Couponing Tips for Beginners

Successful couponing is easy to achieve with dedication and a basic understanding of the concept of getting the best item at the right time for the lowest price possible. For anyone who has the desire to learn couponing but is not familiar with the best process and how it works, it can be a frustrating experience. You want to do better and save more money because you know it’s possible! Others are doing it every day, but how are they doing it?

To get the maximum savings out of each coupon that you use, you have to know the exact right time to use it. Couponing experts will always tell you not to use a coupon for an item unless that item is on sale. A sale is an already reduced price and sometimes it is significantly lower than what the product retails for. Adding a coupon to that reduced price means that you are purchasing the product at maximum savings and sometimes even for free.

The best way for a beginner to be successful and receive their first significant savings is to follow a very simple method that some of the veteran couponers have been using for years. Take a very close look at the circulars for stores in your area. These circulars are full of items that the store has chosen to put on sale that week. Compare the store items to your coupons and match them up for maximum savings on that item. Some stores have the same items on sale in any given week so be sure to look and see which one is actually the better deal when combined with your coupon.

Most manufacturers’ coupons are printed in the Sunday newspaper inserts from SmartSource, RedPlum and Proctor and Gamble. If you are not interested in starting a stockpile of items that your family uses on a regular basis, then one or two of each of these inserts every week will be sufficient for your needs. Although, you will only receive maximum savings on a certain number of products each week and anything else that you have to purchase will not be at the maximum reduced price.

Stockpiling isn’t as evil as some people make it out to be. It really just depends on your reasoning behind it, the quantity that you keep on hand and how much you paid for it. This is a personal decision that you will have to make for yourself but to make the couponing system work at the maximum level of savings; you’ll need to keep certain products on hand so you will never pay full price for them again.

Developing an organizational system is extremely important when you are a serious couponer. Coupon binders, creating files of uncut coupon inserts and keeping a list of each shopping trip are just a few of the organizing tactics that some serious couponers utilize. You can try any of these that you want and feel comfortable with. You can even come up with your own organizational system that works best for you.

Couponing can save your family serious money every year. When used to purchase items such as groceries that your family needs and is going to be buying anyway, couponing is similar to having an unconventional savings account. For every dollar that you save by couponing, that dollar can be spent on something else your family needs or tucked away for a rainy day.

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