How to Make Coupon-ing Work For You

I wanted to discuss with you the impact that clipping coupons can have on your weekly grocery shopping bill. If you know how to do it correctly and know what to look for, your savings can be substantial.

First, if most of your grocery shopping is done through one particular grocer, they should be sending you so-called "customer appreciation" coupons in the mail. These are besides the generic ones that come with the Sunday paper. If they are not, stop by their customer service department and ask if there is a program or a mailing list you can sign up for.

With regards to clipping coupons out of the Sunday paper and out of all the flyers that you get in the mail-if you say you do not have the time to do it; It is like saying that you do not have time to save money. If the items that you buy the most are items that they have coupons for, then your savings will be that much greater. An extra 5 minutes out of each day to go through the flyers you get in the mail, and then on Sundays an extra 30 minutes or so going through the paper should be well worth the savings that you can find. Look at it this way-this works out to be approximately one hour a week. If you can save around $ 15 per week, then it is probably worth your time, because more than probably this $ 15 that you just saved (oh, and it's also money you do not pay taxes on), is more than you make at your Job.

I would definitely try it for a week and see what you can find. Maybe even involve the kids-make a game out of it. Tell them to try to find all of the foods that are eaten in your family in the newspaper and see how many coupons they can find.

The following are some other tips and pointers to make your "couponing" more successful:

1) If the coupon says "on the purchase of two" you can usually get by with only purchasing one.
2) If the coupon is for example "Kraft Cheddar" you can usually use it on "Kraft" anything. The brand should be correct but generally the product does not matter
3) Find a store that "doubles" your coupons and shop there!
4) Take advantage of the "buy one get one free" items plus your coupons.
5) Try to only buy things when they are on sale. Most stores run their sales in rotation so to speak-if it's not on sale this week, it is likely to be next week.
6) If you find that the Sunday paper is a real gold mine of coupons for you, run out and get a second paper and double your savings!

The only trap that I would try not to fall in is buying something just because you have a coupon for it. After all, that's the main goal by your grocer, is not it? To get you to buy something that you normally would not buy. Only get it if it is something you normally buy or maybe something you would like to try out.