Prettily Pinching Pennies

Honestly, I would not win any awards from the coupon pros, BUT, from what I DO know, I have really saved A LOT of money with my good 'ole q-pns. :)  Some of you have asked me to share my strategies so I thought it might be good to blog about everything.

The #1 thing you MUST remember is..... SWALLOW YOUR PRIDE!!! :)  LOL!!!  Walking into the grocery store and Target with a big coupon binder is not exactly "smooth"... BUT, saving big bucks IS (that's what I tell myself at least).

What I've discovered is the more organized you can be, the easier it is in the long run.  I have my trusty binder divided into multiple sections using baseball card holders (ex. personal/ household/ breakfast/ baby/ canned goods) so it makes for much quicker access to everything.

Here are the list of sites I use to print coupons from:

www.coupons.com
www.smartsource.com
www.redplum.com
www.thekrazycouponlady.com
www.totallytarget.com
www.target.com

I also get the Houston Chronicle on sunday and clip from there.  You can use The Eagle, but the Chronicle has more coupons.

On the krazycouponlady's site, she has a title at the top called "Print Coupons".  It is alphabetically ordered and is awesome!  She has a lot of coupons listed that are on the actual manufacturer's site, or facebook, ect...  It cuts a lot of dirty work out on my part.

Also, I site I subscribed to in the beginning of my journey was thegrocerygame.com.  You do have to pay a monthly fee, but you get the first 6 or 8 weeks free, so definitely give it a try and see if you like it.  She matches up all the grocery sales PER STORE with available coupons... definitely a great resource.

I do most of my shopping at Target and Kroger. This makes me sad, because I LOVE HEB, but since Kroger doubles and triples their coupons, it actually costs less!

Here is a Target tip:  You can use a manufacturers coupon AND a target coupon on a single item!  It's actually pretty cool because a lot of times you can get something for free, or close to it.  So make sure to check the target coupons pretty regularly (the totallytarget site helps do this pretty easily).

And...

IT'S YOUR LUCKY DAY!!!!

I have no idea how often Kroger does this (I am guessing 3-4 times a year), but right now, through tuesday they are doubling all coupons from .40-$1!  This is HUGE!!  Like I posted on facebook, I bought $177 worth of groceries and paid $51!  And I just went again today and bought $28 worth and paid $4! So, here is what you need to do.

Check out all the coupons that are .75 and $1 (ESPECIALLY the $1 ones) and print the ones you need. You can get a TON of free stuff!  I had a $1/1 Colgate toothpaste and it was selling for $1.99.... so I got it free after they doubled my $1 coupon!  Some things to make sure and print are the toothpaste ones, the energizer batteries (I think they were .50), the dannon and danimals yogurt ones, the keebler cookies, wheat thins..... all of this was basically free.

Soooooo, in conclusion (remember in speech how you had to use this phrasing to signify to the listener you were 'bout dundees?) :), this is pretty much all I know! If you have any questions, ask away... but like I said, I am a intermediate level couponer AT BEST!   It takes me about an hour a week to check out all the deals on-line and cut and clip the coupons I find.  I end up just doing a little every day.

I will warn you, it is kind of addicting... it becomes a game you want to play... AND WIN!! :)

Hope this helps!! :):)