How To Begin Couponing

So you want to start to coupon and save money!? YAY! You may have a question or two or six hundred fifty-three on how to proceed. Everyone takes a different path to learning, and everyone has a different reason to coupon, but many folks may not know how to begin. What do you do? Is it as easy as buying a Sunday newspaper with inserts or printing an online coupon and walking into a store?

Actually, it is almost that easy to begin.

My advice to you if you are just starting out is to do a bit of research on your own.

• Check your local newspaper to see what day they carry coupon inserts, Saturday or Sunday. Check if your local paper has the Smart Source and Red Plum inserts. Also check to see if they carry the Proctor & Gamble insert. In some areas the Red Plum and P&G (Proctor & Gamble) arrive in your mail. My recommendation is not to start with more than four newspaper inserts your first week. You want to ease into this, not burn yourself out within a month. If your area has several large newspapers available, check the prices of the papers and look at the denominations to see what newspaper is the best deal. If you are lucky enough to live in an area with Hispanic newspapers, they are free and have inserts that are as good as, or better than, the paid newspapers.

• Find a great printable coupon source!

• Check the policies and procedures of your local grocery stores. Do not forget smaller area stores as sometimes the locally owned chains have the best prices or loss leaders. See if the store doubles coupons. Does the store require a shopper’s discount card? Sign up for your local store’s email alerts. You never know what a store might send!

• Find out what drug stores are in your area. If you have Rite Aid and CVS, you need to sign up for their shopper’s card. Read the Rite Aid Tutorial the Walgreens Tutorial and/ore CVS Tutorial for a basic working knowledge of these drug stores.

• Find 10 bloggers to follow. Ideally, a minimum of two or three should personally write up the deals for stores in your area. The reason I say personally (as opposed to trading with someone or paying someone to write the posts), is because you want a blogger that has working knowledge of the policies, procedures, nuances and sale history of those stores. You want to follow at least a few people who have a thorough knowledge of the store until you gain your own working knowledge of that store. Until you are an expert, you want to rely on someone else’s expertise. Make certain that those bloggers are willing to answer your questions too. It will not do you any good to read a deal write-up you do not understand and have no one willing to explain it to you! That will lead to frustration and your quitting before you’ve begun.

• When you read a deal write-up, understand that you must double check your prices and sale fliers as all the drug stores and every grocery chain will put out regional ad in different areas of the country. Until you learn your region, double check – heck, even after confirming your flier regions, double check!

Deciphering couponing abbreviations and acronyms can be difficult. Here’s a cheat sheet.

• Do not worry about Coupon Organization until you have a few weeks worth of coupons and you know you are going to stick with this. If you are still couponing after a month, it is time to pick a method. Don’t worry if you need to change methods. Heck, I’ve been at this over 25 years and I’ve changed my coupon organization method dozen of times! You’ll know what works for you because it will be the method that allows you to find coupons easily while causing you the least amount of stress organizing.

• Here’s a few tips on how to prepare that first coupon shopping order.

• Read through my library topics. Some of those posts, believe it or not, are reeeeeaaaalllly informative. I know. Shocks me too.

• Take it slow. You may not be able to save 95% on every order to start, and it may be a few months before you can get hundreds of dollars of groceries for free, but it will happen.

The first few weeks you are learning, not necessarily stockpiling. Keep the orders small if possible so you can learn that yes, this worked! and no this didn’t!
Don’t run into Walgreens and try and roll 20 Register Rewards, you’ll just end up frustrated.
Do one organized order, two at the most.
Check your receipt to make certain all went well.
Go out to your car, and deposit your bag(s).
Regroup.
Now if you want to go back and do another order, go ahead and go back in the store.

Here are a few articles you may want to read if you are just starting out:

• So, What’s This Couponing Deal All About?
• How To Begin Couponing
• Flying Under The Radar
• How To Determine The Best Deal Scenario
• How To Save Money On Produce
• Cutting Meat Costs
• Keeping Track of Your Savings
• Price Books
• What To Clip?
• Where Do You Get Your Coupons?
• The True Cost of Couponing
• Coupon Organization Methods
• Prep To Shop
• Why Shop on Sunday?
• My Dirty Little Secret
• Stockpile Organization
• CVS Tutorial
• Rite Aid Tutorial
• Walgreens Tutorial

As a matter of fact, the Library category has a lot of informative reads (if I do say so myself).

Don’t want to miss anymore great deals?
Subscribe to Coupons, Deals and More, it’s FREE!

Follow me on the Coupons, Deals and More Facebook Fan Page
To subscribe via rssfeed
To subscribe via Twitter

Tweet