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[hope2004]

I know there are not many left here but I wanted to offer again just in case anyone needs it.

I do a lot of couponing and it saves our family a ton of money. If anyone needs help cutting back on expenses I would be more than happy to help with providing links and basics. On everyday items that can be stockpiled I can easily save between 60-90%. This does not include bread, milk, fruits or vegetables but things like beauty supplies, juices, shampoos, crackers, cereals, etc etc. All those things that you can buy ahead of time and put pretty much in the pantry. I hardly never buy generic (because coupons are for brand name only) and the bonus is that with doing this you can actually get some items for free. It can be time consuming but time in this case = money (= savings).

Let me know if anyone would like to get started an I can direct you to some website and get you started with the basics.

Petra

[Knot Borde]

I am interested. Time is an issue, but I'd still like to know your strategy, etc.

[pepper]

I would love to know also. I have one website saved for Georgia I think its georgiasavers.com

ETA: it's http://www.southernsavers.com

[hope2004]

One of the things that I do is to buy one Sunday paper per family member - which means I get 4 papers every Sunday. This gives me plenty of coupons to go back on in the coming months. I do NOT clip these coupons. Walmart, Target and other big stores sell small plastic filing cabins for hanging file folders. I organize each of my coupons per Sunday (1/3, 2/14 etc) and just put them in a folder and pretty much forget about them until I need them. This also means I never take all my coupons with me to the store. I only take the ones I need - and clip the ones I want. Makes life much easier and coupons are organized neatly.

In the back of the box I keep my Internet coupons or any other coupons that I may find in magazines, etc. In the top of the box is a space for pens, scissors.

The trick to couponing is to combine sales with coupons. A good sale is anything that is at least 50% off. If you have a coupon that makes it even better so you get the sale and the reduction of the coupon. Even small coupons can add up. One of my stores that I shop at will double coupons up to 60 cents so if something gets marked down to $1.50 and I have a 60 cents coupon it's an AWESOME deal. Of course the key is to have several of these coupons then - this is why it's best to buy several Sunday papers so you can take advantage of sales.

There are MANY MANY MANY websites that will offer help with weekly sales. Some help more than others and some charge a small fee for their service.

One of my favorite places to shop at is CVS. You need an Extra Care Card (free) to take advantage of their sales. You can actually get many products for free this way or for very little. To get the sales you need to first sign up for the card and then keep checking on their sales. Once you like a sale you will pay full price for the item but will get "Extra Bucks" back for your next shopping trip. Example. You may buy toothpaste for $2.99 but get 2.99 in Extra Bucks back (free money) So next time you come back you can buy anything in the store with that money. Most super shoppers roll those extra bucks over from week to week to buy deals so their out of pocket expenses are low and their take home products are high

Here is a CVS for beginners link
The "Cent"sible Sawyer: CVS for Beginners

Every week I check websites for sales. My favorite websites are:
Stretching a Buck ? Spend Wisely, Live Well

or

Smart Coupon Deals

For example I'll find the list for Walgreens
Walgreens Deals: Free Motrin, Revlon Eye Shadow, Tylenol, Renpure and More | Common Sense With Money

After each product listed it will give the info for the coupon like this:

Motrin PM (20 ct.), $2.99
Use $3/2 Motrin or Children’s Motrin Product, exp. 4-30-10 (SS 11/22/09)
Use $1.50/1 Walgreens coupon in March Coupon Book
Get two free after both coupons

$3 off when you buy 2 (SS 11/22/09) means Smart Source coupon insert from the 11/22 Sunday paper
Other abbrevations are RP - Red Plum insert
PG - Procter and Gamble Insert

If there isn't a coupon listed - it may be an Internet Coupon and the link will be provided. For Walgreens the coupon may be in the ad that can be found for the flyer at the store.


Some places have a few pages - usually grocery stores. I just print them out, mark what I want and find the coupons. Then I put everything in an envelope and take that to the store. This way I only clip the coupons I need and I don't have to dig through coupons in the store.

It does take time but the more you do it the faster you get. The savings are amazing.

