So Much Information, So Little Time!

I have discovered so many sites that have such great information that it boggles my mind. When I advised to join all of the coupon groups on Facebook, I didn't realize that not everyone had a Facebook account, so for those who don't have an account, don't fret. I will be posting many links to websites that you can join just by having an email account. Remember, make sure that you make a seperate account for all your couponing activity. I would suggest a gmail account. There are so many coupon sites, message boards/forums as well as just frugal living sites that it's almost impossible to count. I will give them to you as I find them and hopefully you won't get too overwhelmed.

Message boards/forums are really great because they connect you with other people who have the experience to give advice and find the great websites where others have done the leg work of finding the coupons, store match ups, coupon policy changes, apps for smart phones and the list goes on. One that I found today that is very informative, is www.hotcouponworld.com They have a great post about how to get started step by step and they do a much better job than I can do. I have found that almost everyone who has a website about coupons and couponing, begin in a different way than the next person. Sometimes it's a lot of fun, but at the same time it can be confusing. I am learning by trial and error and I told my son this evening that learning how to coupon in the most efficient way is like taking college classes. If you want to be successful you have to educate yourself as much as possible. Couponing can also be like a full time job since offers, free items and store specials are ever changing. Another reason why couponing can be considered a job, is that you can actually MAKE money while saving money. This statement leads to my next paragraph and how I got my husband completely on board with extreme couponing.


It's funny how once I got started with couponing, how fast it's really become an obsession. My husband had been so confused about the whole "extreme" couponing craze. We have always tried to use coupons as much as possible, but to him, it was like getting the Sunday paper, cutting out the coupons that we knew we would use and then pitching the rest in the trash. In the past few weeks, when I decided to go hard on couponing, I had gotten coupon inserts from Ebay. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his scissors in hand and his little 5 page insert ready to start snipping. I pulled out my stash of 30 5 page inserts, plopped them down in front of him and said, "We need to cut every coupon out." He looked at me with the deer in the headlights look and asked, "Do you mean ALL of them?!" I then explained about how we could actually make money on some of items and he was all for it! Those scissors flew until his hand cramped up several times. So, the free and money maker coupons are what gets those coupon extremist's grocery bills that total $800 all the way down to $25!

Keep On Top of Ads

Every week most of us get the Hampshire Review and the Weekender with ads for Food Lion, CVS, Rite Aid, Family Dollar and Dollar General. Keep on top of the bargins each week and use those MVP, CVS and Rite Aid savings cards. It's fun to challenge yourself each week to see how much you saved, so another thing to do is get a small box or ziploc and keep your receipts from week to week to look back and see how much you are saving. It can also give you a baseline to find out where you started and how you can get better at finding the deals.

Timing is everything too. Knowing when to use your coupons is what will set you apart everyone else. How you use them will distinguish you from the amateurs, separate you from pretenders and define you as a great couponer! Couponing success is much less about what coupons you have and much more about at what times you will use them! By following these three rules you can be absolutely certain that you’re getting the most out of your coupons.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is using a coupon just because you have it. The key is to wait until that item goes on sale or the store runs a promotion. Nearly all stores run a weekly ad with newly slashed prices and great promotions like: Buy 1 Get 1 Free, Spend $15 on these products get $5 back, Buy 4, Save $4 instantly. When you’re certain the item is marked at a bargain price or the promotion is too good to pass up then add a coupon on top of it and you’ve just scored an amazing deal!

“Stacking”, or using more than one coupon on the same product, is a fabulous way to save money. Nearly all stores allow you to use both a manufacturer coupon and a store coupon together on one item. By combining both types of coupons when purchasing one item you’re sure to get tremendous savings.

County Pride is the only store in our community “double” coupons, meaning they accept your coupon at twice the face value. So if a coupon is $0.50 off one item, the store will honor that coupon at $1.00 off. County Pride DOUBLES their coupons EVERYDAY up to $0.50

The absolute perfect scenario occurs when more than one of these rules align. That’s how you end up bringing home items for free, or better yet, how you leave the store with more money in your pocket than you came with. Since I just started this extreme couponing, this it hasn't happened yet. I will be sure to let EVERYONE know when it does. I like to shop at County Pride because they are a privately owned and operated store and they give Food Lion a run for their money a lot of the time. Reminder...County Pride DOES NOT take internet coupons.