Ok so we all love saving money, OFCOURSE, but this coupon thing seems to boggle people at first.

It was
a little overwhelming to me too, so stay with me, we will get through this. I promise 

So my plan here is to go over the basics of couponing. The lingo (yes there is coupon slang; it’s like its
own little language). And since I spend a few hours every week preparing my grocery list, there’s no
need for you to do it too. I will just pass on what I’ve found. And if you find others, we can work
together to find all the awesome deals mmk?

First off, coupons by themselves really don’t save you much money. This is why I think most people start
to coupon, find it’s not worth their time, and quit.

The key is to use coupons only for items that are on sale, or when the coupons discount is close to the
full price of the item, this is how I come up with FREE or close to free items most of the time. But this
requires waiting and keeping up with what coupons you do have. www.krazycouponlady.com is a great
webpage that gives you lots of pointers on how to go about organizing or keeping up with them. That
being said, I don’t use any of the methods they suggested lol, so do what works best for you.

So how do you get the coupons? In every Sunday paper there is usually an insert in the middle which is
full of coupons. Usually Smart source or Red plum. You will need to get your hands on some of these to
really save the money. And a few copies is a good idea so that when you find a good deal, or better yet a
free one, you can buy a few and stock up. There are also sites online like www.coupondede.com where
you can just buy individual coupons for a handling fee of a few cents each.

K, so now that you have the coupons and you know what you have….on to step TWO..Still with me?

Now you just compare the coupons you have to the sale ads that come in those same Sunday papers I
talked about earlier. This can get tricky because you really have to keep up, or you will miss a good deal.

Grocery store ads in our area (27030) usually run from Tuesday to Monday every week.

Rite aid, CVS, and Walgreens all run on a normal Sunday to Saturday schedule every week.

……I have no idea why grocery stores wait until Tuesdays, but I need to find someone to listen to me
complain about this, it’s annoying, please change it…….

I usually go through the sale ads with my big black sharpie and look for sales that by themselves
(meaning without a coupon) look like a pretty decent deal. I circle 'em and then go back to my coupons
and see if I can find one that will works against the already nice sale price  TA DA that is couponing.
Few extra tips you probably won’t find online..

1. Let’s say that you find a few different deals in four different papers. Great, now you have to drag
your little ones, who by the way seem to morph into wild monkeys when those glass doors slide
open at any and every store in town, into four different stores just to save money. And not to
mention the gas back and forth. I give up; I’m not saving anything over all.

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wal-Mart, sweet sweet Wal-Mart will price match ANY sale ad in town. YUP, one stop shopping.
The match has to be exact though, price quantity and size. The cashiers usually keep all of the
local sale ads up front just for this purpose. But if you want to save a little time it’s a good idea
to bring your sale ads in with you to Wal-Mart. Just throw 'em in your purse when ya go. And all
those big black circles from your sharpie make it even easier to find the proof when the cashier
needs it.

Sometimes you will find a great deal in the paper, but when you get into the store the entire
shelf is empty! RAINCHECK!!! Most stores will give you a rain check, if you ask. This just allows
you to get the sale price when the item is back in stock, even if it is after the sale is over.

LINGO

BOGO …..Buy one get one free. Payless has made most of us familiar with this. But what this
means at the register is that instead of getting one free, you pay half price for both.

Purchase…for the purpose of coupon text and exclusions “purchase” means the actual item you
are trying to be. So the term “limit one coupon per purchase” means you cannot use any other
coupon on that one sale item.

Transaction……again, this is about the text on the coupon. “Limit 4 per transaction” means that
you can only use four of that same coupon on one receipt. There is nothing that limits you from
splitting your purchases up into five different transactions. And no one will say a thing!!!!!

Purchase and transaction seem to get switcharoo'd in some people’s heads in my experience. So
hopefully you will find this helpful if you need to help your cashier along. They aren’t always
knowledgeable about this stuff either.

So that covers the intro. I’m going to post a weekly blog here and let you know what I have found. If it
helps great, if not…….well let’s just stick with “IT WILL HELP”.