I don't know about you, but I've tried over and over again to start saving money by couponing, but to be honest with you, it hasn't been that easy. I can figure out the basics but the whole lingo and how you need to match offers with the store or with the manufacturer, at the end of the day, left me more stressed out then anything. So I figured that my time was worth more then saving a few bucks. I consider myself to be a savvy shopper for my household but when I see people getting triple the amount of groceries then what I am for the same money, I know I'm missing something. COUPONS!
A while ago, a childhood friend, whom I had lost contact with for years, reached out to me through Facebook. Now you know when you just become friends with someone on Facebook, the first thing you do is look around at their photos. Come on? Admit it! I know I'm not the only one...haha!...Ok a little sidetracked.
Well as I'm looking at her photos, I notice she has images of deals that she has found and she continued posting them and I was in awe. I wanted to be able to get the most for my buck too so this brings us to now.
Ladies and Gents!!! A huge round of applause for our first guest blogger!! (You can tell that I'm super duper excited, huh?) The QUEEN of Couponing!!!! (She doesn't know I call her that until she reads this post...sorry but to be honest, to master what you do, in my mind, YOU ARE the QUEEN of Couponing!)
I have asked Lissette to kindly share with all of us her tips. Hope this helps!
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I
am so honored to be able to share with all of you the great wonders of
Couponing. I have been couponing for the past 2 years and I have to tell you I
am hooked!! I love knowing that I will pay minimal or close to nothing for my
items, but of course, the greatest satisfaction is to receive your items for
FREE! In these tough economically times, we all could use some help cutting down our
grocery bill by 50-75%. The first thing to remember when couponing is Keep Yourself ORGANIZED, you have no idea how badly a transaction can go when you’re not organized.
The way to keep organized is to get yourself a 3-ring binder from your local department store or if you have one at home that will work as well. Buy a pack of baseball card holder sheets (40-ct pack at Wal-Mart $4.97) and some binder dividers. These three items are going to save you lots of headaches while cutting coupons and sorting them.
Now, the way I divide my binder is by categories (example: breakfast, drinks, condiments, prepared sides, surface cleaners, laundry etc...). Once you decide which way you want to divide your binder, it's time to get some coupon inserts and start cutting away! But before you go crazy doing this there is one more important step to all this madness, I always encourage everyone to print out your favorite stores coupon policy and carry this with you at all times. The reason for this is 9 out of 10 times you will have to deal with a cashier that is not very coupon savvy which means they will not want to honor your coupons BUT if you’re a smart cookie you will have that stores coupon policy readily available for the cashier.
Now that you know how to organize yourself let’s talk a little bit about coupon inserts. When purchasing your newspapers please keep in mind to always buy in even numbers (2,4,6 etc…)not odd numbers 1, 3 or 5 (This depends on how many items you want to stock up on. The reason for that is when you find a good BOGO deal (buy one get one) you will need a coupon for each item to maximize your savings. So basically if Shaw’s has Bogo deal on Crest toothpaste for $1.99 you are automatically going to get both items for $1.99 but if you have two coupons for any Crest toothpaste and these are valued at $1.00 each you will get both items for free, had you only had one coupon you would end up paying $.99 cents for both which is still a great deal but remember we are always trying to maximize our savings.
I hope you enjoyed my take on couponing, please stay tuned for more on couponing.
For daily updates on couponing, you can also follow me on Facebook on Coupon Stockpiling.
Facebook: CouponStockpiling
Blog page: Lissettes Coupon Stockpiling
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Thank you Lissette for taking time to stop by and share with us a few tips on how we can get started. Like anything, ORGANIZATION is key in starting and maintaining a system. Let's recap on what supplies we will need to get started.
Make sure to follow her Facebook page to see the new deal she found and how much she paid for it. Breaking it down like she did doesn't seem so intimidating. I think I'll give her method a try. I'll start off slowly.
Any of you use coupons to shop? Please leave your questions or suggestions below.
Happy Couponing!
Organized Chica - xox
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