Can you really save money couponing?
Coupons – little pieces of papers that you cut of the Sunday paper that will allow you to save money at the grocery store. There are coupons for just about anything you would want to purchase. Coupons used to be low value but now there are many that you can get that will get you an item free or almost free.
So how can you save the most with the coupons? Can you really shave hundreds of dollars off of your food budget every year?
To save the most money with the coupons, here are some things that you should do.
Get organized with coupons.
Highlight the expiration dates so that you can get rid of the ones that have already expired.
Organize the coupons in such a way that you will know how to find them quickly in the store. If you have a huge handful of coupons, you won’t want to go through them looking for the one that you need. It doesn’t matter how you organize them, just as long as you know where you can find them when you need them.
Take the coupons to the store with you when you go. You won’t want to be at the store without the coupons, you don’t save any money that way.
Get the most out of your coupons:
Swap the coupons that you don’t use. Maybe you have friends that will have coupons that you need and will need the ones that you have that you won’t use.
Join a club online that will send you coupons that you need. They won’t sell them, but will charge you a small handling fee. You can order the exact coupons that you need. Maybe you would like to buy more than one of that item; they will allow you to purchase several coupons of the same thing.
Get the most value for the coupon:
Before going to the store to go shopping, you will want to match up the coupons with the sale paper. This is the way that many of us get our items for free. By matching the coupons with the sales you can get really save allot of money. I like to use the coupons with the buy one get one free. You can use two coupons off of one price. It’s like getting double coupons values.
Speaking of double coupons, you can really rank up the savings by going to a store that offers double coupons on the items, this means that if you have a coupon that is worth 50 cents they will double it and give you a dollar off for using that coupon. If you match the double coupons with sales and coupons, you can get hundreds of items for free each week. You will have to have a supple of coupons to be able to do this, but it is possible.
You may be able to be close to the other stores in your town and be able to take advantage of going to several stores to save the most money, but this will depend on gas prices and how far you have to drive along with your time. Time is also a factor in this equation. How much time can you afford to spend to save money? This isn’t a hobby for people with no time. This does take time to get set up, organized and to go through the sale papers every week.
Getting ready to go to the store:
Get the sale papers and go through them circling the items that you have coupons for – at the same time you will want to pull out these coupons. You will want to match yup the sales with the coupons so that you pay next to nothing for these items. This takes some time to do. But if you have the coupons organized so that you can find them easily you will find them easier.
Make a shopping list so that you know what you will be buying and finding the best bargains that you can at the store. Once you have a plan you can then head to the store to get your savings.
Some things that won’t save you money:
If you don’t use the product, no matter how much you save, it’s not worth it to you that is unless you donate it to a food bank or something.
Buying things that will expire before you can use them. If you buy 100 boxes of cereal for just a few cents each, you will feel ecstatic that you have saved money, but if most of the boxes of cereal will expire before you get to use them, again it’s not a savings to you.
Buying things you have no room to store. If you stock up on a lot of freezer items and don’t have room to keep them, you are wasting money.
You can save money with coupons, it will take some time, and you will have to be organized to
