Not so extreme couponing

Long time no blog.  It has been quite busy in the Sosby household. Brandon went to Canada for a couple of weeks for work, Emmi has perfected growling and Brandon and I have taken up fishing.  While those excuses are pretty good, the truth is I've grown to be a big fan of couponing. It can be quite time consuming but we all have an hour or so that we spend in front of our laptops browsing the web for some form of entertainment. Why not save money doing it?  I'm not quite to the "Extreme Couponing" level nor do I think I ever will, but it is possible to save a lot of money just buy using a few coupons at the check out counter. Here are a few tips and tricks that I've learned:

• You don't have to buy the Sunday paper each week for great coupons. Actually, spending $3 a week on coupons that you probably wont use can get quite expensive. I recommend finding a good coupon clipping service and ordering just the coupons that you'll use. I recommend http://www.couponsthingsbydede.com/. 
• A good way to start couponing is to check a coupon database to see if there are any coupons for the products on your grocery list.
• There are great printable coupons online. If you really like a certain brand of something, check their website. Also, Facebook is a breeding ground for free samples and coupons. I recommend setting up a junk email address and register for all of the coupons and samples you want. 
• Find a good couponing blog. My favorites are hip2save.com and mydallasmommy.com.
• My favorite store to coupon at is Target. Target has great Target coupons on their website. Special trick... you can use one Target coupon and one Manufacturer's coupon for each purchase.  
• Some coupon lingo: 
• "Limit 1 coupon per purchase. Limit 4 like coupons" Translation- you can use 1 coupon for each product that you are purchasing but you can't use more that 4 of the same coupon no matter how many products you buy.
• "Limit 1 per transaction"- You can only use one coupon per checkout
• "Do not double" this is a note to the cashier. Some coupons at some stores will double in value depending on the stores coupon policy.
• Look at store ads for great weekly deals.
• Clothing and craft stores usually have good coupons good for one item or a percentage off your entire purchase. Check the store's website before going shopping.
• Lastly, several of my friends have said "I feel weird about handing a chunk of coupons to the cashier. I'd feel cheap and frumpy."   My suggestion- get cute and go shopping. You'll feel a lot more confident handing over a chunk of coupons if your hair and make up are done.

I used to think coupons were only good for crap I didn't need, but since I've started couponing I never paid more than $4.50 for a jumbo pack of diapers, 57cents for liquid Similac formula AND I've scored some great steam in the bag vegetables for 4 cents each. 

Until next week!

Favorite thing this week: Singer Sewing Machine