Couponing 101

Since several people have asked me about couponing and just getting started I thought I'd give you all a few tips.
I've only been doing this since June ,but my savings have been tremendous.

The first thing to do is to buy some baseball card holders and a binder.I usually get a box of 36 pages for $5.00 at Walmart.

Then get yourself a binder,very important to get one that zips,otherwise your coupons will fall out.  

 I also bought page dividers.You can divide your binder any way you want,but this is the way mine is divided  

                                                  

Beverages,breakfast,cereal,condiments,meat & cheese,dairy,refrigerated,Bread,PB & J,baking,mixes and boxed,non food(like pet food,toothpaste and such) fruit & veggies and then it goes to each individual store like Fredmeyer,Target,Albertsons,You can put in whatever stores you frequent.
                            
Now lets start filling your binder.I get a lot of my coupons from the Sunday paper inserts.I buy them for $1.00 there.I will buy 4-5,unless there are doublers then I will buy more.Some of you are fortunate and have stores that automatically double manufacturer coupons.We don't have that here.

You can also find coupons online or in products at times.Once you start looking for them it's amazing how many you will find.                                  

Now gather your store adds and look for sales.                        

 Now look at your coupons or Catalinas,that's the long slip coupon you get at the registers and see if you have matches for that sale,like right here is a cereal sale if I buy 5 boxes I get them for $1.88,then add it with my coupon for $1.00 off of 3 and I will most likely buy 6 boxes of cereal and use 2 coupons and doublers,so I will pay a bit over $7.00 for 6 boxes.That's about $1.32 per box and I will most likely look for better coupons ones for $1.00 off each box that I can use a doubler on. That would make them free. 


I also make sure I sign up for any rewards program a store offers.I've gotten a lot of things for free that way.



I won't lie it is time consuming  and you will have to find somehwere to put the old papers.We will use them for fire starts,but you can take them to recycling.

                                      
                                        
                                 Happy couponing!