Quick Version to How I Save

My grocery store stacks coupons. If you wanna get on this register at afullcup.com and look up your supermarket. They should post a weekly forum updating their sales items, what the available matching coupons are and where to find them. Look up all your grocery stores. Then contact them and ask them what their coupon policy is. Once you know what they take I'll help you understand the policy. All markets should take manufacturer coupons. Some even double 50 cent ones. That means they take off $1 instead. Some triple. some have their own store coupons that u can use on top of a manufacturer coupon. That's called stacking. Some take competitor coupons. That means using another store brand coupon. When an item is on sale and you stack coupons on top, that's when u make a killing. If your store does BOGO (buy one get one) some stores let you use two coupons. One on the one you're paying for and another on the free one. You can stack on BOGO too. Many times the value of the coupon exceeds the price of the item. So not only will I get the item for free but you will get the remainder value of the coupon subtracted off you grand total. For instance, the pepsi was BOGO $1.79. So two for the price of one. I had a coupon that said buy 4 Pepsico Products (aka pepsi, tostitos, lays, quacker) and get $8 off. I also had the same coupon but it was buy 3 get $5 off. So I bought 4 for the first coupon and 4 for the second because even though the coupon says 3 they are still BOGO so u get 4. Anyway I have 8 pepsi and I'm paying for for because of the sale. That comes our to $7.16 -$8 -$5= -$5.74. That - amount comes off my grocery total. So free pepsi that paid me $5.74. That's called overage. This is the short cut version of how I save. Let me know how this helps.

organizing your coupons; the file crate

So how do we get organized? There are so many different ways to do this, you just have to find what's right for you. I can give you some ideas, but it all comes down to what works best for you. When I first started out I had a small accordion folder that was divided into several categories such as; breakfast, diary, meats, snacks, baby and the like. The problem with this was that there were so many different subcategories I could have included that when I got to the grocery store I found myself shuffling through stacks of coupons looking for the one I needed.

After about 2 weeks of this organized mess, my sister suggested I not clip my coupons at all. 'Huh' was my first response, but then she showed me, as my two-year-old daughter would say, “la luz”.

This is what the light looks like. It's my coupon file box.

How this works is you get a $5 box crate from somewhere like Walmart, some file folders and hanging folders. I have two crates, one for each Sunday Supplement, which for me would be RedPlum and Smart Source. Since P&G doesn't rotate as often I use another method of organization for them, which I'll talk about later. So, like I said in my last blog, I usually get about 10 to 20 inserts a week. When I bring my inserts home I place them in a folder and file them in my crate in order by date, placing the newest ones towards the back.

Why do it this way, you say? When I do my grocery shopping I don't make my list based on what we want on a weekly basis. I stockpile by buying what's on sale for that week and use my coupons on those items in order to get the best, and lowest, price for them. Then I buy in BULK. This way when it's no longer on sale I won't have to worry about buying it at full price when I've run out.

I use websites like www.afullcup.com, www.hotcouponworld.com, and www.iheartpublix.com to do my research. My favorite of these being www.afullcup.com, where you can find forums on almost every chain supermarket and pharmacy you could think of. I do most of my shopping at Publix, which is a local supermarket found in the south. I check the weekly ads forum for my local store, which list the sales for that week along with any matching coupons available for that item. To make it easier, they also list where to find that coupon. For instance, if the item is Prego and the coupon is from the RedPlum insert that came in the March 21, 2010 Sunday paper, you will see something like this

Prego Heart Healthy Past Sauce, $2.69
- $1 off of 1 jar Prego, 3/21/2001 RP

Not everything that's on sale will have a coupon listed for it because not everything that's on sale has a coupon to match it. However, everything that is on sale that week WILL be listed in each posting. So, if this jar of Prego is on sale BOGO, that is Buy One Get One Free, I would use 2 $1 off coupon, one for the jar I'm paying for and the other for the free jar, and I now have 2 jar of Prego for $.69, or 34.5 cents a jar, but I'll get into this later

