Why coupon: This is a great way to save money and stock up on things that you would rather not spend your money on (toilet paper, laundry detergent and so on). You can even get things for free!!!! Couponing is great for kids because it teaches them how to shop wisely. It helps them to do math and to figure out if this is a good deal or not. They learn how to organize as well. These are all very valuable skills to know and this will help them when they have to budget on their own. I love it when my kids say…”Mom we have a coupon for this.”
This is the binder with clear trading card binder pages.
These are inserts.
Bought 6 at Walmart for 0.38 cents each !!!!
Got all of these for free at Safeway !!!!!
I paid 0.49 cents for each of these at Safeway !!!!!!
Got 4 of these at Walmart for free !!!!!
Got 8 of these for 1.99 each. (I went twice to Safeway that week).
To get started on Couponing you need coupons. You can get coupons in the Sunday paper at the dollar store. I usually buy 4 Sunday papers. You also get coupons in the mail once a week. I live in a small town and my kids and I know the postal woman at the postal office. We usually get inserts (coupons) on Wednesday and there are P.O boxes that are not used by anyone so there are plenty of free inserts. Our sweet postal woman saves the inserts for us and gives them to us on Thursday.
You also need a binder and clear trading card binder pages. They cost around $3.59 for a pack of 10. You need like 5 packs and this can be pricy. You can get them on sale. Right now office depot is having a sale on them: $2.00. You can also get clear trading card binder pages at the dollar store but I don’t really like them because the coupons tend to fall out of them. Esther organized the binder with sticky notes and she labeled the sticky notes: food, beauty, shampoo, razors, paper (for toilet paper, paper towels, and tissues)…… She puts the coupons into the right place.
Peter cuts the coupons for me. This can be done in the car when driving to the store. If you have four inserts it is best to cut the same coupon out of each of the inserts to save time. Peter also looks through the coupon binder and takes out the old coupons we have not used and throws them away.
Now you are ready to coupon.
In order to be an effective couponer you have to be willing to take your coupon binder with you to the stores. You can not be embarrassed of your handy dandy coupon binder because you will be opening and searching for coupons.
Walmart: the best deals are on the sale items and especially the clearance items. They usually have a clearances rack in the store. Ask if you don’t know where it’s located at. You can only use one coupon for an item. Usually you can get 4 of the same items but you need four of the same coupons.
The same applies to Safeway as did for Walmart. But at Safeway you have to become a Safeway member. This can be done at the store or online at Safeway.com. There are more saving deals online at Safeway.com under just for you. Here you get extra savings at the store but you need to add the items to your account before you shop or you can print them out. I add them to my account. Once you add them to your account you don’t have to buy those items, you just have them there in case you choose to buy them. The clearance rack is usually near the produce and meat isle.
Couponing can be fun as well as addictive. The first week I started Couponing I went shopping often to get more deals but I soon was not happy because I was cutting out time from what really matters and what needed to be done ( having fun with kiddos during free time and cleaning the house). My advice is to only go shopping when you need to. I usually go shopping twice a week. I would love to do it once a week but we always run out of something. So when you go shopping take your handy dandy coupon binder.
Have fun 🙂
