Extreme Couponing for Normal People: Part 1

I want to start by saying that not everyone has time to learn in a week how to coupon. When I started I was working full time. A month before I made my first purchase I started researching and collecting coupons. (Buying 4 Sunday papers a week, and printing coupons on the internet.) After my first purchase I would say it took me a good 3 months to become more comfortable about walking into any store with coupons. So it is just up to you and your schedule on how much you want to do this. I am now a full time housewife so I obviously have more time to do this. But before we moved when I was working full time I still managed to do lots of couponing. It just wasn't quite as organized! :) So for all you busy busy people. It can be done!

Starting right away, you need to start buying 4 Sunday papers. I got them for $1 at the Dollar Tree in Indy.  If you are going to get less than that get at least two for the BOGO deals. You need to start your coupon stash as soon as possible. It will take you a good month to build it up.

Get a big zipper binder and either 9 slot baseball card holders or 3 sleeve page protectors. I have both. I have found that I like the 3 sleeve ones because you don’t have to fold your coupons to fit them in the slots. these slots are perfect for internet printed coupons.Also, I would recommend getting a couple of those zip pouches. I found them at Wal-Mart and Target. They have many purposes. They hold my coupons when I go to the store. They hold loose coupons that need to go back in a sleeve. Many uses. I would get at least four. They are key to my organization. And you need to get about 20 dividers for your categories. I would highly recommend getting the kind that have a pocket in the front. You can get them at Staples or Office Depot. I think they come in a pack of ten. The pockets are wonderful for sorting your coupons by category and storing them until you have time to organize.

Zipper Binder

Zipper Binder Open

 3 Pocket Pages

9 Pocket Pages

Zip Pouches

Front Pocket Dividers

When you print coupons online, from any website, it will only allow you to print two of the same coupon. So if you want more than two you will have to use another computer.The websites I use to print coupons are coupons.com, smartsouce.com, and redplum.com. Coupons.com is really the main one I use on a consistent basis. Also, below I have listed websites that have taught me how to coupon and websites that I visit on a weekly basis. Most of the websites are blogs by ladies who have been doing this for years. So basically, they do the work for me. :)

BOGO free Items. You can use one coupon for the item you purchase and one coupon for the free item. Also, if the store is running a BOGO free sale on a certain item and you have BOGO coupons for that same item you can use your coupon on top of the store promotion and get all items free. Example below.

8 FREE Deodorant + $5 Money Maker at Rite Aid.

Rite Aid had Lady's Speed Stick (which is my deodorant of choice) BOGO free. And if you spent $15 on this item you got $5 UP Rewards for your next purchase. Plus, I had 4 coupons for BOGO. So I got 4 free deodorant from Rite Aid and 4 free from my coupons. So I paid nothing and got $5 UP Rewards!! That was a very good day.

Items I never pay for: razors, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, Carefree brand panty liners, gum...

Items I pay very little for: marinara, pasta, taco seasoning, mouthwash, body wash, pickles, cereal, laundry detergent,…

Get a green tag at CVS and attach it to your reusable shopping bag. They are $1 to purchase. Scan it every time you go to CVS and every fourth time you will get a $1 ECB.

Get two CVS cards. Most of their ECB (Extra Care Bucks) items have a limit of 1 or 2 per card. If the deal is too good to pass up you might want to make an extra trip that week with your second card. There was a deal on Physician's Formula, but there was a limit of two. But with my 2 CVS cards I was able to make 2 trips and get 4 concealers.

29 cent Physician's Formula concealer at CVS.

CVS was running a special on any Physician's Formula product, automatically get $5 off each item. The concealer was originally $6.29. So with the automatic $5 off and my $1 coupons I got them for 29 cents!

Since you don’t use a shoppers card at Walgreens, you can do several transactions if there is a limit on a sale item. However, if you get a coupon back for $2 for buying a certain item and you do another transaction for that same item you cannot use that original $2 coupon. It will not give you another one. For instance, a couple weeks ago Nutrigrain bars were on sale for 2 for $5. And when you bought 2 you got $2 register rewards back. Plus I had coupons for $1 off 2. So up front I paid $4. And I got $2 register rewards for a future purchase. Making the bars $1 apiece. Side note, that's the cheapest I have ever found them.

Target has coupons that you can print to be stacked with Manufacturer's Coupons. Example below.

FREE Revlon Products at Target

I printed coupons from coupons.target.com for $2 off Revlon beauty tools. I also had $1 off coupons to stack on top of that. These items were $2.99 so I got them FREE.

The websites I use the most are southernsavers.com, moneysavingmom.com, krazycouponlady.com. The first website that I used to get started is savingwellspendingless.com. As far as I can tell, these are just moms who have blogged about their couponing experiences. When you go to these websites I would recommend reading articles that they have posted about couponing. Helpful hints. That sort of thing. Also, I do know a couple of these ladies have youtube videos as well. Those were also extremely helpful to me when I first started.

My first shopping trip was to CVS. I remember it was the day before Mother's Day last year. What a feeling it was when I got my first free toothpaste and razors. I got a total of $15 worth FREE. Now a year later I just got $105 FREE!!! So it does take time to really master it.

May 2012-$105 worth FREE!

Good luck, gals!!! Buy those papers! Do your research! Visit those websites! And get to it! Message me or post on my wall if you have any questions. I will be doing a Part 2 hopefully soon with more tips. This is just to get your started. Happy couponing!!!