For coupons such as P&G, or store coupons, I used a 3rd filing box and organized them by store name, than a section for P&G's and then any Printable coupons I may have. Since I don't usually have as many of these as I do Sunday Supplements I don't need more than one file box for them all. Having my coupons filed this way made it easier for me to find the inserts I needed. Once my shopping list was done all I had to do was pull out the appropriate inserts, cut out JUST the coupons I was going to use and go shopping. The good thing about this was that it saved me time when I brought my coupons home. It also saved me from having to cut a butt load of different coupons that I might not get to use. The bad thing was that since I only had the coupons for what was on my list, if I found anything else on sale that wasn't listed in the forum, I was outta luck.

This brings me to my coupon binder, which I'll discuss in my next post. For all you newbies, filing is one of the best ways to start. Even though my method has now become the binder, I still rely on my filing crates. But like I said, I'll give more details later. Thanks for reading and please let me know how this helps. Also, I welcome all ideas, so don't hesitate to share.

"I think I can, I think I can"

I never considered myself to be much of a writer, so, needless to say, this blog has been a bit intimidating to me. There are so many things to know if you're really going to attempt to pursue the lifestyle of a coupon-er. I feel confident in what I know thus far and although I'm sure there will always be more to learn in this ever-changing world I feel confident in my ability to move with the paces.

My question to myself is...can I do this...can I organize myself...can I organize my thoughts and communicate with my writing in a way that others will know what the heck I'm talking about? So, I've decided that I will no longer run away from the things I want to do for fear of failure or for fear of success. I will not deny myself the chance to pursue my passions for fear of what others will think of me. I will not let myself be intimidated by others who think they are better than me or smarter than me. So with that said, I'm inviting you all to read my next post which will cover organizing your coupons by using the filling system.

For those of you who have trouble with organization, I will tell you this, it's time to step outside of your comfort zone, time to stretch yourselves in order to reach your goals and go for what you want. Listen, I know it's hard, but I'm doing it and we can do it together. The last thing you want to do is come home and leave your coupons laying around in a pile of mess. Trust me when I say that you WILL become overwhelmed when it's time to cut your coupons and you find yourself lost in an abyss of glossy paper.

Let's take my mother for example, who collects anywhere from 4 to 6 papers a week and leaves them piled in a cardboard box mingling with her mail and other random lose papers. She thinks this works for her, but when it comes time to clip she never knows where anything is and gets easily discouraged when trying to work her way through them. She eventually gives up and just goes to Walmart where she spends $75 to $100 in groceries, and she only shops for 2 people. The last time I spent $70anything on groceries I purchased a $20 box of diapers, 2 bottles of wine, 6 jars of Prego sauce, 8 cans of Lysol Nuetra Air, 8 sticks of Sure deodorant, 4 packs of Perdue chicken nuggets, 4 bottles of V-8 V-Fusion, 4 bags of Contessa MicroSteam and Stove top Meals, 2 bricks of cheese, 2 travel first-aide kits, 5 NyQuil travel size packs, 2 boxes of Puffs tissues, Asparagus, 3 oranges, a bunch of bananas, 3 romaine hearts and other items that I can't remember. In the end I saved over $190 and went home with over $260 of groceries. THIS IS WHY I COUPON!!!!

If I were not organized I wouldn't have been able to cut and locate the coupons I needed for this VICTORY and WIN I did!!!

Step One: Building Your Coupon Stash

So you're ready to start saving money with coupons but don't know where to start. Well, to get the most for your money the first thing you need to do is build your Coupon Stash! I've been using coupons for about 4 months now and have accumulated a very large collection for myself. I was able to start saving a GOOD amount of money in the beginning, but have now reached a new level of savings due to my Coupon Stash.

Where do I find these coupons, you ask?