By the way - you do not need a huge supply of coupons do get started. Eventually it will help you to save more but this coming Sunday I would recommend to just get started. Buy the number of papers and check the drug stores, Target or grocery stores for sales. I plan where I will be shopping for the week. Grocery stores in my area change their sales on Wednesdays. With having a list in hand it takes minutes to make my purchases so the actual shopping is no problem at all. I've found that I'm also less tempted to buy anything else in the store because I have found that these stores put their merchandise on sale in cycles so if you're patient and don't have an immediate need for something - it pays off to wait.

I have been doing this for quite a while and if anyone really starts to get into this you will notice that you can actually get more items of certain things then your family will ever need. I've actually routinely donated items to food banks and to church.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any help

Petra

[loveliest1]

I've been trying so hard at this lately, but I just can't find the right store to shop at so that I save the most money! I don't have a publix or kroger anywhere near me, and it appears that those are the two best grocery stores (at least anywhere near me) to save. We do have a nice Walgreens that I have yet to check out, so I need to do that! Anyway, I just wanted to add a link.

Grocery Coupons, Coupons, Free Samples, Online Coupons, Restaurant Coupons

They have a lot of good deals listed on there!

Thanks Petra for all your help, and this is the motivation I need to get back to working on this!

[hope2004]

Kasey, which grocery stores do you have??? It doesn't matter which ones you have really. It would be great if it was a chain grocery store because then you could probably get some of the sales lists from the net. If it's a small mom and pop store and local you may just have to get their weekly flier and do the sales yourselves which is harder BUT can be done. I used to do the CVS stuff myself before I discovered that there were lists out there already done LOL

I know you have a Walmart near you and I know there are Walmart lists available but I have not had great success with shopping lists from the net with Walmart. Not sure if every area rolls back their prices regionally because I found that the lists that I had did not match up You may want to check into that because shopping and matching up coupons at Walmart may be a great way to save too - I just have had little luck with it so far and never looked into it more because I live in a metro area with lots of other stores available.

Walgreens is a great store - just not my super favorite. I love CVS. Too bad you don't have one of those near you. Depending where I'm going I have about 4 stores that I shop at and one of my favorites is actually a pretty small one that is well stocked.

[loveliest1]

We do have a Walmart, but they just don't have the sales that grocery stores have. I mean, they have better prices in General, but they don't have outright sales like other stores do. No B1G1's or anything like that.

The main problem I have is that I don't have the time to go through and match all my coupons to sales. It'd be much easier if I could match up online. I have a winn dixie not TOO far from here, so I could start using that. I've done it once and did pretty well. I needed a ton of things at that time, so I still spent a lot, but I did get some really good deals. I'd really like to go to a publix or a kroger. They seem to have good sales.

Most of what I have been doing is buying most of my stuff at Walmart and using coupons for whatever I can, and then I get my meats at a smaller store with better meat prices. I've saved a lot that way, just not as much as I'd like to! I did just find out that there is an Aldi's about 40 minutes from here, so I may try that, and I may still try Publix or Kroger, it's just hard to drive the 45 mins once a week just to get groceries.

ETA: I know 45 mins to some people that live in big cities doesn't seem like much, but it is actually around 40-45 miles, so it is a lot. Our Walmart is 15 miles from here.

[hope2004]

Totally understand about the lack of time of matching sales up.

If you have a Winn Dixie this is what I found for their weekly sales for this week:
Fiddledeedee!: Winn Dixie Deals with Coupon Matchups: 3/4 - 3/10

I'm sure there are more - just google Winn Dixie coupon match-ups or sales. There are usually quite a few

I would probably not drive 45 min to the nearest store unless they are having a great sale unless this is something you are used to doing. If you have an Aldis nearby - for this I would. The nearest Aldis for us is 30 min and we usually go once a month and stock up. There really isn't a reason to go once a week. They do have sales but for the things we buy it just doesn't make sense to go weekly. they have great frozen items btw and plenty of good sales on snacks. I tend to stock up on my German snacks & their German Coffee because this is actually a chain that comes from Germany ;-)

Petra