Where to find coupons
The best place to find coupons is still the Sunday paper. If you like the coupons in the Sunday paper make sure to either buy more Sunday papers—1 for each member of the family is suggested or ask family & friends for theirs if they don't use them or on Monday morning you can go to stores that sell newspapers and ask for their extras. There is a portion of the paper they have to return for credit, but the coupons are not in that portion. Note—you may not want extras of each weeks Sunday coupons, so make sure to check them out first.
Not all Sunday papers carry the same inserts, so if you have access to more than one Sunday paper check them all out.
There are several online sites where you can print coupons and they change on a regular basis. A few you might try are .....
NOTE—Not all grocery stores will accept computer generated coupons, so make sure to check the stores in your area first.
Go directly to the manufactures websites and check for their promotions. Watch to sign up for coupon booklets they will gladly send them to you for free!
Watch and search the web for more free coupon booklets.
Catalinas—these are coupons that are printed on the back of your cash register receipt. You never know what good deal you might find.
Blinkies—these are the coupons you see in the little plastic holders hanging off the shelves with the little blinking lights. You know the ones the kids love to keep pulling the coupons out of!
Coupon Trains—start or join a coupon train—more on this later.
Couponing Blogs—There are tons of couponing blogs out there. Find a few that you like and follow them. Two of my favorites are...
Again there are tons of these blogs out there, so search them out and find your favorites.
Organizing!
Now that you have all of these coupons clipped and in a huge pile what do you do with them? You organize them!
There are several different ways to organize your coupons and the easiest way I have found is by creating a Coupon Binder. I used this tutorial by Home of 5 and made myself a coupon binder. I couldn't find the same size sheets that she used, so I used the 4 X 6 and it works great.
I have also seen at least 3 other shoppers recently using these coupon binders and they were using baseball card sheets. I just preferred the bigger slots, so it's really up to you and what you like.
They say to save all of your coupons even if you think you won't use them, because you might find a deal that is just too good. What I do is I save the ones I'm not likely to use—not that I wouldn't mind using the item, it's just that I'm not likely going to spend the money on it—but I have found good enough deals that it was worth it. Of course there are those items you just will not use no matter what—pass those coupons on.
After you've made your coupon binder you might want to make a “Price Book”. I have not done this as of yet and I'm not sure if I will, but here are a couple of sites to explain what a Price Book is and a template to get you started.
What is a Price Book and How to make one
Next up....how to put these coupons to use....
