The Coupon Queen!

The Coupon Queen. This is now affectionately my new nickname at home. at church. at work. Yes, I have come to be known as the queen of couponing in my own little circle!

It all started with a dear friend of mine, Keshia Flanagan, who was quite the coupon queen herself. She taught me the tricks of her trade when I was single. And though it was a fabulous way to save money, I didn't quite get into the whole coupon thing and gave it up after about two months.

Then, I got married.

Now, it's like a mini Christmas at our house every Sunday as I leap from bed, run to the door, and take into my hands the cherished Sunday paper with all of its Sunday coupons! Ahhh, so fun!

Many people have asked how I do it- the couponing- and so here, in the best way I can, I will share with you my tips and tricks to becoming the next Coupon Queen!

First, you have to obtain the coupons. I have the Sunday paper delivered to my house every Sunday for $1 a week (a fabulous deal I got at a local fair this summer). However, you can also purchase the Sunday paper at Dollar Tree for a dollar, or at any grocery store or gas station convenience store. I also use coupons.com where they have tons of great coupons to print right at home! Just a heads up- the limit for printing coupons is two per coupon!

Second, find the weekly ads for grocery stores. Shoprite is by far my favorite store to find the best deals in our area! Coupons are okay for saving money, but in and of themselves, they won't save you a ton of money. In order to get the best bang for your buck with coupons, you have to match them to current sales going on at the grocery store. Sit down with the ad, figure out what you would buy that is on sale, and then match your coupons to the sale. When I first started couponing, I would go to three different grocery stores to get all the best deals. That quickly became very impractical for me, so now, I just stick to one grocery store and CVS to find all my great deals!

 

Third- time to clip those coupons! Listen up for a minute! ONLY clip coupons that you will use! And by that I mean, only clip coupons for things that you will use. It is easy to get caught up in the great deals, believe me, I know! However, you are actually wasting money if you are buying things you wouldn't normally buy just to get the good deal! Once they are clipped, you will need to figure out a system to organize all of your coupons. I use an accordion file where my coupons are separated by category. For example, Breads/Cereals/Dry goods; Personal products; Household/Paper products, etc. You will then have to periodically go through and weed out the coupons that have expired. That is my least favorite part...it's like throwing out money!

 

 

The fourth and final step is matching those coupons up with the sales of the week! My goal every time I go shopping is to save more than I spend! And most of the time, I do it! Just today, I went on my coupon shopping trip and purchased 4 rolls of Charmin toilet paper, 8lbs of Domino sugar, and a 1/2 gallon of Silk almond milk for $0.94 and saved $12.00! That's what I call living the frugal life and having fun doing it!

 

Before running out to the store with your coupons and grocery list, make sure you call or go on the store's website to find out what their coupon policies are. Some will double manufacturer coupons up to $0.50 and some up to $1.00! Some have a limit on the amount of coupons used per transaction; some have limits on the amount of items that can be purchased with coupons. The worst feeling in the world is showing up at the grocery store ready to go and finding out you can't use your coupons or they won't save you as much money as you budgeted for! I still get butterflies in my tummy when I watch the price of my purchase drop hoping that everything will work out!

 

Couponing takes time. Couponing takes strategy. Couponing takes patience. Couponing takes a budget of $50 a week and expands it exponentially! In order to become a frugal millionaire and maintain the title of "Coupon Queen," I gotta keep clippin' those coupons!