learning to coupon

I have never been that great at couponing.  My mom has always clipped and used coupons.  I just never really had the time to devote to sifting through store ads and newspaper flyers...and then keeping all those clipped coupons organized.  It always just seemed like too much work for such little payoff.  But I always felt sort of guilty for letting those savings go to waste.

Well, lately I've taken another look at couponing and now I'm starting to "get" it.  I mean, I understood it before.  Clip coupon, purchase item, give coupon to cashier, save money.  Duh.  But now I'm starting to see that by putting forth a little more effort to match up coupons with store sales and by really understanding the coupon policies at different stores in my area I can get a much better payoff for my hard work.

Now, I'm no expert...yet.  But I'm trying.  And I'm learning.  And in addition to picking up sales flyers and coupons from the stores that I frequent, I've found some great online tools to help me in my coupon conquests.  Here are a few that I'm loving right now:

The Krazy Coupon Lady  I mean, with a name like that it's gotta be a great site.  There's a really helpful section for newbies (like me) and also a much more in-depth section for the more extreme couponers among us.  There is also an extensive list of all the current printable AND paper coupons available.  Lots of useful info at this site.

Money Saving Mom is my favorite right now.  I love the Store Deals section and the Weekly Deal Match-up.  It takes a lot of the guesswork out of how to match up my coupons with store sales.  There is also a great Freebie section, too.  Gotta love free!  I also follow her Facebook page, which is great because I can keep up with all the newest coupons and deals that she has found as she posts them.

Coupons.com, RedPlum.com, Smartsource.com, and Coupon Network are all great online resources for printable coupons.  I love being able to search for exactly what's on my shopping list and print a coupon right at home.

And did you know that the Target website has a whole section where you can print coupons??!!  (Note the exclamation points...I LOVE Target and was crazy excited when I discovered this)  And their coupon policy allows for using both a store coupon AND a manufacturer coupon on an item (unless it is prohibited in the fine print on that specific coupon, of course).  So my favorite thing lately??  Finding a Target coupon I need/want to use, then scouring the internet for a manufacturer coupon to stack with it.  How exciting!

Again, I'm far from being an expert at this point.  So, I know there are a ton of other great coupon resources out there.  These are just a few that have helped me out so far.  I can't wait to learn more and get better at couponing.  The way I see it, if you do it right it's free money.  And I will take some free money any day of the week!