As you may know by now, Michael and I have started having guest bloggers come in and sharing on our site. Today’s guest Blogger, is DeAnna Gullett. She has a cool site that teaches us how to use coupons, and has many up to date actual listings of savings at the stores, and coupons for download.

In this age of a down economy, this type of learning is a most for many of us to follow. I highly recommend http://www.buck-a-day.blogspot.com for you to follow for great savings and solid advice.

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When Doug asked me to write a story or spot for his blog…well, just let’s just say I wanted to jump up and down and shout from the rooftops.  I am so thrilled because I get to talk about what is near and dear to my heart.  Helping people save money on their grocery shopping.  I explained to Doug that all my life I wondered what it was that God wanted me to do.  What could I do to help others?  Now, don’t get me wrong, I do lots of things to help others here and there, but what could I do to help the masses so to speak.  My hobby, of course!  Many moons ago (ahem) I started couponing and being frugal to save money.  When you have 3 children under the age of 4 at one time, you see your grocery bills going up and up and up.  Now my children are grown and out on their own and what do I see….1 in 6 families can’t put food on their table because they can’t afford the groceries.  That’s not acceptable to me.  As I can’t go out and purchase groceries for everyone I had to decide what I could do.  Teach people how to coupon correctly so that they are paying next to nothing and not doing without. 

What I am about to write about is what I personally have done…the system you work out for yourself could be totally different. The key is to set up your program the way that is most convenient for you. For me, it was trial and error until I got down a system that worked for me. You’ll figure yours out along the way.  If you to want to learn how to save a 70% or better on your groceries, then please feel free to stop by my couponing blog. There  are the three steps to get your started. 

O.K. you want to start using coupons to save money for your family, how do you get started?  Now what do you do? To really save money using coupons, there are a few base things you need to start doing….

1) Know what you use……

When I first started using coupons, I kept a spiral notebook and pencil in the kitchen. Every time I used anything, I wrote it down in that notebook. After 3 months, I had a great idea of what we used on a regular basis and at the same time, I saw how fast we went through things (read my post in Back To Basics about napkins, paper towels, etc.). Keep in mind that there will be things you use that are seasonal…paper plates for the summer cookouts, chocolate baking chips for cookies at the holidays, etc. So, in the winter months, I kept the list again for 3 months. You would be surprised at the difference in your list based on the seasons. Now you have your yearly grocery list. You need this to be able to stockpile which brings us to point number 2.

2. Find Your Stockpile area…….

To get the biggest bang for your buck so to speak, you need to start a stockpile. What’s a stockpile…of course it is an abundance of the things you use. You will start adding to it slowly and eventually you will walk into your area and realize you have what I commonly refer to as a “store” of your very own. You think I’m kidding….read my post on my stockpile pictures….

Where you have your stock pile is totally up to you. Maybe you don’t have a lot of space. Maybe you have a spare room in the basement or a closet in the spare bedroom. Anywhere that you can store the items so that they will be protected from critters is your best bet. I do not have a garage but I have a basement with an old “coal room”. My hubby and I built shelves on two walls of the room and that’s our “store”. Having somewhere to stockpile is a necessity. You will begin to purchase things you use on a regular basis, in monster quantities. You need somewhere to store all of these items so start checking out your house to see where you can create this. It doesn’t have to be a whole room; a few shelves here or there will do to get your started. Pretty soon you will want to invest in a freezer, but we will talk about that later.

3. Create your coupon set up.

When I first started using coupons, I had a letter size envelope that I would put my coupons into. Then I would stand in the aisles at the store and thumb through my coupons until I found the one I was looking for, and then I would put the coupon in the side pocket of my purse. That became a pain in the…well you get the picture, and very time consuming.

Next I developed my “shoebox” method. I had numerous envelopes, all labeled (laundry detergent, toothpaste, crackers, etc.) in a shoebox that I carted in and out of the stores with me. I can tell you that every single time I walked into a Wal-Mart they stopped me to give me a “returns” sticker. I always had to take the lid off to show them that I wasn’t returning a pair of shoes. This system did work pretty well for a while. At least I had all of the coupons organized in a fashion and I didn’t spend as much time thumbing through the coupons in the aisles.

Then I went to the method of not cutting out the coupons at all and just watching what was on sale and cutting out the coupons I was going to use. I kept the coupon flyers in an accordion file and just cut out what I needed when I needed them. In order to know what I had, I started an Excel spreadsheet (sad but true and still use it today to do the matchups). While this system worked great for a shopping trip of only going in to purchase specific items, it was worthless for the great Super Double Coupon sales and Triple coupon sales that pop up every so often.

It was at one of those Triple coupon sales that I saw the system of my dreams. Wish I could say it was mine, but I can’t. I was walking down the isle and passed a lady who had the now infamous “Coupon Binder”. What a genius idea. It works perfect and you don’t leave home without it.

Go out and invest in a 3 ring binder and some baseball card holders. Wal-Mart usually carries the baseball card holders on the cashier isles so you may have to ask a clerk where they are. Meijer actually carries binder setup for about $20 (you’ll make that back easily). You get a big black binder and about 100 baseball card holder pages. I already had the 3-ring binder so I just purchased the baseball card holders along with an alphabetical index set. My binder is set up on the K-I-S-S method (keep it simple stupid). For example you would put laundry detergent and fabric softeners together (personally I make my own but that’s yet another story). At first, as you build your coupon base, you can keep it simple by putting all dairy products together, canned goods together, etc. As you accumulate more coupons, you will want to break it down further so that it is easier to find the coupon you are looking for. The great thing about the holders is that you can see the coupon immediately and grab the one you want.

http://www.buck-a-day.blogspot.com

Thank you very much for taking the time to read this article.  Have a blessed day.

De Anna