Super Couponing Part One: The Basics

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to using coupons. There are several ways to use them and save time and money for your family. Today I’m going to briefly cover the benefits and types of coupons as well as where you can use them and what you should expect to save.

Super Couponing: the use of coupons to save 50 – 100% off of your grocery/household item bills

Casual Couponing: the use of coupons to save a few pennies here and there

Lack of Couponing: paying full price for items you might have gotten cheap or free

How Coupons Can Benefit You

Coupons are like free money. If someone offered you twenty dollars, would you turn them down? Probably not. Yet, that’s what I see happen at the stores all of the time. I see people spending hundreds more than they have to. I saved my family over $200 just in coupons in the month of January. That’s $200 that I didn’t have to go out and work for. That’s $200 that I didn’t have to deduct from the monthly grocery budget. What did it take for me to save that money you ask? Well, it took a couple of hours of my time acquiring the coupons and planning my shopping trips. What could your family do with an extra $200 a month? I see more money in my budget as a HUGE benefit of couponing.

Coupons are also a great opportunity to try new products. May manufacturers will put out coupons you can use to try items free. When paired properly with current sales, many items are free or almost free with coupons as well. Who doesn’t like to try new products for free?

Where You Can Use Coupons

Coupons can be used at most stores including grocery stores, drug stores, big box stores, and even some warehouse stores (BJ’s). Sometimes discount stores will take coupons as well. It’s always a good idea to ask about a store’s coupon policy so you’ll know in advance if you should plan to use coupons there or not.

What Types of Coupons There Are

There are several types of coupons out there and many different places you can get them. The most commonly used coupons come from newspaper inserts, but that’s really just the tip of the iceberg.

Other types include:

• Printable coupons
• Coupons that come to you in the mail
• E-coupons
• Store coupons
• Coupons from magazines
• Coupons directly from the manufacturer either via their website or direct mail
• Peelies
• Blinkies
• Catalinas
• Prescription coupons

As you can see there are a lot of ways to get coupons to save you money.

What Kind of Savings You Can Expect

This is definitely going to vary from person to person, but even minimal coupon use should yield a savings of 30% or more off of your grocery bill. If you’re ready to take couponing to the next level, you should easily see 60-80% off of your bills. Two receipts that I’m especially proud of last month showed a 91% and a 99% savings!!! Now to be fair, all figures assume that the coupons are properly paired with the current sales. Last month I was just lucky enough to hit the jackpot. You can be too. Stay tuned for part two.