My Relationship with Couponing (you can call it that)

I started to coupon about a month prior to the first episode of an “extreme” couponing show airing. I do find using coupons can save you money if you use them correctly. This is not going to be a post on exactly how to use coupons because honestly I don’t feel confident in my ability to teach others how to do that. I will, however, tell you where I get my coupons and include a list at the bottom of the websites that I use that have taught me coupon and that I still use to help me with the store matchups.

So with that being said this is how I use my coupons to help my family save money. First thing first, coupons can save you money at the grocery store but buying something just because you have a coupon for it doesn’t save you money. I only buy things that I would normally buy or things I know my family will use. What’s the point? You know.  I simply buy usually 1 paper on Sunday, 2 at the most. I find it silly when some people buy 5 or more papers!  At the end of the month does the cost of all those papers really save you that much? This is just my opinion but for my family 1-2 papers are enough.

Another question family/friends ask is, “where else do you get coupons besides the paper?” I get a lot of coupons online. I use different websites that post a lot of coupons (links at bottom), I go to the company’s website, and on Facebook companies are now posting a lot of their coupons there.  Also each month throughout the month www.coupons.com restocks their coupons and adds more. Most of the time, you can print 2 coupons per computer each month from Coupons.com.

So to sum it up; each week I buy my  Sunday paper, use websites that matchup the coupons with the sales that week, look online for coupons that I may need, make a list, and go shopping. I must say, I do two seperate trips to the grocery store; 1 with just coupons and then another for what I need that I don’t have coupons for. It helps me to stay focused on making sure I’m saving, etc. I also only go to my regular grocery store  when I have coupons and do most of my shopping at Aldi’s. We are lucky enough to have an Aldi’s in our area and they have great food and it’s so much cheaper than getting it at the regular grocery store.

Using coupons to save money at the grocery store is possible with work, is not easy and can be time consuming but it does help my family with our grocery budget. I am not one to have a huge stockpile in my house either! I simply have a 5 box rule, sometimes more if it’s something we use daily or use a lot of.  I have just one pantry and refuse to over fill it and store throughout the house. Below are the websites that I find the most helpful. I agree with parts of their sites but not all of it sometimes. You can be your own judge on them.

www.coupondivas.com, www.stockpilingmoms.com, www.thriftymoms.com, www.krazycouponlady.com, www.wickedcooldeals.com, http://www.mavenofsavin.com/

(These are the ones I use the most, I will add more as they come along. Also I dont use them all everyday and follow a lot of them on facebook to see the deals)

(Update: 9/28/11. I have to add to this post that I am not bashing those who buy more than 1-2 papers. Its just that I dont have it in my budget to buy more than the amount of papers I buy and my stockpile is very small simply because I dont have the budget to spend that much more each month to start a nice stockpile. So if you do buy more papers good for you and being able to spend that much in papers but I honestly can't and find the papers I buy are enough to help us save monthly on our grocery budget.)