More than just a knitter...

I am also a Couponer. (Is that even a word? oh well it is now. lol)

Let me tell you a little about me and my coupons.

A couple years ago my daughters Aunt and their cousin were very into the whole coupon shopping thing. They would come home from a shopping expedition with a car full of groceries and having only paid a fraction of what they should have. I was always very impressed...but never had the time or energy that I thought was necessary to accomplish that kind of savings.

Then this year when the bottom fell out of the economy I decided that now would be a good time to invest the time and energy and I started getting into coupons.

The process isn't as difficult as I thought. On Wednesdays the grocery ads come out, and on Sundays the coupons come out. Every Wednesday when the ads come out I sit down with my ads and a notebook and go through the ads writing down what is on sale at what store, then I go through my coupons and match up what I have with the sales. If it's a really good deal, then I get as many of that item as I can even if I don't "need" it so that I don't have to pay a higher price for it later on when I do need it.

The trick to the coupon thing is the number of Sunday Papers that you get. I get three sunday papers, which means three of every coupon that comes out on sunday. Sometimes if the coupons are really good, or if I know that one of the items on sale matches with a coupon in that sundays paper, then I'll pick up a few extra papers so that I can get more than just three of the item on sale for the sale price.

I keep all of my coupons in a Binder, organized by type of coupon.When I get behind on putting my coupons in the binder they go in ziploc bags that I keep in the binder until I have time to put them in their little slots.

I also am a member at a few different Coupon Mom websites like A Full Cup and CouponSense.

These websites are helpful because the REALLY fanatical coupon moms will post all of the good sales that they find that might not have been in the ads, or the coupon deals that can be found online or in special coupon inserts in other papers.

There are also TONS of websites where you can print free coupons and lots of blogs and other resources to track sales and good deals.

It's all about the bottom line for me. If I can come home with a trunk full of groceries for $20 then all the time I put into it was worth it.

In the picture:
Two gallons of milk, three boxes of cake mix, three cans of frosting, two cookie doughs, two rolls of biscuits, three boxes of Betty Crocker potatoes, six hamburger helpers, two packs of cookies, two gatorades, two bags of chex mix, bag of Lays chips, french onion dip, coffee, coffee creamer, lunch meat and eggs....Less than $20 total.