Saving Money Through Couponing

I always knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom, and I always knew I would have to make some sacrifices in order to afford that. What I didn't know was that I could save significant amounts of money through couponing and smart shopping. I'll let you know how I did it, and also give you some links to the websites I go to for tips! First, here are some of my deals.

Roughly $9

Also included and not pictured are two cans of Ragu. Spent $16.40

Cost $25.21

$4.19 (Value: $23.44)

Some Basic Couponing Rules:

• Look for items that are on sale. You are going to get your best deals on items that are already marked down, because you can apply coupons to those and get an even better deal.
• You can apply one manufacturer coupon and one store coupon to each item. So if I am buying 5 boxes of cereal, and I have 5 coupons for $0.50 off from the manufacturer and 5 coupons for $0.50 off from the store, I can use all of these coupons. One manufacturer and one store coupon for each box of cereal. This is called stacking coupons.
• You can coupon on items that are having a B1G1 (Buy one, get one) sale. If the soap bars I want B1G1 free, I can use a manufacturer and store coupon on the soap bar I pay for, in addition to using a manufacturer and store coupon on the soap bar I get for free!

There are many places to get coupons. I usually check the Sunday Coupon Preview before I buy a paper to see what coupons will be in the paper. Each Sunday I buy at -least- one Sunday paper, but I usually buy 2. This is where a majority of your coupons will most likely come from.

I also frequently visit online coupon sites such as coupons.com, smartsource.com, and redplum.com. Here you can browse printable coupons. Even if I don't need a coupon right away, I still print it for items that I am likely to purchase in the future. 

Many manufacturer's will allow you to sign up to recieve coupons in the mail. I receive Pampers, Huggies, Similac, and Gerber coupons in the mail. Proctor and Gamble gives out a lot of coupons- How do you think I can afford all of that Tide detergent? :D

It's also a good idea to find a coupon buddy. For example, I have a friend who uses Huggies diapers, while I use Pampers. I give her my Huggies coupons, and she gives me her Pampers coupons. Now we have twice as many coupons for the items we will buy, and we don't throw away valuable coupons someone else needed!

-If you do NOTHING else in your effort to coupon, DO THIS

I visit frugal deal sites everyday. You don't have to visit every day, but you are more likely to find good deals if you do. 

These are my favorites:

Frugal Day

Southern Savers

The Coupon Clipping, Money Pinching Mom - This one has deals specially for baby items. 

You may be tired of reading- but we're almost done! Just one more thing!

Please have couponing courtesy! When you go to buy an item, DON'T clear the shelf! Leave some for the rest of us. If you want to buy (for example) 400 bottles of Fuze, you can place a special order with the store for no additional charge. They will still honor your coupons when the items arrive, and you will still get all you want and leave some for everyone else!

I recommend Southern Saver's online couponing class. That's the one that I took, and I learned a lot. If you have any questions, post them in the comments and I will be happy to answer them!