And now I bestow on you my coupon knowledge...

Part 2: Couponistas(os) Unite!

So now, hopefully you've all signed up for your money making surveys. Now I'll tell you about an even easier, more sure fire way to save money...couponing. I'm going to try to make this as organized as I can, so I'm going to give you my background, how I organize my coupons, how to use them, and where. At least, I think that'd be the best way to tell you about all this. I won't go into tons of detail here in this blog. Maybe I'll do another series, when the 30 day challenge is over, just on coupons. Whaddaya say, stalkers...I mean loyal readers?

I first started couponing thanks to my lovely sister in law, Joan. She started telling me how she was saving so much money at Target, my then favorite store. Lily was a few weeks old and I thought "I could use this extra money right about now, especially with baby stuff." So, one night we went to Target and picked out my supplies: a nice, sturdy pink binder with a zipper, tons of baseball card sleeves, pink and brown divider tabs, and divider pages with folder slots. I spent around $25. I could've spent less but I really wanted the pretty divider tabs and bright plastic divider folder pages. I ended up making that $25 back in my first coupon shopping trip, and I've gotten better since then, so it was definitely a great investment.

When I "built" my coupon notebook, this is how I divided it. In the front, I put colored, plastic folder style dividers. I have one for each of the major weekly ads I keep (Publix, Kroger, Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid). Then after that I divided the notebook into a few major categories: Health & Beauty, Cleaning/Home Needs, Food, Pet, and Baby. In each category, I put in baseball card sleeves and fixed the pink & brown tabs on them. I divided mine like this:

Health & Beauty:

Make-up (including nail polish)

Dental (toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash)

Feminine Needs

Deoderant

Soaps/Body Wash (including face soaps)

Lotion

Razors (and refills)

Pain Relievers (asprin, tylenol, tums, etc)

Allergy/Sinus

Vitamins

Misc (anything else)

Cleaning/Home Needs

Laundry (detergent, dryer sheets, dryer bars)

Bathroom cleaners

Kitchen cleaners (including dishwasher and dish detergent)

Dusting/floor care (swiffer, pledge, bleach, etc)

Light Bulbs

Batteries

Miscellaneous (PUR water filters, air filters, etc)

Writing/School supplies

Pets

Food

Treats/Supplies

Food

Breakfast

Cereal (there are SO many cereal coupons)

Beverages

Frozen

Meat

Dairy

Yogurt

Cheese

Snacks

Bread

Desserts

Baby

Diapers

Food/Formula

Miscellaneous (medicine, toys, etc)

Wow, that was a lot, huh? Having them sorted like that, at least for me, makes it much easier to find coupons when I need them. I used to carry this entire binder with me when I went shopping, and I'd flip through as I shopped. But then I realized I was buying things simply because I had coupons for it, and not because it was on an exceptionally good sale. Now I do things a little differently and my savings has increased dramatically. I look through the ads and my coupons and figure out what I'm buying from which store BEFORE I go. I pull ONLY those coupons and put them in a small zippered pouch (I got mine from Thirty-One).

Where do I find my deals? Where do I find my coupons?

First, about mid-week (like now, or tomorrow) I go to sundaycouponpreview.com and see what coupons will be in the Sunday paper. I usually buy 2 papers (from Kroger or Wal-Mart where they are $0.99 on Sundays, not $1.75), unless there are some really good coupons (like the Similac coupons from a few weeks ago...I bought 4 papers) then I buy more.

Then, on Sunday, I pull out the ads and see what is on sale where. Then I see what coupons I have for the sale items, or if I can find any. I often use www.southernsavers.com to find coupons. They have a coupon database, where you can type in what you're looking for and it will bring up every coupon that is out for it. It'll tell you where to find it, or if it's able to be printed online. This is the easiest way to find out if a coupon has a store coupon counterpart (like Target, Food Lion, etc).

So here is an example. Say I need toothpaste. This week, Publix is selling Colgate toothpaste for $1.00 per tube. I have 3 manufacturer coupons for $0.75 off one tube. I also have 3 Target coupons that I printed online for $1.00 off one tube. I can go to Publix right now and buy 3 tubes of toothpaste that would total $3.00 without coupons. I can use all 3 of the manufacturer coupons, so then the toothpaste only costs $0.75. Then I can also use all 3 of the Target coupons, so then I pay $-2.25. How do you pay $-2.25? Well, it ends up as $2.25 off of the rest of my grocery bill. That is why I love Publix. Many other stores won't do that. They'll change the coupon to make it less off rather than give you credit. Now, you can't go in and ONLY get toothpaste. You have to at least get other things to make up the difference, but think of how nice it is to pay $2.25 less for a nice piece of steak (that they don't make coupons for) or formula or diapers? Now, I could take the same sale and coupons and get 6 tubes of toothpaste for $0.75, instead of 3. This is stockpiling. If it's something like that, and you have room to store it, then it might be better to do this. However, you don't want to turn stockpiling into hoarding. Say you have 10 coupons...how long will it take you to use 10 tubes of toothpaste? Where will you put them? Toothpaste is small and stores pretty easy but you can see how this would easily get out of control with say toilet paper...or cleaning supplies...or a particular type of food (will you really eat 100 cans of green beans? So what if they were a penny each!)

I do almost all of my shopping at Publix simply because they will accept competitor coupons, and they consider nearly everyone (Walgreens, Rite Aid, CVS, Kroger, Wal-Mart...even Food Lion) a competitor. Plus, they do their own coupons in their fliers and in extra ads you can pick up in the store. Kroger is good with their cartbuster stuff-- where if you buy X number of qualifying items, you get $X off your total bill. (But, a word to the wise from someone who found out the hard way-- you only get that money off once, no matter how many qualifying items you buy. So tonight it was 10 items gets you $5 off. I bought 20 items and still only got $5 off. I should've done 2 separate transactions. But oh well, live and learn.) But, even though I do most shopping at Publix, as you just read, I do go to the other stores. Sometimes there are just better deals. Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS all have programs where you can purchase specified items and get register rewards, which is like money for future purchases. I have a $6 one for Walgreens right now, so I could go in there tomorrow and pick out something that would total $6.01, give them that register reward, and pay $0.01. Walgreens, Rite Aid, and CVS all take manufacturer coupons so you can see already how this could work out to your advantage.

The biggest advice I can give you is just be patient and watch for the deals. Don't worry about missing out on one or two every so often because there will be many more. Don't worry yourself sick trying to get to 5 different stores to do shopping-- you'll find that they tend to run similar specials. And, last but not least, don't just buy it because it's on sale or because you have a coupon! Buy it because you need it (or will need it in the near future), you have a coupon for it, AND it's on sale, all at the same time!

I could go into much more detail, and maybe, at some point, I will. But this is all the basic stuff to get anyone started! I hope that it helps you all, and I look forward to hearing stories about your savings. By the way, on my last trip to Publix, I paid $19.04 on a $76.32 total, thanks to coupons.