Thursday, February 24, 2011

Getting Started......

When most people think of grocery shopping or shopping in general they think "There goes more money" or "I hate shopping" but to me shopping isn't a chore, it isn't spending tons of money, it's a game, a high, a hunt, and it is fun.  I love the feeling I get when I score a good sale item.  I like stacking coupons to get more money off, getting my coupons doubled or tripled, getting free items, and having a great stockpile.  I have learned so much over the last year about using coupons and I want to teach people to save money the fun way.

I started using coupons, well helping cutting them out, when I was a little girl.  After I moved out of my parents house I didn't use them again for about 8 years.  It seemed like way to much work to go get a paper, cut out the coupons, and look at all the ads to find the deals.  Don't get me wrong it is still time consuming, but I look at it as soon as I get that newspaper or hit the print button on my computer I am already saving or making money (yes you read that right you can actually MAKE money when shopping with coupons).

One of my goals when shopping is to buy items when they are free or close to it after using coupons and or rebates.  Getting items for nearly free is a great way to start your stockpile. The definition of stockpile is gradually accumulated reserve of something (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stockpile). 
You want a stockpile for multiple reasons.  First and most important is so you don't have to pay full price on items. Secondly so you have multiplies of the same item. Third, you almost always have the food you will need for most recipes.  Also with today's economy so many people are loosing their jobs and it is nice to not have to worry about how to find grocery money, you can live off the food you have stored.
One example of stockpiling is last week I bought French's mustard for $.50 at Target I had 4 coupons for $.50 off so I bought 4.  They ended up being $.52 each the total was $2.08 plus tax with a saving of $2.00. Not a bad price for four mustard if you ask me. 

I have learned over the years you need to cut the coupons out and organize them right away.......ORGANIZATION is the key.  Every week I usually buy 2 Sunday papers, plus print out coupons off of websites like, http://www.coupons.com/, http://www.redplum.com/, http://smartsource.com/, and http://coupons.target.com/ just to name a few.  I put all the coupons in a clear baseball card holders inside of a 3 ring binder and categorize them by store or by section in the grocery store. Examples......freezer, toiletries, cleaning products etc.  Know that you don't have to cut every coupon you see, if you don't need it don't buy it.  Although sometimes when I  know I can get items for free I will get them and use them to donate or to use in gifts.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and learn how to save money along the way.  Look out for some awesome deals I will be posting.  If you have any questions or comments let me know! 
Happy $aving,
Lisa

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