So, Part 1 is Coupons. Without coupons, you aren't going to be able to save much money. I have been clipping coupons for a few years now. Then I read The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs
this year and that helped me find more coupon resources and more ways to use them.If you don't have a printer with your computer, you will have to rely on the newspaper for your coupons. This isn't a bad system. My local Sunday paper is $1.75, and I save way more than that with the coupons inside. I usually buy two every week.
If you have a printer, I would go to the Coupon Mom website and sign up for her email newsletter. I find the site a little busy for my preferences so the newsletter lets me focus in on the things I want - more coupons. The newsletter links me to coupon sites and then I can look through available coupons and print them off.
If you do nothing more, this will get you started on the road to saving money at the grocery store. If you want more options, you can also go to company websites to sign up for their email newsletters. There's no guarantee that each one will send you a coupon, but it is another avenue. I am considering setting up one email address just for my couponing if I start signing up for company materials.
One other place I go for coupons is the Box Tops for Education site. You can print coupons for select items that come with Box Tops that you can clip for your school. Not a bad deal - I save money, and help out my son's school at the same time.
Come back tomorrow to find out what I do with all these coupons once I have them.
[I am an Amazon Affiliate. If you click to Amazon from one of my blogs and buy something, I receive a percentage of the purchase price.]
I received this question on Facebook:
ReplyDeleteHi Jaymie, I was excited to see that you are blogging about your coupon savings! I have been pretty into coupons lately, too, although since reading The Tightwad Gazette I've been noticing that most food coupons are for convenience foods that are usually cheaper to make from scratch. I do find coupons especially helpful for bath and paper products, though. How would you address the convenience food issue?
I do think that there are a lot of convenience foods, and I am personally okay with that. At least twice a week because of schedules, I want that convenience! =-) I think you need to start with what you eat/buy. I don't generally keep and use coupons for things I don't normally buy unless they are new items we want to try out. As far as coupons for more "from scratch" products, you might have to look at company websites to help you out.