The first place to look is in the Sunday Supplement section of your local Sunday Newspaper. This is a HOT ZONE when it comes to finding coupons. The weekly inserts in my local newspaper are called SMART SOURCE and REDPLUM, and there is a monthly insert called P&G SAVER which carrries coupons for Proctor and Gamble Products (ie. Dawn, Tide, Herbal Essence, Gillette, Secret, Aussie, Duracell Batteries, etc.) Occasionally there are extra inserts, such as GENERAL MILLS which carry coupons for cereal and Pillsbury Products along with many others.

However, you should NOT expect to find any inserts in your local paper around the holidays, such as Valentines Day. Yup, you got it, if you were hoping to start your collection this Sunday you are out of luck. Now worries my coupon people, our wonderful wonders will be making their return on the following Sunday!

Where do all the coupons go around the holidays? Well, since most stores offer special sales in order to capitalize off the everyday shopper, the manufactures hold off on releasing these coupons in order to cut their own loses. If you've already started accumulating your stash than this shouldn't be a problem for you since you're already on your way.

Where else can I find coupons? The next place I continue my search is on various IP (Internet Printable) coupon websites. Here is a list of websites to start with...

coupons.com
smartsource.com
redplum.com

As we go along I will add more websites to this list. Websites like these will reset the coupons they offer from time to time in order to make room for new coupon offers. So you gotta get them while the gettin's good!

Another place to look for coupons are on the manufactures websites. For instance, right now there is a special promotion for Post Advantage Cereal Brands (Raisin Bran, Shredded Wheat and Grape Nut). If you go the their website http://www.postnatural.com/ and register with them they will email you a $2 IP (Internet Printable) coupon. This is a very special promotion because, as you will all see soon, a $2 off of 1 box of cereal coupon is a very rare find. Typical Cereal coupons are usually $1-$1.50 off of 1-3 boxes, or even $.55/$.75 off of any one box. So go get this one asap!!!

If you're lucky like us Floridians, many of your local grocery stores will offer Store Coupons that are only redeemable at that store (if your store allows it you can usually use these store coupons along with manufacture coupons for even greater savings. This is called stacking, but we'll talk about that later)

Many manufactures will send you mailer coupons along with these IP's. Basically, if you register with these sites they typically put you on a mailing list and send you coupons via. snailmail.

Do you ever get the feeling you're seeing flashes of light before your eyes whenever you're walking through you grocery store isle? No, you don't have to have your eyes checked. These blinking lights come from something us coupon people like to call BLINKIE'S!!! The lights are just to get your attention. Why? Because these little boxes of flashing light dispense coupons that you can grab as you shop. YAY for Blinkies!!

Tear Pads are another kind of coupon you can find down the grocery isle. They are usually found on the shelves in stacks that resemble a post-it pad.

Another secret place to look out for coupons is right on the products themselves.

Last but not least, KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN! Coupons are everywhere, you just have to keep your eyes open whenever you're out and about. I'll do my best to share with you where to find these as well as others that night be out there.

I hope this was a helpful way to start your hunt. Have fun looking. It's always a thrill to find these little guys. Coupons are money, and finding money is really fun. So once you look at it that way you'll notice that there are more out there than you thought. Now all you gotta do is go out and gettem!!!

P.S. For anyone having trouble finding inserts or for those who don't want to pay for a bunch of newspapers every week, stay tuned for my next post. I'll be making you all a special offer that will cut even your newspaper expenses in half.

RULE OF THUMB: Always collect your coupons and inserts in doubles!!! you will make a better killing if you collect anywhere from 4-6 papers. (Here's another secret... When your grocery store has sales such as BOGO [Buy 1 Get 1 FREE] you can use 2 coupons, one on the item you're paying for and another for the free one. Some stores don't allow this but most do. I'll explain in a later post how this works, for now just take my word for it.)

