I began my quest for savings earlier this year while trying to budget for a family trip to Disney World! Even though I've only been doing this a short time, I feel very confident in helping others find great deals and save money! Here are a few tips to get you started!
1. COLLECT! This is pretty obvious! You need to start collecting coupons! There are TONS of resources available for collecting coupons. For beginners, I reccomend that they start out by buying the Sunday paper. A general rule of thumb is the BIGGER the paper, the BETTER the coupons. There are also many online resources for collecting coupons. Please visit the links on the right-hand side of the page for my favorite coupon printing websites.
2. PLAN! You can also check http://www.sundaycouponpreview.com/ for upcoming coupons. This will give you a preview of the upcoming week's coupons. Please keep in mind that denominations & actual coupons may vary by region. This website can help you determine if you want to buy multiple Sunday papers or if you'd like to order additional coupons from a clipping service.
3. ORGANIZE! There is nothing worse than knowing that you have a coupon for something and NOT being able to find it. The system that I've found that works best is a simple 3 ring binder with baseball card organizers. You can seperate food/non-food items into different categories (shaving, hair, dental, cereal, dairy, salty snacks, etc) making them easier to locate and build your shopping list.
4. WAIT! You have your coupons. You are organized. Now What? You wait. Just because you have a coupon for it right now, does NOT mean that you should purchase it right now. The key to scoring the BIG deals is waiting for a sale and striking while the iron is h-o-t!
5. SHOP! I use several websites and my own 'scouting' when posting match-ups on my blog. Under each match-up is a list of insert coupons, store coupons & printable coupons that are used to receive the biggest discount possible. I will do my best to provide links to all printable coupons I use, but please be aware, these are usually only available to print in limited quantities so act fast! If it is an insert coupon you will see either PG (Proctor & Gamble), RP (Red Plum) or SS (Smart Source) next to it, along with a date (8/7, 8/14, 8/21) showing what date that insert was available in the Sunday Paper.
