Getting Started
1. Get Organized. You will have to make some decisions on how you want to keep your coupons. Your decisions will be based on what you want to accomplish and how much TIME YOU ARE WILLING to spend on it. Would it be worth it to you to spend 1 hr. per week in order to save 50% off of your grocery bill EVERY time you go? Would it be worth it to you to spend 2 hrs. per week in order to save more than 50%? If either of these is acceptable to you then you can coupon and do it well.
The second part of that is what do you want to accomplish? Do you want to spend little time and buy only the items that show up on a list (lists provided by other websites that have the sales and coupon data for each week) or do you want to be able to travel up and down each aisle of the grocery store and IF there are things on sale that may not be on "your list" be able to easily flip to your coupons and see that it is a good buy? If you just want to go with an online list, your time invested will be half of those wanting to go through each aisle looking for deals.
1a. Organization:
File Folders (if keeping and using coupons only as needed on list);
3-Ring Binder
Baseball Card sleeves (at walmart these are kept up front by cash registers in the baseball card area)
Zippered pencil case w/ pens, markers, scissors, calculator
2. In order to really make a difference in your grocery budget you will want to purchase more than one item when things are at their lowest price and you have a coupon. If you can get free razors, deodorant, pet food or toothpaste, you will want to have more than one coupon. I like to have a minimum of 4 coupons for each item (would like to have more on some occasions.) In order to have more than 1 coupon, you'll have to purchase more than one Sunday paper. Yes it's an investment - but will it be worth it to spend $10 each week in order to save $50 - $60 - $100?
3. Coupons: Once you get your papers...now what? I pull all of my coupons out of the paper and write the date on the front of each one with a marker. This way everything stays organized until I can cut them and get them into the baseball sleeves (which could take a week or so).
3a. Keeping your coupons intact, by date: This is the least time consuming method. You write the date on the front of each coupon insert and file them by date. When you make your list, you go through and cut your coupons only for the items being purchased according to your list. NOTE: If you use this method you will see an item at the store, you won't have your coupons and you may miss out on a very good deal. If you do have your coupons and they are not clipped, you won't know what coupons are in each insert and you could easily have 8 weeks worth of inserts.
3b. Clipping and Organizing Coupons: You will clip your coupons and sort them by type or aisle. I keep mine by aisle (using the store's layout that I most frequent.) Even if I go to a different store, most of the aisles are stocked similarly, just not in the same order. This method allows you to go into each aisle, view your coupons easily, check items on sale that may not be on your list (yes, you will still use a list) and make purchases on items that may not have shown up on any list online. Very often, stores have unadvertised sales and you may miss out on some really good sales by keeping your coupons in a folder, never knowing what's really in each one.
