Time is Money

There are so many people jumping on the couponing bandwagon. There are stories all over the Internet, newspapers, and television of these couponing "kings and queens" scoring thousands of dollars worth of goods for free. These coupon masters all have their own ideas of how to coupon the “right” way. I don’t know about you but this has become a coupon information overload for this couponing princess.

I read an article recently that really made me giggle. One of these crazy “queens” gave some of the most bizarre advice for the novice couponers. I don’t know about you, but carving out 15 plus hours a week to coupon is just absurd in my world. I have a hard time grabbing a cup of tea in the morning before the ladies swarm their mommy. Don’t get me wrong, you do have to carve out some time but “time is money” and your time is valuable. 

I will take the next few weeks to guide you through the basics of couponing that anyone can do on a tight schedule. I will happily admit that I do save thousands of dollars a year by couponing. I will also happily admit that there are weeks that I am so busy that I do not even look at my coupons. I am a mother and wife first and couponing, although lucrative, has to fit in my busy schedule.

Couponing on a small or large scale begins with the most important factor: the coupons. Buy a newspaper or two to get your coupons. The worst thing would be to waste your money and have a bunch of old newspapers cluttering your house. You will lose initiative and quit before you even start. So only buy multiples when you know you will use the coupons.

For example, if you are looking to stock up on mostly health and beauty products buy multiple papers at the end of the month. This is the time when Proctor & Gamble puts in a huge coupon insert. Match these with the sales before the end of the month to save hundreds of dollars and stock your closet for weeks. You can get a sneak peek at the coupons for the week at Sundaycouponpreview.com. This site will give you a list of every coupon that will be in the paper.

Printable coupons are all over the Internet. It may seem expensive to print your coupons at home but it can be done very reasonably. There are always free printers on Freecycle.org. Yes, I said FREE. Try to get one that has refillable ink so you can use Walgreens or Staples to refill your ink instead of buying new ones. They charge $10 to refill black ink and you will get about 1,200 full-page prints per refill. Remember, you usually print three coupons per page. Paper can be expensive but all of the stores have paper on sale or FREE right now for . Pick up a few reams now while they are discounted.

The best sites for printable coupons are RedPlum.com, Coupons.com, Smart Source.com, Target.com, and Facebook. These sites are fantastic if you did not get a chance to pick up a paper or want to supplement your newspaper coupons. You have your coupons, what do you do now? Stay tuned…happy couponing!