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     My favorite two stores are Publix and Kroger; however, there may be other supermarkets in your area worth shopping at such as Aldi, Winn Dixie or Ingles. The key is to look at what is on sale. Then you need to see if you have a coupon for that item. An easier way to do this is to go to http://www.couponmom.com/. It is free to join and each week they will post the entire sale ad from the store you choose from the drop down box under the section called "Grocery Deals by State". Beside each sale item it will tell you if there is a coupon available from a Sunday insert. They also post sales from all of the drug stores such as CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and they even post deals from Walmart and Target. The best book I read about couponing was The Coupon Mom's Guide to Cutting Your Grocery Bills in Half: The Strategic Shopping Method Proven to Slash Food and Drugstore Costs.  I guarantee it will be the best $4.19 you ever spend! She has so much valuable information to help you save money. Below I will discuss from my own experience what I know about how to use coupons.


Benefits of Shopping at the Supermarket:

1. You can not beat the price when you combine a sale with a coupon.
2. Customer Service is off the chain!
3. The people are just nicer for some reason :).

Here are some tricks that you will first need to know about shopping at supermarkets:

1. 10 for $10 or 3 for $5.00 etc. does not mean you have to actually buy 10 or 5. You only have to purchase one item to get that price.
2. BOGO means Buy One Get One Free. This means that items actually ring up at half price. Let's look at a simple scenario of how this works. So if Publix is having a BOGO sale on Ritz crackers, for example, and the regular price is $3.00, each box will ring up for $1.50. If you have a coupon for $1.00 off, then you will only pay $.50 per box.
3. Publix will take competitor coupons. My Publix will take coupons from Kroger, Target, Food Lion and Harvey's and I can use one of these coupons as well as a manufacturer coupon on the same item. So let's look at #1 again and add a Target coupon that is for $1.00 off. Then each box would be free plus an overage of $.50. Of course they are probably not going to give you money back, but you can see how simple and easy this can be! Many times they will allow your "overage" to go towards your other purchases. Always check with your store to find out which competitor coupons they will take because every store is different.
4. Kroger may not take competitor coupons; however, they do stack a paper coupon with coupons that are loaded to your Kroger card. First you will need to go to customer service and ask for a card. You will then need to go online and register your card with Cellfire, Shortcuts and Kroger.com. Once you have done this, you can load coupons straight to your Kroger card and then use those coupons at the store. For example I had a coupon for $5.00 off of 5 Healthy Choice dinners. I also loaded a coupon for $5.00 off of 5 for the same product on my Kroger card. The regular price was $1.99 per box. I received 5 dinners absolutely FREE! Can you see how this works!?
5. Many times you will get to the store only to find that someone has cleaned off an entire shelf and the one item you are going after is sold out. Go to the customer service counter and ask for a rain check. Just be sure to use your rain check and the coupons before they expire.

Stockpiling:


     Now when I say stockpiling, I am not talking about preparing for some kind of catastrophic event. I am talking about not ever paying full price for your favorite items ever again! Why would you want to wait until you run out ketchup and have to pay full price when you can stockpile on three or four and it would only cost you the same price as one. This is just an example but you can see how important this can be if you want to save money. Now on the flip side, you must be careful not to go crazy and get everything you see just because it is a "great deal". If you are trying to save money and you end up spending more after you start couponing then what is the point? Many times I think couponers get a bad rep because they clean off the shelves and hoard as much as they can. I am not trying to offend anyone here so please give me a chance to explain. It is good to get great deals and stockpile on things that you KNOW YOU ARE GOING TO USE. If you purchase things you do not need and will never use, then why not share it with those in need. There are plenty of food banks and shelters that can use the items. This a good reason to clean off the shelf but not if you are just going to get it for the sake of getting it and let it spoil in your cabinets or fridge. 
     
     At first, you will spend a little time on the computer trying to figure this all out. You will find many coupons to print. You will also find that your first few weeks you may not see yourself saving that much, but you must remember you are going to be getting a lot more for your money because you are in the process of stockpiling. As your stockpile grows, your needs will quickly begin to shrink. You are going to build a stockpile. Look for the best deals that you need. Then you will want to plan out your budget carefully. I always recommend making sure you have enough dinners planned for the week first. I post 7 dinners each week that are usually less than $45 along with your coordinated grocery shopping list and coupons. Now that is per meal and you must remember that if you were to buy everything on that grocery list, it may cost you more that the total for all 7 dinners but you will have spices and such that will be used in other meals; however, you must also remember that if you have been couponing for a while, your total for 7 dinners may actually be much less than that because you have built a stockpile and purchased the same items on the staples list at a much cheaper rate. For instance this week, I am using my 7 dinners from my own site and I only have to purchase about $10 worth of items because I already have the other items in my cabinets. That leaves me some money to work with at Publix for lunch, breakfast and snack items (not to mention diapers and other non-grocery products). If you have not carefully planned your list, you can easily spend more than you expected. Don't get me wrong, you can get $300 worth for $90 (maybe even less) but if your budget is only $60 then you need to rethink your shopping list.


