Coupon 101

The first coupon class. Sweet Aimee and Courtney came out to my house. First off, they ate dinner with me, and then I put the poor girls to work...they swapped laundry around, helped me fold some clothes, unloaded and loaded my dishwasher, helped me clean out the frig, took out all the trash in my house and watered my flowers...they might have done more, I can't remember. But those are just a few examples of things I used to take for granted that I could do before bedrest :( THANK YOU GIRLS...I WOULDN'T BE SANE WITHOUT YA! Court cooked a YUMMY meal and Aimee came for a lesson on how to coupon.

Me and Court did our best to teach her the basics. I can't wait to see how much Aimee starts to save once she gets the hang of it. The first step is to create the coupon binder, see below...
Everybody does couponing different. I mean I'm no "extreme coupon mom" or anything, but this is what works for me and a few of my other friends who coupon. I got a binder, dividers and baseball card holders. That's how I keep things organized and know what I have. The categories I have things divided into are:
baking/bread, condiments
cereal/breakfast
canned goods, pasta/rice
chips, snacks, candy, crackers
frozen food
meat
dairy
frig
drinks
pharmacy items
household items
personal care
paper products
baby items

But you can make them say whatever works for you. I find the more categories I have the easier it is to find stuff and stay organized.

Then I clip the coupons from the Sunday paper and file them in the category where they belong. I subscribed to the Sunday/Wed paper. It makes it work out to .50 an issue verses going out every Sunday to get the paper that costs $2.

I also use www.southernsavers.com to find other deals and ideas for my shopping trip. As I said before, I mostly use Publix and CVS. And for those of you who don't coupon, I know you're thinking..."DANG...those places are expensive". They actually are expensive unless you know how to shop there. Trust me..I did the price comparison myself with Walmart, Target, Winn Dixie, Food World and Publix. If you use the sale paper to make your list and pair it with coupons, you get things cheaper than the Walmart brand at Walmart. Same with CVS...b/c you can earn Extra Care Bucks there, they accept coupons and have sales.

It's all about planning and the strategy. So I just make my list, I make it detailed with the item, size that's on sale and the coupon I have b/c some coupons you can just buy one item and some you have to buy two...so it's good to know what you're looking for while you're shopping so you don't mess up at the register. I pull out my coupons at home when I'm making my shopping list so I'm ready when I go to check out.

I will say though...if you only need a few things or run out of something...we go to Walmart b/c hands down, they are cheaper if you just need something. But the whole point to couponing is to not run out of things and to pay the cheapest price for things that you buy. I'll demonstrate this once I can go shopping again. Right now we are going to Walmart b/c J is having to do the shopping and thanks to all of you sweet friends out there...we haven't had to get much to cook at home, so our grocery trips are very minimal at the moment. But...if there is a good week at Publix, I might have to arm the boy and send him out with the coupons and list and see how good he can do :) Or maybe I'll go ride in that little scooter thing at the store..that would be a funny picture :)

Hope this post helps. More to come on coupons when I'm back on my feet, but I thought this might be a good start for some of you. There was lots of interest in my CVS post. If anybody has any questions just email me and I'll do what I can to help ya.