My best guess would be this habit lasted about 6 months...9 tops.
I consider myself "on top of things" if I remember to take along the shopping list, so remembering to a.) find coupons and b.) use them has just been too much for me. I'm frugal in my spending in other ways, so because for the most part I already buy the lowest priced items, I haven't worried too much about coupons.
But have you noticed the coupon mania in the blogosphere? There are women whose pantries are stocked with items they got for free. FREE (really). My brother has always been a couponing genius and has actually had stores pay him to take items. All of this has not been sufficient motivation to get me couponing, but today I found a site through Freebies 4 Mom that I really like. Apparently all it took to get me couponing again was a fun download and a couple of cute graphics.
Coupons.com: Coupons.com shows you the printable coupons that are available in your geographic region and then allows you to "clip" them by checking a box. When you are finished browsing around the coupons, you simply click on print, and the Coupons.com software will organize all of your coupons on a printable sheet for you to print, cut, and use.- The best feature: The Hasbro Savings Center - Click on this sidebar button to find savings on popular Hasbro games such as Scrabble Diamond edition and the game Pictureka! This will be the first place I go from now on when my kids receive a birthday party invitation.
A Full Cup: A couple of months ago I introduced you to A Full Cup and some if its great new features. This site also has wonderful printable coupons and lists great deals including Amazon price drops.
- The best feature: The Target Coupon Generator. Life with a 3 and 5 year old dictates that we must go to Target at least every other week. I'm fairly sure that this is state law, if not Federal. Why not head over to the Target Coupon Generator first, find the items you're planning to purchase, and print out a Target coupon? It's so easy that I actually do it!
Retail Me Not: Retail Me Not provides over 90,000 printable coupons that you can search by either zip code or key word. However, they also provide coupon codes for online purchases.
Retail Me Not: Retail Me Not provides over 90,000 printable coupons that you can search by either zip code or key word. However, they also provide coupon codes for online purchases.- The best feature: I do not buy anything online - not even a URL from Go Daddy - without first searching for a coupon code. I have rarely paid full price for an online purchase. Retail Me Not makes searching for these coupon codes simple making this site worth a visit.
CouponChief.com is a beautiful site - always a nice bonus - where you can do everything from signing up to receive discount news as it hits to actually including your own store to increase traffic and exposure. What's incredibly unique about this site is that if you find and share coupons, you can actually make money when others choose to use those coupons. To find current deals, sign up, or watch the video tutorial, head to http://couponchief.com.
What coupon or money saving sites are your favorite? Let us know in the comments!
6 comments:
I have had to start to use coupons my self. It is a necessary pain but needed to keep my budget under control. Check out the coupon section on www.slickbudget.com to see an alphabetical list of hundreds of printable coupons. It is sweet and saves a ton of time.
I follow the Couponmom system, which is just to save the flyers, write the date on top, and only clip the coupon when you are going to use it. Each week, on the site, she will tell you when the ocupon came out, the percentage of savings, etc for many national chains. It's also a free site! One of my favorites and really has cut our bill in half (if not more 60 percent)
I admit, I don't use coupons. I live 70 miles from the nearest metro area and no one in at least 100 miles doubles or triples coupons. Doubling coupons on top of the store's sale price is how people get their groceries for free or nearly free. I am signed up for free coupons and other significant saving coupons and use them in my local stores but I also find other ways to spend less at the grocery store.
First being so far away, I do my major shopping once a month in the city where I can buy milk for well under $3.00. FYI: it's $4.29 at my local store so I still save money on our groceries even though I'm driving 70 miles to shop. I'll buy a few things at the local grocery store-bread, eggs, etc if we run out in between trips but this is how I significantly save on our grocery bill. I shop less often!
My second tip: skip the convenience foods and make it from scratch. I make pop tarts, muffins, biscuits, wraps, cookies, chips, etc from scratch. I save TONS of money by skipping the higher priced convenience foods.
This works for me!
Oh gosh ... TWO in diapers ... ONE almost 7 year old DRAMA queen, a puppy and a cat .. AND NOW I have to clip coupons and organize them? yeah right ;-)
I do, however, ALWAYS use pampers coupons because I REFUSE to buy cheaper diapers and those babies cost a lot when you have TWO using them ;-) Someone help me train my almost 3 year old to use the potty and maybe just maybe I will learn to coupon too!
Thanks for the post Amy!
Brandy
While I don't consider myself a 'professional' couponer I do pretty well. My best shopping trip yet was at Giant. A $77.57 order ($102 before store discounts) turned into $6.98. Dave asked the cashier if he was sure it was right! LOL! I had estimated it before we went comparing coupons to our shopping list and we had a coupon from Giant's mailer that tripled all our $1 coupons. I had more to use that would have put our order in the negative, but I wasn't sure how they react in that situation. Just call it even or don't let you do it. I figure there is no way they would give me cash back! LOL
Great post! I posted about it on Mom Loves Today. Thought my readers might be interested!
http://www.momlovestoday.com/2009/06/resourceful-mommy-is-living-in-coupon.html
~Erin
Twitter: @erinjeany
http://ejsmomej.blogspot.com
http://www.momlovestoday.com
ejsmomej at gmail dot com
i love retailmenot. it's the best coupon site on the net
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