GO GET YOURS!!!!

how it all started

Hi again! Well, I thought that for my first post I would tell you all a little about myself and how I've come to use coupons in order to save money for my family. The truth is that I was never really good at saving money. Although my husband and I knew what was required of us to pinch pennies we weren't really exercising the discipline it took to cut the corners we needed in order to thrive financially. As most of you know, Ken and I moved our family to a small town here in Florida about 1 year ago. Before that we were living in Queens, NY where we worked 9 to 5 Corporate America jobs making a combined income of $60,000 annually... just out of college. Although many of you don't find this the most comfortable of incomes, our expenses weren't very high so it was quite comfortable for us. We had a 3 bedroom apartment just outside the city that cost us less then $700 a month. After all our bills were paid we still had about $2,000 a month to save and play around with. Although many times we found ourselves not saving what we had promised we'd save. We even failed to tithe on MANY occasions, which is mistake #1! In many ways our spending and lack of saving was not only dishonoring to each other and our family, but we were dishonoring to GOD.

After some time of living like this the unthinkable happened. Last January Ken and I were doing really well with our jobs, which were quickly turning into possible careers for us. We were both expecting promotions along with even more comfortable pay raises. As we all know, what we expect isn't always what we get, especially when our country is in the middle of "The Great Recession" At the close of a long and busy winter business day my boss called me into his office and broke the news to me. "I have to let you go" he said, as my heart fell into my stomach and all my plans of saving flew out the window. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Up to that point I was being promised the world in a silver plated platter, but due to cutbacks my dreams were quickly shattered. My husband and I mourned over this for a few days, but we quickly reminded ourselves that things were going really well for Ken, so how bad could it really be, right? Well, about a week and a half later Ken met the same fate that had just introduced itself to me. We had no idea what we were going to do.

To shorten a long story, we felt God impress on our hearts that it was time to make a new start for ourselves, and the first step was to surrender every aspect of our lives to Him. The second step was to move our family to Florida. We wrestled with this one for 2 days. When we finally decided to submit to this direction we began to make plans to move within a months time. The next morning after making this decision we received a phone call that pushed up our plans of moving to Florida that same week.

I must say, living on unemployment in an unfamiliar small town in the middle of nowheresville has been a stretch and a struggle. Although the cost of living is way cheaper, there are still so many other expenses that we were unfamiliar with and were not prepared for. For one, there was no more Q19A bus or E train to take us to work. We needed a car, which needed insurance and gass and new windows and air conditioning and... well you get it. Also, finding a place to live for the budget we had was impossible. There were just so many things to overcome.

As we rode this roller coaster called life I kept hearing stories of how my sister Keilah was saving butt loads of money by using coupons, and how she was coming home with 8 or so free bottles of snuggle fabric softener. I thought to myself, how accurate can that be, I mean how much can 1 coupon save you, 35 cents? Man was I so off. I finally saw with my own eyes how much she was saving when we went to her house for dinner. When I say her pantry was full I mean her pantry was FULL. Her laundry room had bottles upon bottles of cleaning supplies. Her refrigerator had no space to move things around. Then she showed me her grocery receipt. She managed to get over$400 of groceries for $180, and she was just starting out with this whole coupon thing.

After that night I JUMPED on the band wagon and my wallet hasn't been the same since. Little by little She taught me the ropes and I managed to pick up some of my own tricks along the way. When I first started posting pictures of my savings I had no idea that so many people were going to reach out for my help. My husband kept telling me that I should start blogging as a way to share everything I've learned and am learning with everyone that has asked. Initially I didn't think that I could do it. I wasn't sure that I had the ability to follow something like this through, and I didn't want to disappoint anyone if I sucked at it. Thank God for my wonderful husband who believes in me and sees me through the eyes of God. His love, belief in me and Godly encouragement has brought me to believe in myself. So here I am, taking a chance and seeing where God will take me as I trust this in His hands. So once again, thanks for reaching out to me and taking this chance with me. I look forward to sharing all I know and hearing the testimonies of how you've all been able to save money and have been able to experience new things in life due to those savings. God bless you all. HERE WE GO!