1. Budget-Decide on an amount of money that you want to spend on groceries each month or each pay period.
2. Make a list of items, including your favorite brands, of things you purchase regularly.
3. Find and clip coupons.-When clipping coupons, while clipping things you normally eat, clip coupons for things that you'd eat/use if it were free. My favorite places to find coupons: Sunday Paper, www.coupons.com, www.retailmenot.com (you can also find great coupon codes here), www.smartsource.com, www.redplum.com, and you can also find coupons on the manufacturer's website. For instance, I like Horizon Organic Milk. I'd never seen a coupon for it until I visited the website. I found three coupons. One for $1.00, which Homeland doubled. I paid around $2.00 for Organic Milk!
4. Once you've found your coupons and have clipped them, you're gonna want to organize them. I suggest visiting the office supply section of Walmart, or rolling by Office Depot or Staples. Each of these places have the little plastic accordian folders that you can use to organize your coupons, or you can buy a binder and photo pages and put it together that way. I will post some pics of what I'm talking about.
5. Decide on categories to place your coupons in. I have two major sections. Edible and Non-Edible. You can definitely begin with just two categories. After that, I have sub-categories like meat, bread, milk/dairy, cereal, pasta, pet food, air fresheners, self maintenence, etc. Decide on the categories that work best for you and your purchasing system.
6. Make your shopping list.
7. Now that your coupons are categorized, and your list is made, pull your Sunday Paper back out and take a look at the local ads. Homeland, (their ad actually comes in the Wednesday Paper, and is also available online) Walgreens, Walmart, Target, CVS, Crest, (I've only seen their ad online), and any other stores you like. As you're looking, remember the coupons you have so you can combine sales with coupons. For instance, I had a $1.00 coupon for Kraft Homestyle Macaroni and Cheese. It was on sale at Homeland for $1.99. Homeland doubles coupons up to a $1.00, so guess what? FREE MAC AND CHEESE BABY! You can get free stuff too!
8. Look for things you plan to purchase. Now as you're looking, you may think "I'm busy. I don't have time to shop at 3-4 stores." Good news, neither do I, but I look at all the ads, and usually shop at the store(s) I can get the best deals at. I usually shop at Homeland, but if Walgreens has Haagen Daz on sale, I'll run by after work one night. If Target has Tide on sale, I may run by during lunch. Do what works best for you. I live close to Homeland, Walmart, Target, and Walgreens, so I shop mostly at those stores. I work close to a Crest, so I may run by there if they have a heck of a major deal.
9. Set a goal for saving. If you're just starting out, set an easy goal. For your first time, your goal should be $1.00. If you walk in thinking you're gonna save $100.00 your first time, you'll either give up because you didn't reach that goal, or you'll buy things you don't need in order to reach that goal. Remember, baby steps. You'll get in the big leagues, one trip at a time.
10. Before you walk out the door to shop, you should have: Your coupons, the ad of the store you're shopping at, your shopping list, and the cash amount you've budgeted to spend. Using cash helps you stick to your budget.
Ready? Set? SHOP!!!
How'd you do? Take a moment to comment and share how much you saved with coupons on your first shopping trip!
I'm single and I'm saving,
Dedra
