Couponing rocks! I've been doing it for about 6 weeks. So far, in my couponing trips, I have gotten $769 dollars worth of stuff for $254 dollars. That's a 67% savings. It's mostly on household items like toiletries and other things like cleaners, detergents, etc, because the one grocery store we have here is very unfriendly for couponing. (Side note: many grocery stores are very coupon friendly) That is $515 dollars that I didn't have to spend. And thats only three stores that I'm keeping track of my receipts. Those numbers don't include coupons I use at the grocery store, or other department stores. We now have about a 3-4 month stash on many items like hand soap, shampoo, and dish washing liquid. Now some of you may be thinking that it's silly to have that kind of a stash of anything really. However, think about this. How many times do you go to the grocery store with a list of things that you are out of and pay full price for them. I will never have to pay full price when I run out of my current hand soap, conditioner, laundry detergent, heartburn meds, pain relievers, BABY FORMULA, razors, etc. I can just go to my stash that I paid a fraction of the price for when I run out of what I'm currently using. Lets not forget that when you can buy these things for that cheap, you can donate tons of items to shelters (or college students ; D ) and make quite an impact.
I've had several people ask how to coupon. It's hard to answer a question like that. It really isn't complicated, per se, however it takes some time to get it figured out. I spent hours scouring websites to learn how to do it. I have found one website that is pretty comprehensive and I use it to hear about most of the deals. I went to a class with a friend of mine that was taught by a woman who teaching how to coupon. I knew basically everything that she had to say but the class was 4 hours long. In a one on one setting however, couponing could be explained in about 1 hour.
Here are the basics of what I do every week to get ready for couponing.
1.) Throughout the week I check on my couponing websites to see what deals and coupons are out there, just like you jump on your Facebook page and e-mail accounts everyday.
2.) Saturday evenings or Sunday mornings I go on my preferred website and check out the deals coming up for the week (they start Sunday for drug stores and Wednesdays for grocery stores) I go through each ad for the stores I visit (CVS, Target, Walgreens. I only go to these stores because of the one grocery store thing.) I write down all the deals I want to get on a list and gather my coupons into envelopes for each store.
3.)I get up every Sunday, go to the gas station, and pick up at least 2 newspapers, if not more. Every Sunday. EVERY SUNDAY.
4.) I scour the ads for CVS, Walgreens, and Target for other deals that may have been missed on the website.
5.) I cut out all the coupons and organize them by category into my binder that is filled with baseball card holders. I find all the coupons I need from the newest paper for my shopping trip later that day.
6.) I head out to whatever store and get my deals.
I spend about 30 minutes getting my lists and coupons ready to go. I spend about 30 minutes to 1 hour (depending on the amount of coupons for that Sunday) cutting out and organizing my coupons.
I read an article recently that said that couponing can earn you $86.40 an hour. It's true, too. I calculated my numbers.
Here are my final thoughts on couponing for now: Couponing takes commitment. You can't just go out and get a Sunday newspaper occasionally and hope to save gobs of money. You have to make this a regular thing you do just like anything else from cleaning your bathrooms to filling up your car with gas. I get a HUGE kick out of couponing, and that first time you get a bottle of $7 dollar Head and Shoulders for $0.25 cents, you will get a serious rush.
Let me know if you have any questions. I would be happy to answer any and would love to tell you which websites I use to save for my family.
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