When I first started out on this journey to become more frugal minded, I had no idea what I would find.
I have discovered that we were wasting so much of our money on food alone. Whether it was going out to eat or simply buying my groceries, I was overspending A LOT!
I also knew that this was the one area of the budget that I was able to take the most control of. So, I set out to see how much I could save by shaving off some of my over spending. The single mst effective thing I began to do was use coupons.
I’ll admit that I was a little apprehensive and maybe even slightly embarrassed the first couple of times. It’s true that some people gave me strange looks when I would walk into the store carrying my coupon box. But, eventually I got much more confident in my couponing skills and I stopped caring what others thought about it.
I was saving A LOT of money now!
On average I spend about $200 a month on groceries. We still go out to eat, but use coupons and go during the cheaper lunch hour whenever possible. We also never get appetizers or dessert, and we try to always order water since ordering anything else adds about $10 to the cost of the meal.
I have found several sources for coupons.
* The Sunday Paper Coupon Inserts - you can even see which coupons are going to be released each week here, which really helps in preparing your shopping trip.
* FREE Samples – You can receive coupons in the mail whenever you sign up for free samples. You can always see the latest free samples available here.
* CellFire - I recently found out about a new form of coupon which can be used along with regular or printable coupons to get real savings. These are coupons that can be loaded onto your store card and come off automatically when you purchase the item. You can see which coupons are available here.
*Printable Coupons – There are actually several sites that you can find printable coupons online, Cool Savings is one of my favorite.
Now that you know where to get the coupons, you may be interested in how to keep them organized. You can read the post Organizing Your Coupons.
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I've been a couponer for years and boy, it sure does save the money! Another excellent source for coupons is All You magazine. It's not expensive, and there are enough coupons inside that it more than pays for the cost of the magazine. In fact, I need to renew my subscription because then it will be even cheaper!
Yes!!! I love All You magazine, and it really is an excellent source of coupons. Thanks for reminding me of it.
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