When I decided to really put forth the effort to save our family as much money as possible it became a lifestyle change. There would be no more running to the store to pick up a few things for dinner 3x a week. This was going to take a plan that I was going to have to be religious about sticking with.
I am cheap in every sense of the word. If there is a deal to be had, I'll find it. I spend about an hour every week researching prices and deals. I spend about 3 hours every week clipping coupons, organizing my coupon notebook and planning my shopping trips. I hate to hear people complain about not having time to do this. I work full-time, I have 2 young children and we are constantly on the go. You have to decide that you want to put forth the effort and time to quit throwing your money away. I'll try to explain my methods the best way that I can.
I have this notebook in pink: http://www.amazon.com/Mead-Platinum-1-5-Inch-Zipper-Binder/dp/B007CGUILG/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1373004644&sr=8-6&keywords=mead+zippered+binder
I put my coupons in these: http://www.amazon.com/Avery-Trading-Card-Pages-76016/dp/B0026S8646/ref=sr_1_2?s=office-products&ie=UTF8&qid=1373004744&sr=1-2&keywords=baseball+card+sleeves
I can't stress the importance of being organized, enough. You have to find a system that works for you. I have a friend that has her coupons organized by aisle in the store. I prefer to have mine alphabetized. I have all my a's, b's, etc in order. It makes it so much easier to look through your coupons when you have them in order to see if you have a particular coupon.
Ok, now that you have your notebook figured out, now to begin your coupon clipping. I buy at least 2 Sunday papers every week; sometimes I buy 3 if there are several inserts. Here's what I do, I clip EVERY food coupon and most toiletry coupons. Hear me out....You know what your family likes so you won't buy things they won't eat BUT if you have a coupon for say, Progresso soup and your family only eats Campbell's, if you can get the Progresso free or close to it, why not go ahead and get it and donate it. I've gotten so many items for free that we were able to donate 2 boxes of food during my son's food drive at school last year that cost me less than $10. It was a win for my pocketbook, a win for the needy and his class won a pizza party because they collected the most food items.
When you begin to clip your coupons you'll realize that you have a Kraft cheese coupon, a Kraft Dressing coupon and a Kraft BBQ sauce coupon. I put all of my coupons for the same brand in a single insert on the page. Also with cereal if you do this it will cut your shopping times way down. All of my Kellogg's coupons are in a pocket, all of my General Mills in a pocket, all of my Post in a pocket, etc. You don't want to get to the cereal aisle and flip through 20 pages to see if you have a Crispix coupon or a Cheerios coupon when the cereals at the store are on the shelf with their own brands. Next time you go to the store notice how aisles are set-up like a grid; all of the same brands are together. You will see Ken's dressing all grouped together, Kraft dressing all grouped together, Kroger, etc. If you have all of the like brands grouped together in your notebook, you will know exactly where to flip in your notebook to find that particular coupon.
Ok, your notebook is set-up with coupons in it so let's go shopping! In my Sunday papers we get a Kroger ad, a Walgreen's ad and a CVS ad. I buy 95% of everything at Kroger. I will break down how to shop at each one individually because they are all very different! I have a spreadsheet that I use for each store I plan on shopping with that week. (I'll add a download at some point so you can print it off and use it). On my spreadsheet I write the store name across the top and I have these columns: PRODUCT, PRICE, COUPON AMOUNT, COUPON AMOUNT, COUPON AMOUNT & my last column is QTY TO BUY. I realize coupon amount is on there 3x and that is in case the store allows you to "stack" coupons (that will be explained). I go through my ads and match up whatever is on sale with what I have coupon for. I then gather all of my coupons for that store, place them in an envelope and paper clip it to the spreadsheet of the store I'll be using them at. I'll break down some different scenarios to help you better understand how this works.
Stacking - Stacking is when you combine a manufacturer's coupon with a store coupon. If you look on coupons sometimes you'll see a Kroger logo or a Dollar General logo on the coupon but across the top it will say "manufacturer coupon"' that means you can use that coupon ANYWHERE that takes coupons. You don't have to use a coupon at the place that put their logo on it as long as it says "manufacturers coupon". Now, places like Publix or Walgreen's sometimes have their own coupons that are not manufacturer coupons that you can "stack" with a mfg coupon. Ie: Trident gum is $1 @ Publix. You have a mfg coupon for $0.25 off and a Publix coupon for $0.50. You can use both coupons and pay $0.25 for the gum.
Kroger - Kroger doubles coupons up to $0.50. Whatever you do, do NOT download coupons to your card!!!! The coupons that you download do NOT double and they will throw off the system if you're using paper coupons that are the same as the digital. I hate the download coupons and the couple of times in the past that I've used them, my whole shopping trip came out screwy.
Walgreen's - Walgreen's uses a thing they call "Register Rewards". If the item has register rewards you will have to buy the item and after you have paid for it, the register will print off a coupon for the amount of the register reward. The register reward will have to be used on your next transaction. I don't frequent Walgreen's that much because if you have 5 items, you can only use 5 coupons. Walgreen's doesn't allow you to stack a mfg coupon with a Walgreen's coupon if the total # of coupons exceeds the # of items in the transaction. Ie: Secret deoderant is $1. You have a mfg coupon for $0.25 & a Walgreen's coupon for $0.25. Since you have 2 coupons and only 1 item, you will need to add another item to the transaction that you aren't using a coupon on for it to work. Another example: Secret deoderant is $1. You have a mfg coupon for $1 off 2 and $0.25 Walgreen's coupon. You will have to buy 2 and since you only have 2 coupons, it will take it. Walgreen's is sometimes so close to the price of CVS that I'd rather have to spend the extra dime @ CVS than to have to deal with their weird coupon set-up.
CVS - Like Walgreen's, CVS has a thing called "Extracare Bucks" that work exactly like the Register Rewards. In order to use the Extracare Bucks you will have to purchase the item and then use the extracare bucks in a seperate transaction. CVS will allow you to stack your coupons here and they are very coupon friendly.
With it being so late I'll save my shopping scenarios and tips/tricks for next time. I hope this helps and if you have any questions, feel free to ask.
