Nine Couponing Tips

Alicia asked me for ten couponing tips and I came up with nine so I thought I'd share with everyone. These are the things that are working for me and my family right now. I am not nearly as into the couponing thing as others (like stockpiling 50 of every item and having a binder of 2000 clipped coupons) but this method is keeping my family fed and clean. This isn't the only way to do it, but maybe you can glean some ideas you want to use from my craziness system :-).

#1 Get your SUNDAY PAPER and clip the coupons for products you will buy no matter what (ie. we always buy Head and Shoulders shampoo and Cheeze Its crackers). Even if its not on sale, using these coupons will save me some money when I buy them anyway. Keep the ads for later (see "Shop at Walmart"). File away coupon inserts by date in manilla folders for easy reference later.


#2 CARRY CLIPPED COUPONS in a small/medium coupon (index card) divider at all times.


#3 Keep an eye on the COUPONING BLOGS. I have loaded four couponing sites into Google Reader, which serves as a sort of email system for incoming info on coupon deals. There are probably 100 posts per day and I can scan them all in less than 15 minutes, just looking for key words like "Walmart deals" or "free shampoo at Walgreens this week", depending on what our family needs. Google Reader is also fantastic because you can save a post for later (like if you want to go back and print later or keep the list of Walgreens deals handy for later) because otherwise if you are reading directly off of the couponing blog, that post is buried within a day and it will take a ton of time to go looking for it when you want it. You also never know where you left off the last time you read on the blog, but Google Reader only shows you new posts you haven’t read yet. Here are the four links to the blogs I read. The first two are national sites and the second two are more regional to my area.
www.moneysavingmom.com
www.swaggrabber.com
www.fabulesslyfrugal.com
www.discountqueens.com

#4 SHOP AT WALMART. I know, this has it's issues, but for our family it is what is working right now. Walmart hands down has the generally cheaper prices in our area. Winco is a close runner up but doesn't accept competitor coupons so it falls to second place (it's also farther from my house). Here's the key to Walmart...they are price matching and accepting just about any coupon on the planet, especially from other stores. I scan the ads each week and just take them all into Walmart and they will match what Albertsons or Walgreens has advertised. (The exception here is for stores like Walgreens and CVS that issue "store cash" type coupons...Walmart won't honor that deal.) So instead of running around like crazy to half a dozen stores, I just hit Walmart with my stack of ads and do all my deals in one trip. They also accept Kmart and Albertson's "doublers"...which means you can stack a cents off manufacturer coupon with the "doubler" and get a super deal without schlepping to those stores. AND typically Walmart's base price is LOWER than that of Kmart or Albertsons anyway so you get an even more super deal.

#5 Keep an eye on WALGREENS REGISTER REWARDS (or CVS ECB deals) and hit that store when there's something free or what you need.

#6 Know your UNIT PRICES. I have a spreadsheet of about 50 commonly purchased food and sundry items that our family uses and what the unit price is at Walmart, Winco and Costco. It helps me know if a “sale” is a “good deal” (because for example…Albertsons might put hamburger “on sale” for $3.79 but my spreadsheet tells me that the normal price at Costco is $2.69 so that’s not a “good deal.”)

#7 If you have a COSTCO MEMBERSHIP, use it for key items. Milk and eggs are cheapest in my town at Costco. Cereal and crackers are cheapest when a fantastic coupon deal is nowhere to be found. Ground beef is also cheaper there, and sometimes chicken and pork. Again, know your unit prices because sometimes Costco is ALOT more expensive...bigger is not always better!

#8 Use the store LOYALTY CARDS at places like Albertsons and CVS. Put the key ring ones on your car keys so you'll always have them. The deals you are shopping are usually better when swiping the card and there are frequently quarterly perks that cash out etc...so swipe those cards no matter what!

#9 My last tip on saving money is to set a BUDGET. We have a weekly budget and no matter the deal, I don’t go over it. I see it as my job to get the most I can for the least I can, but it would defeat the “savings” idea if I went nuts and got “good deals” but still spent an insane amount of money. I make sure that my shopping fits within our budget, while keeping a balance of healthy food in the house. I also utilize this budget with cash only. It's impossible to overspend cash, but it's pretty easy to do it while swiping some sort of card.