How to start couponing. Part 1

Have you ever been to the store and seen those women who check out with a stack of coupons and save a ton of $$? Or, do you read money saving blogs and can't quite figure out how these ladies have all these coupons and make such great grocery store and drugstore runs?

I plan on writing a few short, hopefully helpful little posts on how to start becoming a "coupon queen" or whatever you want to call it!

First things first. It takes some time. Just like the saying "nothing in life is free" magically, without any work you won't start saving money. It does take some work, don't let anyone fool you, but most of the work is in the beginning. If you are consistent for about 6 weeks you will start seeing results. Hmmm, sounds like exercise! But easier!

First thing to do is start a collection of coupons. I remember when I first started and would see the deals that people did and want to do them too, but darn, I never had the coupons or that many. Coupons expire, so you have to keep at it. Start collecting coupons and I promise after about 6 weeks it will all start coming together!

Where to find coupons...


* Sunday Paper - This is where I get the majority of my coupons. I buy anywhere from 6-10 Sunday papers a week depending on the coupons inside. I buy my papers at a local $1.00 store on Saturday ( they carry the Sunday edition on the Saturday before at a discount price) so call around and see who has them cheaper than buying them on Sunday at the local store.


* Printable Coupons - There are many online sources for coupons. My favorite is coupons.com. You can also go the website of your favorite brands and look for coupons there or email your favorite companies and ask for a coupon to be mailed to you. These are both free ways to get coupons!

* Magazines - Almost ever magazine has coupons in it, just keep your eyes open. My all time favorite magazine for coupons is All You magazine, located in the checkout lanes at Walmart. It is full of hundreds of $$ worth of coupons each month! Or you can order a subscription HERE for cheaper than the cover price at the store.

*Tear Pads - In grocery stores and drugstores, usually on end caps you can find what are called tear pads. These are the little pads of coupons that the vendors place near the products for you to take and use on that product. PLEASE be considerate to others and only take a few....

*Blinkies - These are also found in grocery and drugstores. They are the little boxes that have a blinking light at the top, when you pull out a coupon a new one automatically is refilled in its place. Cool little boxes!

*E-coupons - e-coupons are coupons that are linked to your customer care cards from stores, like the little cards you can put on your key chains. You can go to certain web sites and "load" coupons to y our card. When you scan your card at the store when you check out they are automatically taken off your balance. You can combine these coupons with other manufacturer coupons, but they usually do not double or triple. Some sites are, softcoin.com, p&gesaver.com, cellfire.com, and shortcuts.com.

*Coupon Clipping Services- Web sites like Coupon Clipping Crew and Taylor Town Preview clip the coupons for you. you just go and order the ones that you want. They usually charge anywhere from 10% of the value of the coupon to $.10 a coupon. Sometimes there is a minimum of $5.

*Ebay- I buy many coupons on Ebay. You are paying for the time it takes them to cut them out not for the coupon its self. I do this when there was a really good coupon that came out and I want maybe 20 of them, but I don't want to buy 20 papers!

*Ask Friends- Don't discount this idea! Let people know you are couponing, I guarantee you will end up with more coupons than you can use. Esp. if you have older neighbors, they most likely get the paper and love to help out. I even asked my parents neighbors and they always save their coupons for me, they don't consider it a hassle and would have thrown them away anyway! Start a basket at your work or church to trade or exchange coupons you don't need.

Lastly, here is a little video I did about how I cut out my coupons.

How do you find coupons?