Start Using Coupons Right Now and Save Money

It's easy to start, as a matter of fact, you already started. The first step is being aware. You need to start thinking about how much money you spend on the items you purchase each month. Disposable goods are marketed to us in various ways. Many times, in a way to get us to spend more money-not less. Being aware of the actual money you spend per items is the first step.

The best way to figure out how much you have been spending is to start keeping your reciepts. Put them on the refridgerator, in your purse or jewlery box. Just keep them! They will serve several purposes for you in the first 6 months that you coupon. It will show you how much you have been paying for Cereal, or spaghetti sauce.

To start, you need coupons. You will need to start looking for coupons in magazines, newspapers, in the grocery store, and in the mail. We have a nice clipping service here at America Loves Coupons that will deliver a full packet of coupons each month to your door. This is a great way to start. You will also need to find out which paper in your area carries the most coupons. Sunday is the only newspaper with Smartsource and Redplum inserts of coupons. Those are the coupons you want.

Once you have gathered your coupons you will need to start knowing what your family buys, and how much you spend. I had a newbie tell me once that she only spent $300 per month on groceries and didn't need coupons. She said she'd look into coupons anayway. About 6 weeks later, she was a reborn woman. She had been spending $500+ on groceries but hadn't be "Counting" some items. Items like Shampoo, paper plates, dog food, and soda. Review a month's worth of grocery store, discount store-yes your Walmart, Target, and Kmart stores sell us loads of consumables too, and see what you've been spending. It will motivate you to save MORE.

Now you need to find out how to get the most out of the coupons you have in your possesion. A Fifty cent coupon is good for fifty cents in savings by itself. If you combine that coupon with a marked down or sale priced offer, your fifty might just be worth a dollar. My favorite source for sales flyers is www.sundaysaver.com it will have ALL the grocery store flyers for you to review for free. Just click on your favorite store to see what is on sale-BEFORE you get in the supermarket.

Do your match ups. A match up is when you match a coupon to a sale price. This system is the best for doubling your savings efforts. I love to use $20 in face value coupons per week, and get $20 in sales savings as well. That gives me $40 over just walking into the store and filling my cart. It's not difficult, and with all the web tools like sunday saver, it's easy.

Next you need to plan your trip to the store. I have used many systems of coupon organization, but I keep going back to my coupon wallet. I place only the coupons that match the store sales into the coupon wallet. I put them in order according to the aisles I plan to visit in the store: Produce, Cheese, Deli, Meat, Snacks and Beverages, Canned goods, Dry Goods, Dairy, Frozen, etc. THen as I place the item in the cart-the coupon goes into the front compartment of the coupon wallet. When I get to the check out counter, there is no mess. No confustion, and no stress.

Other coupon sites will promote the binder method of coupons. Yes, I have a binder too. I just keep mine at home. It's a way to organize your coupons so you can see them, and quickly pull them for use. I organize my binder the same way as my coupon wallet. If I'm short on filing time, and don't feel like placing all the coupons in the binder-I just put them in some easy to use pencil zipper bags: One for Dry goods, one for Frozen foods, and one for Canned goods. After all, it's about saving time too!

That's it! You're off. You can easily save $40 per week, and if you want to set higher goals-go for it. All you'll need to do is gather MORE coupons. That is the best way to get even more with coupons. If there is a hot deal, you'll find multiple coupons will be handy to raise your savings goals higher. That's when having access to get MORE from America Loves Coupons comes in handy. We often have Specialty coupon packs, like Cosmetics, Pharmacy, Baby Foods, and Pets available. We can also put together some packs by request. Just ask-you never know!

Printing coupons regularly of the web is a good idea. We keep as many coupon links up to date as we can. Most manufacturers issue coupons. They may be posted 30 days, maybe just one hour. Most have print counters that pull the coupons once a certain amount have been printed. These are a resource for our members. You can print many of these multiple times, which also helps you to save more. When I am checking Sunday Saver each week, I often check the database for matching coupons. If Fast Fixin's Chicken strips are on sale at my store, I'll quick print off 2-4 of these so that I can buy multiples and save money by planning my 6 month projection of needs. I strongly suggest that if you see a coupon issued on the coupon bar on this page that you think you Might like, print it now. It maybe gone tomorrow.

Once you've been couponing for a few months, you'll need to start thinking about storage for all the wonderful groceries you seem to be getting for next to nothing. A standard rule of thumb is to only purchase 6 months worth of any product that your family reguarly uses. For example, I use 16 boxes of trash bags per year. How do I know? I watched how many bags we used in a month, multiplied, then divided the number in a trash bag box and found out our family uses 16 boxes per year. Now when they go on sale, I know to purchase 8 to have a six month supply. You can apply this guage to all your buying. That way you won't "Overspend" and won't kick yourself for not buying more when prices were low.

Finally, as you save and use coupons more and more, start logging into the site and using the forum. Other coupon users also have questions about how to use coupons, how to print coupons, and how to improve your skills. We have a pretty freindly communtiy here on coupons-get to know us!

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