know that some stores like Kroger for example, have some amazing sales and coupons to go with it. So look around at the blogs I have linked on the right, and see what blogs are talking about your local sales. Now here's the most important part to keeping up to date... SUBSCRIBE to these blogs. Many of them will give you the adds right there on your computer screen. Most of them will give you a play by play on what to buy, when to buy, how to buy.

Now, how to actually get started at the store? Well, copy somebody else of course! Find a blog that seems in sync with what you buy and your local stores, and do what they do!

*Let me know if you have any questions, and if I can't answer it, I will try and find the answer from someone else.

To learn the Walgreens saving system, visit I Heart Wags.

To learn the CVS savings system, visit I Heart CVS. There are many many other sites who will explain these to you. I just find these two websites to be quick, easy, and to the point, without being confusing for beginners!