Coupon

*Guest Post* Saving With Coupons...How to Get The Most For Your Dollar

11:24 AM


I have a special treat for all of you today! My friend, Virginia, from Meet Virginia is a mommy-mega-family blogger who has become quite a couponing expert and I have asked her to share her tips and hints on how to get started in using coupons. She has graciously agreed to be a guest poster today so please, tune in and see how YOU can become proficient at using coupons and saving money!!

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I'm a mom to seven and at first started couponing out of necessity but have come to enjoy it as a hobby.  I wanted to share the very beginning basics of couponing in hopes it can help others learn quickly how to save money shopping.  The first thing I do is make sure to get 3-5 (or more) newspapers every Sunday.  Always be sure to check there are coupon inserts before purchasing.  Often I will check www.sundaycouponpreview.com to see before buying. 
Next I take out all like inserts and put them together like the picture shows.  I tear out all the same pages and staple them together for easy cutting.  It would take me forever to cut out one page at a time. (Here is link to view video on how to do it, http://youtu.be/rrLcbwBKNP0)
Some people prefer just to keep the inserts stapled together and only cut out what they need.  I prefer to cut them out and keep in an organized by section binder. It helps me to easily look at every coupon I have when I'm looking through each section of the store.  I use these dividers and then organize them by sections.  For example: Dairy, meat, frozen, dental, can food, etc.  Then I bought the inserts meant for card collectors and use them for my coupons.  

I don't have the time to always watch out in the ads and often, the deals I find aren't even in the ads so I subscribe to www.couponsense.com to help me find them.  I promise you that paying monthly for this has been no issue for me since I save several hundred dollars each month from the deals I save here.  Also, it's important to know the deals in your area as each state can be different.  If you would like you can try for just one month and right now they are running a promotion for one month free.  Once I used up my free trial month I had no problem subscribing to it. It has so many tools to use to help you save money and even tells you where to find the coupon and whether its a paper coupon or an internet coupon.  It always provides the links where you would go to print out the coupon.  This has been the source of finding 80% of my deals.
I know it might seem at first that you get stocked up on only a few things at a time but remember that as you are stocking up, eventually you'll have a large variety of things.  It's such a blessing to go to my pantry and easily choose something to eat from my stock.  In fact, I plan my meals around the stock in my pantry.  Since I have been couponing for several months, I have a large variety to choose from.  For example, the picture shows A LOT of cereals but for my family of nine, this would last about two-three months even with them only having one bowl of cereal every morning.  Since landing good coupons and a really good store sale doesn't happen every month, it's a good reason to buy a large stock of it. How much did it cost for 71 boxes of cereal with a good sale and coupons?  Only $50.  Since buying those cereal two months ago, there hasn't been AS GOOD of a sale so that stock is pulling us over until the next big sale.
It's important to know the store's coupon policies because some coupons are worth more than the face value.  One store I use often for freebies makes all coupons worth $1 regardless of what the coupon says.  Some store only double a coupon up to $1 and some stores don't double at all.  In the picture, all these items were on sale for $1 or less.  I had coupons for these and since this store makes all coupons worth $1, I got all these for free. 
In the picture: There was a deal to buy two Classico sauce, get two pastas free.  I had coupons for $1 off two Classico's and $1 off two pastas.  Should have cost $46 but only cost me $2.50 total.  That is a 95% savings.  So even though the pastas were technically already free, I was still able to use the coupons for them. Those coupons came off the Classico sauce and made a killer savings.
Always, always give coupons last after everything is rung up because it's important to watch and make sure that each coupon is properly doubled (bonus).  Sometimes it won't be and they will fix it.  MFG coupons savings is the face value of the coupon given and "bonus" is what the store added to double ones up to $1.  Just because you have a coupon for something doesn't mean you have to use them.  Often 90% of what I'm buying at a store I always have a coupon for but that is because there is already a sale on that item.  If there is no sale, I don't use the coupon.  Of course if you need the item, a coupon is good for it but since I already stock up ahead of time when there are sales, that usually doesn't happen.  So yes, I do stock up a lot on one type of item but it's always to last me over until the next major sale and coupon can be put together on that item.
If you would like to save even more money, there are some dollar stores that will sale the Sunday paper for only $1.  That is a 50% savings on your monthly cost of papers.  Also, because I print out so many internet coupons, I bought a printer that is excellent on refill costs.  I went into an electronics store and asked them to point me to the one that is the cheapest on refills and they pointed out the Lexmark Prestige which only cost $5 for black refills.  Perfect for couponers!

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WOW! Thank you SO MUCH, Virginia for taking the time to share your tips with us! I, for one, am VERY excited at the potential to save so much money. If you would like to keep up with Virginia, you can do so by visiting her blog, Meet Virginia

She is always posting about her couponing adventures and the fantastic, the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to getting a good deal. Her latest post is all about the savings she raked in from CVS...WOW!!! Please stop by and visit her, let her know you found her through here and enjoy getting to know her!

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9 comments

  1. I don't have time either to look through ads. I am looking into www.couponsense.com as well. Thank you.

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  2. I'm so glad you had me write this post because I'm constantly sending this link to other people that have questions.

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  3. Wow getting 71 boxes of cereal for $50 is pretty impressive. Thanks for the tip of putting multiple pages with the same deals together, certainly a time saver. I enjoyed reading about this.

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  4. Thanks for the tips!

    I need to step up my couponing, and now I know just how to do it. I love the tip on stapling the pages of coupons before clipping them.

    Diana C
    Unachica_latina@yahoo.com

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  5. Using a binder is a great idea.
    thank you. u r a saving whiz.
    howardreviews at gmail

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  6. I like the idea of taking the same pages and stapling them together so that it does not take a long to cut them out.

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  7. I really like the idea of looking at the sunday coupon preview before buying the papers.

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  8. I'm still constantly handing this link out to people who ask. Thank you for keeping it up. :)

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  9. No problem, Virginia! :) Anytime you want to guest post about couponing you are more than welcome to do so! :)

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