How DO I Start?

Okay – so you are excited, hopeful but skeptical! At least these were the emotions that i went through when i first started couponing.

You recognize that it is saving others TONS of money – but what is involved?
It is easy to do, you just need to learn the quick tricks, use the free websites and you are set!

I will talk to you about the steps through a short introduction here, but there are FREE Couponing Classes. I offer these classes. Sometimes they are not Free, and that is because of the location and i am having to factor in the cost of what it costs me to rent the location.
I want to say that this is ONE method of couponing. It is a method that i love as it takes little time, but yields MASSIVE savings!

The important thing to note is that you are doing what works best for you. With the brief introduction here, i will not be able to cover all i like to teach in the FREE Couponing Classes, but hopefully give you enough to get you started.

I feel that the first and essential part of becoming “thrifty” is to start with your current grocery shopping habits. If you can start there and change that – everything else and every other area of life will yield it “thrifitiness” along with my helpful tips from this website.

Here is what you do to get started on saving.

1. Buy in Bulk When A Item Goes On Sale!

There is no need for a “club” membership here and warehouse grocery shopping! This is not the kind of bulk shopping that will save you money in the long run.

Instead, when an item that your family normally buys goes on sale, you want to buy a lot of it! A lot of it is defined as enough to last you and your family for 2- 4 months.
Why? The reason is that there is a pattern as to when the manufacturers place their items on sale; it occurs about every 3-4 months. So, if you have bought enough items to get you through to the next sale, you are never going to pay full price for anything!

Over time, shopping this way, you will build a massive food storage filled with a variety of items and then you can begin “shopping” from your pantry. This is when and where your savings really add up as you are just going to the store to “stock up” on the really good deals, and then buying everything perishable that you need that week. You will be doing your meal planning from home instead of “menu shopping” every week!

How do you know how much to buy to last for the 3-4 months until the next time that item goes on sale? This amount will be different for every family as we all consume at different rates.

2. Maximize Your Coupons By Only Using Them When An Item Goes On Sale!

You can use coupons on sale priced items! Take advantage of the extra savings. This is important because if you use a coupon on a regular priced item, you really aren’t saving that much money.

As an example, i will demonstrate with one of my daughters favorite items.
Kellogg's Apple Jacks Shelf Price- $2.89Sale Price- $1.49-$1.89
Using the coupon will help lower my cost.

I would normally use $.70/1 or $1/1 Coupon

Using the shelf price this makes it $2.19-$1.89 a box. This is still a terrible deal (in my opinion). I try to spend somewhere near $1 a box for my cereal.

With the sale price and coupon combined my total would be $.79 -$1.19 using the $.70 cent coupon &$.19-$.49 Using the $1 coupon

3. Buy Multiple Sunday Newspaper Subscriptions.

The more papers you have the more coupons you get. The more coupons you get, the more money you save!

How many should each household have? It is recommended that each household have enough newspaper subscriptions to equal the number of persons in their household.

Q. Is the newspaper the only place where you can get coupons?

A. No – but the coupons that come in the newspaper are your primary and reliable source of coupons.

The newspapers include the Smart Source packets which will be about 70-75% of your total coupons and the P&G Brand Saver which is a part of the remaining 25-30% of coupon sources. The newspaper is the primary source for them! The newspaper pays for itself in 1-2 shopping trips for a six (6) month subscription.

The other 25-30% of coupons are found in these possible places:

You have internet put it to good use, and print coupons. Most coupons let you print 2. There are some no no's that people do when using printable and that is why i am mentioning this. The number 1 thing i hear is people scan and copy the coupon.

NEVER do this. It is FRAUD and if caught you will pay fines or possibly jail time.

In The Stores - in the forms of peelies (coupons on packages to use when you buy them there), tear pads, (blinkies) which are the little boxes on the aisles with coupons in them, and the Catalinas – which are coupons the print at the registers, and some states have winetags. These can be found on alcohol items and most state you do not have to buy alcohol to use the coupon. Just read the fine print.

In The Mail – Keep an eye out for coupons that come in your mail.

In Magazines – many brand name product ads in the magazines will have a coupon. My favorite magazine to use is All You and it is sold only through Walmart or you can buy a subscription.

So how do you get a great deal on your newspapers for stocking up? Call your local newspaper, mine happens to be The Omaha World Herrald. They have a special to where you can get a SUNDAY only subscription for $16 for almost 4 months.

That saves you money right there. The paper in the store costs a ridiculous $2 per paper. See Math Below....

Store price $2 x 12 = $24

Subscription Price $16 divide by 12 =$1.33 a paper

That's a savings difference of $8

The next steps are to use the FREE websites and all of the FREE resources that are available there. There is a certain website out that charges you a huge amount for her subscription, i would recomend staying away from there. Only because why spend that hard money your working for when you can get it FREE here ?

If you live in the Omaha Metro Area, you can have the opportunity to attend a FREE Couponing Class. Take note of the survey on the left side of my site. I am letting you decide on the next date the class will be held.

It is HIGHLY recommended that you attend a class as it will make a world of difference in your shopping! I can only scratch the surface here in this intro! If you would like more information about the FREE Coupon Classes you can email me.

Thank you for reading through this and i hope you have fun while saving!

Qpon $aving Mommas ~ Laura