Learning the Art of Couponing: A Beginners Guide

I don't know about the rest of you but I always love to have a chance to save money when and where I can. My older sister is the best at this coupon-ing, (If that is even a word. Hehehe), that I have ever known. Since my husband and I have been trying to save money for a new place, we looked at our budget and did some cutting back on some unnecessary costs.

Places that you can find coupons are:

1. Coupon Dispensers that are attached to the shelves at the grocery store. When you are doing your regular shopping grab some to add to your stash.

2. Newspapers. They constantly have a whole bushel of them stuffed into them on a daily basis but the best news paper to get your coupons is your Sunday paper. If you don't have your newspapers delivered you can always go to a newspaper stand, grocery or even Starbucks. Some of you may be thinking "What if I don't even read the paper? I'll end up with an ever growing stack of papers." A few solutions to that are"
a) Use it for fuel for a fire. Fireplace in the house, fire pit, or since some people like to go into the mountains this time of year for camping you can bring some of your unwanted newspapers for fuel for keeping yourselves warm.
b) Moving. Since my husband plan to be moving in 6 months we will be saving the papers for packing our fragile dishes and other supplies that need padding.
c) Art Projects. Are you artistically inclined? Newspaper is one of the best materials for paper mache.

3. Printable Coupons. You can either go to the website for your grocery store that you frequent and print them from the comfort of your own home.

4. On Products. Most stores, like Costco, always have loyalty coupons attached to some of their items. Beit can goods, boxes of cereals, even some brands of diapers have them. So when you are shopping for groceries look closely at the products you buy and see if you can have the coupons.

5. Magazines. My mother-in-law constantly has magazines mailed to her almost every day. There are some great coupons in them sometimes. Another good place to look. Who said you can't have coupons for things other than groceries. I love to shop at Ikea, Bed, Bath and Beyond, and Fred Meyer.

Ways to Organize: The way that my sister told me that is easy is by buying a big 3 ring binder, some clear inserts for holding cards and a pack for dividers. Other options are boxes with labeled envelopes, ziplock bags, or some people include a grocery folder in their filing cabinets for their coupons like my parents. But me, I like the binder idea.

A. Make a list of stores you frequent and order them from most shopped at to least shopped at.
B. Write on the divider tabs the name of the store in that exact order that you wrote them down. Most shopped at the front of the binder and least shopped at the back of the binder.
C. Then organize all of your cut coupons in the available slots of the clear sheets
D. And you're done.

You can apply this same step by step way of organizing for all the options that I gave you. Just keep in mind that coupons do have expiration dates so schedule a time weekly to thumb through your coupons and throw the expired ones out.

Thank you for visiting my blog. If you guys want to share ideas or leave comments I have a forum available for you to leave comments or you can email me at ferguson.sabrina15@gmail.com. I'll respond to you as soon as I get a chance.

Resources for more coupon help:

- http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/a/Coupon_Guide.htm
- www.coupons.com
- http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/tp/Find_Coupons_Online.htm
- http://frugalliving.about.com/od/couponsandrebates/tp/How-To-Get-Coupons-For-Healthy-Foods.htm