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How To Start Couponing – Part 2

July 14, 2009 · 3 comments


You have started getting coupons from the paper and printing them online, you have them organized in your favorite organization system…. now what?

Here is the #1 piece of advice that I have for new couponers: DON’T start couponing at all the stores in the same week (or even the same month!) You will quickly get overwhelmed, frustrated, and more than likely, will end up giving up.

The best store for brand new couponers to begin couponing at is probably Walmart. There are no “doubles and triples”, no store coupons, no coupons that print out after you check out. Walmart is very plain and simple: you buy the product at a certain amount and you give them your coupon for them to take off a certain amount. Simple! In saying that, the best deals to be had typically are NOT at Walmart, but it’s a great place to begin your couponing journey.

Your next step up on the ladder depends on where you want to start saving first. Do you want to focus on grocery savings, or focus on drug store savings? Personally, my BIGGEST money saver is not having to buy those “budget-breaker” items like makeup, razors, feminine products, etc… so when I was starting out I chose to learn how to shop the drug stores first.

If you choose to go with learning the drug stores next, make sure to choose ONE (either CVS or Walgreens) and get good at it. My opinion is that it’s easier to start with CVS. Take your time, and make sure you really have it down before you move on to the next one.

While saving at the drug stores has been HUGE for us, we have also been able to greatly knock down our grocery budget. The KEY here is not just buying what you have coupons for, but buying things when they go on sale AND you have a good coupon for it.

I have heard from so many people who have gotten frustrated with couponing because they do tons of work and only see $5 come off at checkout. Every time I ask, the problem is that they are buying what they normally would buy, only they are using coupons. Make sure to come check out the coupon matchups every Wednesday HERE to see what the BEST deals are for that week at your store. After a few weeks or so of stocking up on the best deals, you will have enough in your freezer and pantry to plan your menu off of what you have ON HAND, instead of planning your menu and THEN shopping for those items.

Feeling overwhelmed yet? I hope not! But I will go ahead and stop here and leave the rest for another post.

Please feel free to leave a comment if you have anything to add or if you have any questions!

If you missed Part 1, you can read it HERE.

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Welcome Darla Shine Listeners!

March 21, 2009 · 0 comments

I am so honored to be a guest today on the Darla Shine Show! If you are new to Surviving The Stores, WELCOME!

My goal is to help you find the best deals and steals online and offline.

First, if you are new to couponing, I recommend clicking on the “Where To Begin” button on the left to get started.

Second, be sure to sign up to receive free daily updates from Surviving The Stores in your inbox or your blog reader

Third, some deals that I post are time-sensitive, so be sure to come back throughout the day for the latest deals.

Thank you for stopping by and please feel free to email me with any questions!

Here are a few topics you might want to get started with:

Freebies!

Surviving CVS

Surviving Walgreens

Surviving The Grocery Stores

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How To Start Couponing

January 6, 2009 · 3 comments


Does the idea of couponing seem overwhelming to you? It did to me too! I wasn’t raised in a couponing family, and I didn’t get started with couponing until late 2007. But after a year of practice it almost feels like second nature. Typically the only time I get frazzled now is when I am shopping WITHOUT my coupons. :)

So where do you begin? How do you get started? Hopefully I can provide some help to those of you who are where I was a year ago. Here are the steps that I recommend taking to begin effective shopping with coupons…

1) Start gettting the Sunday paper from a large city! This is essential. You can’t “coupon” (I think it’s funny that coupon can now be a verb) without coupons! Most large-city Sunday papers have a couple of coupon inserts each Sunday. The most common ones are the Smart Source and Valassis (or Red Plum) inserts. Proctor and Gamble also puts out a monthly coupon insert. You can also print SEVERAL coupons directly from your computer HERE.

2) File your coupons! My recommendation is to start filing your coupon inserts by date. I got a filing box and labeled the folders by date. Then I put the whole (not cut-up) inserts in the folder that matched the date of the paper. So the coupons from the 1/4 (January 4th) paper would go in the folder that was labeled “1/4″ or “January 4th”. It takes about 1-2 months of saving up coupons from the paper to really be effective at couponing. Don’t get discouraged during this time as you see deals and sales using coupons that you don’t have yet… they will come around again! You can see how I organize all of my coupons HERE.

3) Grab a copy of the All You magazine from Walmart each month. It will cost you less than $2.50 each month, and it seems to always be worth it to get it. File these in a separate folder in your filing box or filing cabinet. You can also order it for much less than the cover price off of Amazon HERE.

4) Each Wednesday I provide a place here at Surviving The Stores for other bloggers to come and link up to their coupon matchups. The authors of the different blogs do the research and match up the weekly deals to the coupons from the inserts (they will tell you, for example, that the coupon for XX item came from the 1/4 (January 4th) newspaper Smart Source coupon insert). Most blogs will also tell you if there is a printable coupon that you can use for an item (along with a link to print out the coupon). You can view this section (titled “Surviving The Grocery Stores”) HERE to find the current week’s deals. I personally post matchups for Target, Albertsons, Kroger, Tom Thumb (Safeway stores), CVS, and Walgreens.

5) From the deals that you find for your local store, make a shopping list and clip the coupons from your files that match.

Please email me if you have any questions or additional tips that you think would be helpful to new couponers.

Couponing at the Drug Stores (like CVS, Walgreens and Rite-Aid) is a little more complicated, but definitely worth it! I read the weekly CVS posts for a few months before I felt brave enough to venture out and try it on my own. But now I am completely addicted and it has saved our family TONS of money.

Make sure to read Stephanie @ Couponing 101′s post: couponing strategies

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