      Now I have found that when you start stockpiling, you end up with a bunch of certain items and your family is definitely grateful for the new groceries but they can get pretty bored with the same old stuff. I mean yogurt is great but if you don't change it up then no one will want to eat it. On my site I have started a new section called "Ordinary to Extraordinary". It is new so I do not have a lot of recipes yet but it is a place for you to get some ideas to change that boring stockpile item into something exciting that someone will actually want to eat. If you have any ideas, please feel free to share them!


Planning Your Trip:


     If you have access to the internet (and I am assuming you do since you are reading this, lol) then the first site you will want to visit is http://www.couponmom.com/ as stated in the first paragraph. Here you can find the best deals for the store you will be using. Print out your shopping list and grab a pencil because you will more than likely be making some changes. Next you will want to get your meals planned whether you decide to plan them yourself or use my weekly menu. See which items you will have to purchase so that you can prepare dinner enough dinners for the week. By preparing dinner as much as possible you will be saving a lot of money because you will not be eating out near as much. There are times when us busy moms just have to go out and if you just have to, then check out the restaurant deals. After you have figured up how much you will need to spend on dinner, then here comes the fun part. My favorite store is definitely Publix because of the weekly BOGO sales! You will find some great deals. There are so many great blogs out there that I like to use. They will find additional printable coupons that may not be listed on http://www.couponmom.com/. Some of my favorites are http://www.iheartpublix.com/ and moneysavingmom.com and athriftymom.com.  They also offer great resources for drugstore sales too with coupon matchups as well.


     Now that you know what you want, it is time to add it all up and see if it fits into your budget. Cut out what you don't need. It will more than likely go on sale again. I like to put all of my coupons in an envelope and write the name of the store on it because many times I go to several different stores. When you get to the store, try to stick to your list as much as possible. Get in and get out because the longer you spend in the store, the more deals you will find which means you will be spending more money. This has happened to me too many times. I have wised up a bit since this couponing adventure started. Remember that if you cannot find an item that is on your list and they are out of stock, go to customer service and get a rain check. I file all of my rain checks in a certain place and try to use them before they expire.




Where To Find Coupons:

1. Get an All You Magazine each month. It has at least $50 worth of coupons. This month it had over $90 worth! The only place I have found this magazine is at Walmart for around $2.44. It is a lot easier to purchase a six month or one year year subscription because not only will it save you money, but time as well because it will be delivered right to your door! The only downside to this is that the magazines at Walmart have a few extra coupons in the middle than the ones that come in the mail. I just found this out myself and was a little bummed :(.
2. Print Free Coupons Online at Coupons.com, Red Plum, Smart Source and Target.com. There are many other printable coupons available on the internet. (Read more about how to spot a fake coupon here.)
3. Load coupons to your Kroger card with Cellfire, Shortcuts and Kroger.com.
4. Get your Sunday paper each week. I usually get three or four papers depending on how good the coupons are. The reason why we get more than one paper is because when there is a great deal you will be able to stockpile and pick up more than one item. Why get one free item when you can get three or four? You can go to http://www.taylortownpreview.com/ to check out which coupons will be coming out in the paper each week. Sometimes, especially around holidays there are no coupons in the paper and it is such a bummer to get home and find you just wasted your money!
5. Get the Yellow and Green Advantage Flyers at Publix. You can usually find these in the foyer on a rack. Always ask customer service if they have any new coupon books available because sometimes they keep them behind the desk.
6. Take advantage of all of the Publix saving booklets. You can sign up to receive these mailing each month and the coupons are delivered straight into your mailbox!
7. Find coupons in the grocery isle. Look for blinkies and tearpads. I let my kids pull one each and this keeps them busy too. You also may find free standing displays out with coupon books. The point is…keep your eyes open.
8. On or in products. These are called peelies. Only peel the coupon if you are actually purchasing the item.
9. If you have not yet started collecting the paper, then you can go to either The Coupon Clippers or The Coupon Carry Out Service and purchase your coupons for a very small handling fee (usually less than $0.10 ea.).  Not a bad option if you do not want the hassle of having to clip and file coupons each week. 
10. Upromise is an awesome program to join. You can read more about Upromise here, or simply go to their site and get started!

Get Organized:


     There are many different methods for organizing your coupons. Personally I have tried several different ones and since I am so busy and I am not out to get every single deal, I have found that it is much easier to file the entire insert from the weekly paper in a binder. I match up all of the pages that are the same, then all three or four sheets together. Then I punch three holes in the side and simply stick it in a binder. I use a sticky note split in half and write the date and either SS (Smart Source) or RP (Red Plum) or PG (Proctor and Gamble) or GM (General Mills) at the top. Then when my list prints out from couponmom.com, I can clip out the coupons I am going to be using. Now the only down side to this method is that you won't be able to bring your coupons in the store with you if your binder is too heavy and you will have to use the grocery coupon database on couponmom.com if you are looking for a particular coupon. There are many other great ways to file if you have more time. Here is a great post from A Thrifty Mom about some different methods.

Have fun with it. Saving money can be a lot of fun. It's sort like a game to see how much you can save every week! Seem overwhelmed? Don't be. There is definitely a lot of very valuable information available about couponing but feel free to email me with any questions you may have at jenglish647@att.net.