Getting Started Using Coupons

Couponing is a great way to maintain a budget or to even start one. Once you start, it will be hard to not want to continue. Especially once you see how much money you can save. By using coupons, you are able to combine store sales with the coupons you have to save a lot of money. If consistent with it, you should be able to cut your weekly grocery expenses down significantly. It is not hard to learn and can be a lot of fun to do. I like to make a challenge out of it. I always try to see if I can beat the prior week's grocery bill by at least 10%. For example, if last week I spent $130.00 on my groceries, this week I feel I should be able to only spend $117.00.

Everyone has different needs and every family does not eat the same food. This is expected. The #1 rule everyone should remember when starting to use coupons is that some weeks will be better than others. Never get discouraged with your shopping. If you do not save as much as you would have liked one week, don't fret. Next week is a new week and you can try to make up for it then.

Coupons have become extremely popular over the past few years. With new reality television shows showcasing the benefits of coupons, its no wonder so many people are starting to use them as well. You can find coupons almost anywhere these days such as in newspapers, online websites, store circulars and store web sites.

I actually use all of the above to make sure I have all the coupons available. Now don't get overwhelmed on me, it does not take long to find them. For starters, if you have a computer available, free coupons are all over the Internet.

An example of great websites to visit is Coupons.com and Redplum.com. These websites and most others are very user friendly. All you have to do is select the ones you would like and click on them. Once all the coupons you are interested in are checked off, all you have to do is click print. Newspapers are another simple way to save. Almost all Weekend papers and Sunday papers have the sales fliers. All you have to do is clip the coupons you are interested in. One thing to remember is that coupons do not usually expire right away. So if you do not need the coupons that week, you are still able to use most of them in the weeks to come. So you should always cut out the coupons that you may use.

Most large grocery chain stores have store coupons available to their customers. Every store is different, so you will have to check with your local stores too see what they require in order to obtain these coupons. An example would be a grocery chain requesting that their customers be signed up online to receive weekly e-mails. A lot of times the store will automatically generate their weekly coupons and e-mail them to these customers only. They may not be available to the general public, so be sure to check out your store.

Once you have started your collection of coupons it can look overwhelming. But that's to be expected. Now all you have to do is organize your coupons. There are a couple of ways to do this. Depending on the amount of coupons you will continue to cut out and use will decide your best organizing strategy.

Tip 1: Group all like coupons together. Such as all paper products together, all dairy products together, health and beauty, meats, laundry, etc.

Tip 2: Once the coupons are organized in groups. Each group should be separately organized. Such as all name items together, them all like items together. An example of this would be grouping all toilet paper coupons then all paper towel coupons etc.

Tip 3: Once each group is organized you can file away your coupons. A couple of options for this would be to use a small plastic containers with color dividers to separate each group. Or you could use a binder with clear plastic sheets that are typically made for baseball cards or photos. You can find these at most office stores.