Cheap Living with Couponing Basics

O.k. I’ve started couponing, I’ve been going at if for about two months now and it’s going o.k. Why is it just, o.k.? Well, I was so used to buying what we eat that now shopping by the sales flyer and which coupons I have has really thrown me off. Don’t get me wrong, I actually like couponing, I like clipping coupons, I like looking through the sales paper and seeing the awesome deals, and I like putting those deals together with the coupons and seeing how much I saved after each shopping trip. In short, I like living cheap! However, I have not yet found the balance of buying what my family and I are used to eating and couponing. I actually feel out of control a little bit. I feel like I’ve lost control in the area of grocery shopping because I have given the control over to the sales flyer and the Sunday paper. But I won’t quit couponing. Do you know why? The reason is, because by couponing I save, and I save pretty well. I’m not what they call upside down in my shopping trips, meaning I have yet to save on one trip, more than I spend, but I my savings has been growing every with every trip. This past shopping trip I saved sixty dollars. Now I don’t care who you are, if all you’ve ever saved while grocery shopping is 20 to 25 dollars, saving 60, will get you excited and would be enough to hang on to doing something new until you get better. One of my issues right now is not having a printer. With all of the great sites out there on the web who offer lists with all of the sales items from the major chain grocery stores from which you can print a personalized shopping list. That way when you go shopping, you’re focused and you get the best savings possible. Well not having a printer leaves you kind of at the mercy of the all of the “fake sale” tickets hanging off of the shelves in the store.

At any rate, this blog is about showing you how to live cheap. With that said, here’s the basics of what I know about living cheap with couponing basics. You buy your Sunday papers, in it, you pull out your couponing inserts and your sales circulars. Then you match up what’s on sale at your local grocer with the coupons you have on file or from the paper. Go to sites like couponingmom.com or southernsavers.com, search their shopping list tools, check their coupon database and voila, you’re on you way to savings you’ve never experienced before. You will also learn from these sites that there are other places whereby you can acquire coupons. The more places to find legitimate coupons, the better. There are also classes that you can take to get good information on how to effectively coupon. These classes are offered all over in different cities and usually cost about ten bucks. So in short, I have personally found couponing to be definitely worth the learning curve that you may need to go through, so hang in there and live cheap!