An introduction to couponing

I am no expert at couponing, but I've heard it's a little easier in the South so it was something I wanted to give a try when we moved. My husband was job-hunting the first month we were here, so I had extra time to coupon and work while he entertained the girls. Now that he's back at work, I know couponing will be a bit harder...but from what I've experienced this far, it's totally worth it.

I'm the type of person that learns by doing. There are thousands of "couponing" tutorials on the web, and while I'm sure they all work GREAT, I knew that if this was really something I was going to stick to I needed to figure it out for myself and come up with a plan that would work for me.

That being said, I by no means want to be an "extreme" couponer. I don't feel the need to stock up on toothpaste, toilet paper, shampoo, frozen veggies and the like. I only want to save money on items that I normally buy. 

So...here's what I've done so far:

Printed coupons from www.coupons.com. Easy as can be! Clip, print, shop! I check this site every few days and print off new coupons. I currently have a few different plastic bags to separate my coupons - General (manufacturer's coupons I can use anywhere), Target, Harris Teeter and Publix.

Both Harris Teeter and Publix offer e-coupons that are customized to your shopping habits. For example, just this past week at Harris Teeter we received half-gallon milks for $0.67, Kashi cereal for $0.97, 12-pack soda for $1.97, 8-pack paper towels for $5.00 and a few other items. I then combined those deals with some manufacturer's coupons - $0.70 off Kashi (which rings in as a dollar, so I made money on this cereal) and $0.25 off paper towels (again, rings in as a dollar). Ka-ching!

That particular trip to the store, we spent $25 and saved $15. Not bad at all, especially since I'm so new at this! Today, I spent $35 and saved another $15. Next up is a trip to Publix to hit all of their deals and combine with a few of my coupons!

So really all I'm doing is looking at the store deals, looking at my ecoupons from each store, then browsing coupons.com to mix and match. I probably spend 15 minutes here and there looking for coupons. I can definitely see how if you have the time to devote to couponing, you can get loads of free items!