My journey

I know most people think that couponers are a breed similar to those seen on TLC's Extreme Couponing, but I must tell you that it isn't always the case. I coupon.. Its not a bad thing at all. I am amazed at the stuff that I can get cheap/free.  Yes I am the woman in-front of you in the checkout lane who hands over the stack of coupons that I have in my hand, or I pass them one by one to the cashier!!!  I do not like paying full price if I can help it.

My coupon craziness all started almost 2 years ago when my dear cousins wife, after posting all her hot scores/deals, showed me how to become coupon crazy (LOL) and get my home stockpile growing.  I won't lie to you, sometimes you will be spending hours and hours looking, organizing, clipping and scouring the internet looking for the holy grail of deals others you will be moments of time just organizing for the sale.

This Friday will start an awesome sale at my Shaw's supermarket. I have already begun clipping, sorting and counting out my deals.  There is a bunch of stuff going to be FREE or MM(moneymakers). Good way to stock up on some things that do not normally have the Catalina deals that are attached to these ones.  Is it bad that I am planning for a sale that will not start for a few days?? Not in my eyes.. the better prepared I am the easier it will be for me to walk in, score my deals, check out and away I go..  Here is your first lesson, MAKE a plan of attack. If you have your coupons and sale organized the faster you will get in and get out of the store.

Second lesson, get organized!!! Decide how you are going to organize your coupons... its key!  There are many ways to organize, I organize by category and have them sitting in a binder, tucked inside baseball card holders.  I also only cut 5 sets of coupons the rest I file by date in an accordion folder with the tab reflecting the issue date.

Third lesson, don't use the coupon the week it comes out, normally the item isn't on sale for a week or so after.

Start slow, pick 1 or 2 items that you buy constantly, if you are a store brand(like I was before I started to coupon) pick the name brand that you would like to replace it with, search one of the many websites to see where it maybe on sale that week, then check to see if there is a coupon. Match the sale with the coupon and viola cheap/free items!!!