When I first started this blog, it was an outlet; a way of sharing my life, motherhood, marriage, my likes & dislikes and saving money with stores like CVS. I haven’t done that in awhile so I have a very special guest, Yoly, aka @cuponeando on Twitter and she will explain to you the best way to save money with coupons and get the best bang for your buck.
Nowadays, we’re all looking for ways to stretch our dollars and one way to keep more of it in your pocket is using coupons. In this post I’ll share with you five steps you can take to start saving more money for your family with coupons:
1. Start by setting a budget and get the cash. We used to have a budget amount we should have followed …but most of the time once in the store we blew it. Once we switched to cash it kept us from buying unnecessary items. When setting what amount to spend take into consideration how many meals will you be preparing a week and how often will you go to the store.
2. Get your coupons. The Sunday paper is still the best way to get coupons. Usually you get a couple of circulars with lots of coupons. Also, keep your eyes open when going to the supermarket, you can find coupons (called blinkies) in the aisles on certain products. You don’t have to use these right away. The same goes with Internet or printable coupons. Print the ones from your favorite brands or products you want to try.
3. Organize your coupons. There are a few organizing methods. Here I’ll introduce you to the two most common ones. The first one, is to get a binder with lots of baseball card pages to file your coupons. If you go for this method, I recommend filing the coupons by brand so it’s easy to find the coupon when you need it. The second method, is to file the complete coupon circular by date. Most blogs that list sales use this method to let you know which coupons are available. With either method, the time you’ll invest to organize will pay off when you go shopping.
4. Start with one store. The goal is to match sales with coupons to maximize savings. Now, in the beginning, attaining this can be very overwhelming. That’s why I recommend starting with one store. Get acquainted with their coupon policy. Visit the customer desk at your store and ask questions. You can ask if they accept competitor coupons, if they double or triple coupons and up to what value and do they accept Internet coupons. Some stores have their own Customer Loyalty Card… two words: get them!
5. Prepare for your shopping trip. It’s time to go shopping, let’s prepare our shopping list. List the items you ‘Must Have’ no matter what. Next on the list are the items that you can match those coupons with the sales. I recommend visiting BeCentsAble and finding a blog, like Cuponeando, that list your store.
Get your list ready and gather the coupons from either organizing method.
Once you feel comfortable with this store you can expand your shopping to more stores and pharmacies and save some serious money.
Yolanda, blogs at Cuponeando, a blog dedicated to highlighting coupons and deals in the Spanish language (which you can also translate to any language with a click of a button). You can also find her & Mr. Cuponeando at Cuponeando Live where they blog about their past-times and living in a multicultural family.
Thank you for the opportunity!
Great tips and post. I am forever wasting money because I don’t always use coupons. I started this year and I know they work. Every little bit helps!!
Great post. I am a super coupon Nazi. If its a not a necessity and I don’t have a coupon chances are I am not buying it. Great tips that I know will save me money!
What a fabulous post! Thanks for the info!
Wish I had more patience for using coupons. Wanda drives me crazy sometimes digging through and pulling coupons. 😉
Hope you guys have a Happy Halloween!!